1. Confucius Institute of the University of Kansas:
Sheree Willis, Executive Director
Kevin Liu, Associate Director
Jin Xiaonan, Chinese Instructor
Shi Ai, Chinese Instructor
ciku@ku.edu,
With special assistance from administrators and educators of Maize, Kansas
school district

2. ALL students deserve
opportunities to learn languages
Including
rural,
inner
city,
and
other
underserved
students
4/13/12 2

3. Expanding access to underserved
students despite shortage of teachers,
funding, curriculum
A Successful Strategy: Interactive Distance
Learning (IDL) videoconference delivery
(IDL, IVC, ITV, …)

4. What is IDL?
Interactive Distance Learning
• Interactive; Real-time, synchronous instruction, NOT asynchronous “online”
• Uses advanced videoconferencing technology, NOT Skype
• Students and teachers see and hear each other, even with more than one remote site

5. Advantages of
Interactive Distance Learning
Real-time, synchronous instruction
Communities of learners over extended physical
space
Regular schedule during normal school day
Foreign language = “regular”academic subject, not
“enrichment” extra
Satisfies contact hour, other requirements for high
school credit.
Economic sharing of resources-teacher time,
curriculum development, etc. of teacher time,
either by hub approach or distributed approach

6. Higher Ed-based teacher hub:
Quality of Instruction
Teachers concentrated at one location = sharing of
experience, expertise, joint preparation
Chinese IDL teachers have greater access to
expertise, guidance from higher ed (especially
useful in new field with inexperienced teachers)
Students have access to certified, trained teacher

7. Managerial Challenges

8. Scheduling
• Multiple bell schedules across districts
• Multiple district calendars
• Connection schedules – sometimes with
multiple sites
• Capacity limitations – equipment and
teachers
• Substitutes
• Site visits

9. Communication
• Policies
– Homework grades
– Tests
– Behavior
– Teaching philosophy
• Weekly schedules changes
• Weekly reviews – from remote facilitators
• Grade reports – weekly updates and final
periods (quarters semesters)

10. Communication, pt. 2
• Class cancellations
• Calendars
– Holidays
– Teacher workdays
– Parent-Teacher conferences
– Exams/Last day of school
• Homework – faxed, scanned, or mailed (or
Blackboard online)

11. Technical Support
• Need support at the local site for multiple
classrooms
• Need to coordinate with remote site’s support
personnel
• Need to coordinate with network partners
and/or infrastructure partners
• (CIKU works with Southeast Kansas
Educational Service Center (Greenbush),
largest and most experienced IDL provider/
network in Kansas)

12. Delivering High Quality Elementary
School Chinese
• 47 sections of FLES Chinese, 20 min per day, 5
days/week, over 970 students (in KS, Ohio, Kansas
Ciy, MO)
• Two levels, adding new level each year
– ES Chinese 1(K, G1, G2, depending on school):
theme-based units
– ES Chinese 2 (G1, 2, 3, 4, depending on school):
story-based units
– 9 CIKU instructors (some also do HS)
• Assessment: SOPA, instructional team developed

13. CIKU ES Chinese Program
Xiaonan Jin

14. CIKU ES ChineseⅡ
• Unit Curriculum Design
• Class Activities
• Class Management
• SOPA Test

15. Curriculum Design
Create
A
New
Story
Addi9onal
Language
Points
with
some
subsidiary
vocabulary,
materials
and
ac9vi9es
Expand
The
Story
Material
by
teaching
the
majorfunc9onal
language
points
with
rela9ve
vocabulary,
companied
by
appropriate
ac9vi9es
and
Chinese
children’s
song
Unit
Story
(with
the
basic
vocabulary
and
major
func9onal
sentences
included)

16. Activities Design
1. The rules of all activities should be simple and
easy enough for kids at 5 to 8 years old to
understand and follow, and teachers need to create a
reason to use the target language.

17. Activities Design
2. IDL activities should enable teachers to reach
through the screen and connect the teacher and
students in the same space, ignoring the screen
between us or transform it into something else we
need.

18. Activities Design
3. Teachers should make full use of each activity
and practice more than one language point in each
game. Change some forms to make each activity
adapt as to students learn new language points.

19. Activities Design
4. Teachers should try to lead the students into some
language adventures in the activities while they are
practicing the old language points. That way, they can
discover new language in the activities. In other words, I
do not need to introduce new language separately and
then use it in an activity. I can just let the students
discover the new language in the game.

20. Class Management
1. IDL teachers should control the content and
rhythm of the whole class.

21. Class Management
2. IDL teachers should communicate with facilitators
effectively.

22. Class Management
3. Materials should arrive at the target classroom in
advance.

23. Delivering high quality high school
Chinese instruction
• 23 (including combined sections) sections of HS Chinese,
total 145 students
• 3 levels (plan to add Chinese 4 in Fall 2012)
• 9 instructors (some also teach ES)
• Instructional teams develop/revise curriculum
• Units based on backward design principles: project-based,
growing emphasis on authentic materials (little use of
textbooks)
• Pedagogy: communicative, teach in target language, focus on
form where necessary
• Assessment: Instructional team-developed (includes pencil
and paper tests and presentational projects); STAMP

24. • High school Chinese 1
• Shi, Ai

27. 罗逸 • 小chip
• 小
黑 虎 • Jeremy
Lin
•
• 胖胖 • Taylor
SwiI
• 卢美 • Jus9n
Bieber

28. 你好！ 有问题！
懂了吗？ 不懂！
懂了！
……英文怎么说？
没有问题！
有没有问题？
……中文怎么说？

29. 谁是胖胖的好朋友？
• 胖胖有⼀一个好朋友。
• 他/她的头发很短。
• 他/她的眼睛很大。
• 他/她的头发是金色的。
• 他/她的T恤是蓝色的。
• 他/她的裤子……

30. 你喜欢吃奥利奥吗？
奥利奥是什么颜色的？
奥利奥今天多少岁？

31. 谢谢！
WWW.CONFUCIUS.KU.EDU