Members of PKS faculty submitted a proposal to the annual National Chinese Language Conference (NCLC) on Project Based Learning in Upper Elementary School, which was selected for presentation in the Curriculum and Instruction breakout session. The PKS presenting team includes Mike Levy, Yan Li, Ying Cui, Haixia Wu, Linling Cai and Charlotte Mooney.
The NCLC, which will take place May 17-19 in Salt Lake City, is the largest annual convening in North America of leaders and practitioners in the field of Chinese language and culture education, and US-China education partnerships. It is dedicated to enhancing the capacity for teaching and learning of Chinese language culture by sharing cutting–edge practices and examples with educators and policymakers.
Session Name:
Project Based Learning in Upper Elementary School
Session Description:
What does an open-ended project look like in a Chinese immersion setting? How can we assess student progress while prioritizing personalized, student-driven inquiry? In this session, we will show you how we are working to involve students’ voices in the learning process, and how we assess student learning along the way. In particular, we will share our 4th grade units 'Energy: Stored and Transferred 无所不在的能量' and 'Body and Mind 身体和情绪', and an all-Elementary school project we call 'WonderWorks / 奇思妙想' in which each student chooses their own research question and spends a month on an individual project.
We will focus on ACTFL 5Cs standards and demonstrate how STEAM, English and Mandarin teachers work together to implement an interdisciplinary project. We will also share our experience preparing Chinese language resources and cultural materials for an authentic project-based experience. Finally, we will share the research basis for our work.