北京王府外国语小学双语部二年级的孩子们最近完成了探究单元“如何表达自我”。在年级全体师生的共同努力下，孩子们的写作能力有了显著提高。Talk4Writing这一方法最初是作为试点项目引入的，旨在帮助提高学生的英语写作能力。选择在“如何表达自我”单元中试用，是因为它自然而然地将重点放在写作上。
本单元的中心思想是“我们通过讲故事来表达情感和感受”，这使老师们能够使用不同媒介和跨学科的方法，鼓励小故事家们通过书写自己的故事，以跨学科的方式展示创造力。
我们深入探讨了以下问题：
· 讲述故事的不同方式
· 故事可以教会我们什么
· 故事让人们体验不同的情感
孩子们积极参与到这个过程中，迸发出极大的写作热情。尤其是之前对写作兴致不那么高的孩子，也在这个过程中感受到了写作的魅力。Talk4Writing教学策略更好地弥合了高质量讨论与高质量写作之间的鸿沟，激发了老师和学生们教与学的积极性，大大提高了孩子们的写作质量，还帮助英语水平相对有些低的孩子发展并展示了语言能力。
本单元是以直观导入一张图片，引导学生思考开始的，孩子们需要观察并预测照片背后的故事。通过讨论，孩子们对于“观点”这一关键概念有了更加深入的理解。
他们阅读了真实的故事背景，并使用“我曾经认为……”和“现在我认为……”这样的思考模式，来展现自己的想法是如何发生改变的。这些都是基于了解故事并获得更多的信息而得出，帮助学生发展了元认知的思维能力。
孩子们也从中意识到，自己最初的判断和预测可能是不正确的，要根据事实情况改变自己的想法。
这不仅有助于营造一个自由表达想法的学习环境，而且更让孩子们成长为心胸开阔的人。
待孩子们的注意力集中在本单元学习目标之后，我们引入了精读文本Goldie locks and the Three Bears。在整个单元中，这个故事与Talk4Writing方法结合使用，以发展学生的口语表达和写作能力。它也以跨学科的方式融合了艺术、戏剧、音乐和舞蹈等表达形式。例如在美术课上，学生可以选择自己喜欢的故事角色设计面具，利用鞋盒制作木偶剧场景，来表演自己创作、改编的故事。
在课堂上我们通过戏剧、舞蹈和歌曲的视频形式向学生展示了Goldie locks and the Three Bears的改编。在关注故事的同时，通过制作带有图片和关键词的故事板，能够帮助孩子们有感情地复述故事内容。
课堂外，我们开展了木偶剧院体验之旅，孩子们观看了专业演员的表演，深入了解到肢体动作、道具和服装在舞台剧表演中的重要性，以及如何被用于讲述故事。此外，他们还体验了木偶道具的操作，学习如何用木偶进行表演。
我们的目标是激发学生利用多种媒介并通过讲故事的方式，表达他们的感受或了解他人的感受。这个过程中，老师们及时增添新的教学工具，帮助学生更有信心地书写自己的故事，如使用形容词来提高改编的写作性；在保证故事内容不变的情况下，通过角色替换进行有趣的改编。通过亲身体验的方式，实现对英语语法的深入了解。回顾整个探究单元，在国际报告厅的“迷你剧院演出”无疑是一大亮点。学生作为演员在舞台上进行表演，体验故事表达的独特方式。
作为单元的结束，我们让学生选择自己喜欢的方式，来展示他们的故事创作作品。一些学生选择组队进行表演，一些则创作精美的故事绘本，还有一些学生将音乐和艺术融合到木偶戏中，展示自己的作品。无论孩子们选择哪种方式，他们都展现出了自己所获得的知识。每一位老师都为他们十足的创造力而感到骄傲！
Grade 2 students recently finished their unit ‘How We Express Ourselves’. Thanks to the considerable efforts of grade 2 teachers and students, we have seen a significant improvement in children’s writing outcomes. The Talk4Writing approach was initially introduced as a pilot project to help improve student with their ability to write in English. The HWEO unit was chosen because it naturally lends itself to a writing focus.
The central idea ‘We express our emotions and feelings through storytelling’ allowed teachers to use multimedia and a trans-disciplinary approach to engage our young writers to share their creativity through writing their own story and presenting it in trans-disciplinary way.
The lines of inquiry we delved into where:
• The different ways stories are told.
• What stories can teach us.
• Stories can make people feel different emotions.
Teachers were extremely positive about the impact and how much they and the children enjoyed working in these ways. They reported that children’s engagement in writing increased, particularly for boys and previously reluctant writers. The project also helped those with lower English acquisition levels to really develop and showcase their abilities. The projects were so engaging for both students and teachers that they highly recommended the Talk4Writing approach be adapted by the whole school. They also found that the quality of children’s writing improved significantly. Bridging the gap between quality talk and quality writing is always challenging. Although in the past students had been afforded many opportunities to speak, the process that was involved in Talk4writing genuinely improved student engagement, hence their efforts and abilities to speak and write increased exponentially.The unit began with a great provocation. Students were shown an image and asked to predict the story behind the photo. In this discussion many students felt emotions and wanted to share their ideas. This activity helped to engage students in the unit by helping them understand that a there may be more to the story than meets the eye. It allowed students to talk about their interpretations based on their prior knowledge and it allowed them to understand the key concept of ‘perspective’. After the discussion, students were read a non-fiction description about what really happened in the picture. Next, students used the thinking routine “I used to think…..” and “Now I think…” to express how their thinking had changed based on gaining more information from hearing the story read to them. This helped students develop the thinking skill of meta-cognition. Students began to realize that it is ok to change our minds and that perhaps our first judgments may not be correct. This not only helps foster a classroom environment where students feel safe speaking out their ideas, thoughts, emotions and preconceived notions; it also leads to development of open-mindedness, one of the core values of our PYP program.
Once students were focused on the unit and understood the goals, the mentor text “Goldie locks and the Three Bears” was introduced. This story was used throughout the unit in conjunction with the Talk4Writing approach to develop students speaking, presenting and writing skills. It was also used in a trans-disciplinary way incorporating art, theatre, music and dance.
For example, in art, students choose their favorite character and made masks. The masks were used again later when students presented their own version of the story with an alternate ending on stage in front of their peers. Students also had a chance to make a shoebox scene with stick puppets to showcase their favorite part of the story.
At school, students were shown adaptations of the story in the form of videos of theatre, dance and song. Whilst focusing on the one story, students used a storyboard with images and actions to memorize and re-tell the story with emotion. Out of the classroom, we went on a field trip to Children’s Puppet Theatre to watch the puppet show. From the trip, students were shown the professional way in the form of drama that tells the story via movements, props and costumes. They also experienced how the props work and their functions they play in the story.
Our goal was to inspire students to use multiple mediums and media to express how they feel or access how others feel through story telling. All the while, teachers added new tools to enable students to be confident to write their own stories. For example, in one class students chose different characters for the story but kept the story line the same. It made for some hilarious adaptations. In another class students used adjectives to improve the writing of their adaptations building their knowledge of functions and forms of English grammar in an engaging and memorable way.Recalling the whole unit, the mini theatre productions were certainly a highlight. This was also a chance for students to test out drama as a way of story-telling in preparation for their summative assessment.The culmination of the students work was celebrated by allowing them to showcase their favorite way of storytelling. Some students chose to work in groups and do a performance, others created beautiful storybooks, others still worked in pairs or individually to add music and art to a puppet show. Whatever way the students chose it was clear they learned and developed a lot. Grade 2 teachers are very proud of the work their students created and the growth they saw in the students writing.
