Cooperative Reading Strategy Instruction

Cooperative reading strategy instruction is a new teaching strategy of English reading to me. I use to learn English reading by individual from teachers although I had some experiences for working with a group. After learning cooperative reading strategy instruction, I get some knowledge about it. Therefore, I benefit by it for some reasons which are facilitating reading comprehension, having more opportunities to interact with classmates and less frustration when meeting difficulties.


The first reason is that cooperative reading strategy instruction is facilitating reading comprehension. I learn lots of reading strategies by cooperative instruction because classmates provide us some ways, such us using context clues, questions and visualization, summarizing the gist, activating prior knowledge, mind mapping and changes of students’ attitudes and so on. When I practice reading, I use some of these ways to identify the text book. I think using visualization, context clues and questions are the easiest ways to apply to reading, but summarizing the gist is the most difficult way for me to do due to the grammar is still needed to improve, vocabulary is poor, and sometimes the meaning of the text is misunderstood a lot. On the other hand, I spend less time on reading to understand a whole article than before because it helps me enhance reading comprehension. It saves me some time, and it helps me quickly to find out the answers when I take an exam.

The second reason is that I am having more opportunities to interact with classmates by cooperative reading strategy instruction. The traditional teaching English reading is much dull and less stimulation, whereas cooperative reading strategy instruction is much active and motive. Traditional teaching emphasizes the importance of memorizing new words and the grammar. It is less inspiration, and all students are very passive to learn. In contrast, cooperative teaching is more interaction. For example, every new lesson each group needs to translate one part of the article and read in front of all classmates. It is a good activity for me because I need to practice the pronunciation and team work. As a result, I have more time to work with our group members and I also have more chances to know them. In order to have a good performance, each group needs to work together that is also a positive competition. Although not every one of each group has time to practice the pronunciation and translation, it did give someone an opportunity to improve them.

Having less frustration with English reading is the third reason. I used to feel upset when I had some difficulties on reading English. English reading is not a very easy job at the beginning for me because when I read an article, I have meet lots of words I don’t know and some of the sentences I don’t understand. All these things stop me reading and it annoys me a lot then I have lots of negative thought come from my mind. Especially, when I meet it few times, I will give it up easily. Surprisingly, after learning cooperative reading strategy instruction, I feel it differently because I have some ways to overcome problems such as, using context clues, activating prior knowledge or applying text structure. Therefore, I feel more positive and less pessimistic when I can’t find the answers or I take tests. However, sometimes I still feel unhappy when I stick in the same level of English reading. I think the most important reason is that I don’t practice a lot and I should develop a wide of vocabulary and phrases.

To sum up, cooperative reading strategy instruction has some advantages which is quite useful to me. The reading comprehension and interaction with classmates are getting better and better. The attitude of English reading is much optimistic and less frustrated.

Chicken Feet

Chicken feet is a very common dish and mouth- watering food for Chinese. It is very obvious to know what they are from its name, chicken feet. Right, they are feet of chickens, so it might be scared of lots of foreigners when they see or hear it. Chicken feet are very often cooked with some soy sauce and spice by stew as a dish. It is specially benefits for women to stay young because of the nutrition which provides lots of collagen. Foreigners don’t eat four limbs or internal organs of poultry because they think they are some kinds of odd food for them. Especially, chicken feet are considered as disgusting food because chickens’ feet are organs that step on the ground which is dirty. But if foreigners open mind to try them without thinking  they are dirty, then they might like test of them and like them a lot. In my opinion, it is always good to try something you don’t know without limiting your opportunities.

Hear Me (聽說)

I watched "Hear Me" few days ago and I quite like it much. It doesn't like Hollywood move at all. There aren't much technology effects, dramatically performance and  many famous casts but quite touched to my heart.

The story is about two sisters who rely on each other. The older sister, Xiaopeng, is blind and good at swimming. The younger sister,Yangyang, is taking care of her older sister and good at sign language. Her mom passed away and her dad is a missionary in Africa, so they live together and take care each other. Although Yangyang is younger, she takes lots of part-time jobs to take a responsibility for their living. Xiaopeng is taking a training for the swimming competition and Yangyang stands by her and be there to cheer for her older sister. During this training, they have an argument but it doesn't break up these two sisters, instead of knowing and firming each other.

I like the happy ending of this movie. Especially, I like the sentence which is dreams and love are strange things because they don't need to be heard or said and even without being translated at the end of the movie.
I envy Xiaopeng and Yangyang because they all have their dreams and they try hard to go for it. When I watched it I feel like I am reading a fantastic book which is warm and bright but sometimes sad.

CHANGELING (陌生的孩子)

I watched "CHANGELING" last Sunday night. At first, I was curious about this movie because the actress is Angelina Jolie. Actually I am not her fan, but she is a quite famous actress. And then,  when I paid attention to it, it drew my attention. I felt sad and angry when I watched it and followed the story. I have to say I like it very much. When the movie was end and I just knew it was a true story. I felt very proud of Christie Collins( Jolie) but sorry for her,too.  She was very brave to fight for the justice but she still couldn't find her child back until she passed away.
The story happened in Los Angeles, 1928. On a Saturday morning in a class-working suburb, Christie said goodbye to her son, Walt, and left for work. When she came home, she discovered her son had vanished. A fruitless search ensue, and  months later,  a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned. Collins allows him to stay overnight. But in her heart, she knows he is not Walt. As she pushed authorities to keep looking, she faced lots of difficulties. She didn't give up no matter what difficulties happened to her and she fought for the justice and  the truth.

May of 2010

I made some big changes in May of 2010. First, I decided to quit teaching English at Hess. I have thought of it for a long time, but I didn't do it because I didn't have enough courage and a plan. I have been an English teacher for  four years. The first year I was a full-time teacher then I became a part-time teacher because I don't like to do lots of things which aren't relative teaching English. Because of it I have lots of  free time and I get used to it. Last year, I studied at Longhua in September then I quite liked my schedule because I could make a little money and I study, too. Few months ago, my job didn't go on smoothly because I had some disagreement with my co-worker who is also a foreign supervisor. Because of his position, it made me more difficult to communicate with him. Plus some of my students are getting tired of learning English and they are becoming very rude to me that made me very disappointed and I am also getting tired of teaching English, too. Although I haven't find a new job yet, I still want to quit and take a break. Second, I had a new haircut on the day after my birthday. When I am upset I like to change my haircut, at least, it makes me happy. I did feel much happier after having a new haircut because it made me look younger than my age. I know that no matter what I do to make me feel happy, but the most important thing is that you should feel happy from your heart and think everything positively. But the truth is easier say than done, at least I am trying. Third, I had a great birthday with my close friends. I am really happy I have them to share my happiness and sadness. I'll also treasure our friendships because they are all my loyal friends. I also hope they are all happy and healthy.