Module 8 -- The Birth of Salesman

Assignment No. 1 ---- Twitter Message

        Have a headache from learning Chinese? This program will help you learn using your imagination and creativity, not books. Fun and effective, check it out!

Assignment No. 2 ---- An Elevator Pitch

 

Assignment No. 3 ---- A White Paper

        There are 7 cognitive tools that are important as a way of developing creativity, and they are: Thinking Differently; Perceiving; Patterning; Abstracting; Embodied Thinking; Modeling and Playing. Creative people learn how to synthesize the above seven cognitive tools that guide them to be creative thinkers and producers. Creative people also learn how to use these cognitive tools to help them accomplish seemly challenging tasks. For example, in my past ten years of teaching Chinese to non-native Chinese speakers, many of my students have told me that they were suffering with the unfamiliar Chinese sounds and the unique grammar. The Chinese characters were also one of the biggest challenges that my students were facing when they were learning how to read and write. Below are the comparisons and examples of what I did to guide and support my students into productive Chinese language learning before and after I took the course of Creativity in Teaching and Learning. In this paper, I will address how applying cognitive thinking tools helped both me and my students become more effective in our Chinese language teaching and learning. Additionally, by applying cognitive thinking tools, both the teacher and the students will become more creative thinkers in general.


        First, applying cognitive thinking tools helped both the teacher and students with more effective Chinese teaching and learning.

        In the aspect of Chinese pronunciation teaching and learning

        For many foreign languages learners, Chinese language can be particular challenging because of its unique pronunciation and grammar, as well as the seemingly strange characters. Take Chinese pronunciation as one example. It is different than any other language because each single pronunciation has five different tones and each tone represents at least one single meaning.

 

 Here is an example that the same pronunciation “ma”has five different tones and each tone identifies at least one meaning:

        The above table shows that even though it is the same pronunciation, the meaning can be completely different according to different tones, such as “ma” in the first tone means mother, but in the forth tone means “to course”. Therefore, helping the student to recognize and identify the differences between the tones so that they can ultimately apply the knowledge into their speaking, reading and writing became an essential task.

        Before I learned how to use the cognitive tools in my teaching, what I did was quite simple: explanation, modeling and repetition. The old method I applied was a traditional style that lacks the attention of the students’ potential learning ability and engagement. While I was learning to be a creative thinker, I designed an activity that aimed to use some of the above cognitive tools to help the students to recognize and identify the five different tones. Instead of simply asking the student to listen to the sounds, and then repeat numerous times until they understood it, I guided the students to use the thinking tools including emotional feelings, visual images, body sensations, reproducible patterns, and analogies to observe, explore and play with the language.

        Here are some examples of what I did to emphasize the unique characteristics of each tone and help the students to recognize and identify their differences.

        Activity No.1:

 

        Activity No. 2:

        The above two activities aimed to guide the students to apply a set of thinking tools that ultimately led them to understand deeply about the differences among the tones. In the video example, the students observed, imagined and analogized the tones and meanings, which led to their next thinking step: recognizing the different patterns among the five tones. In the example of tasting tones, the students using their sensory ability, such as touching, feeling and tasting to perceive and pattern the differences. They were also abstracting their thinking with or without notice in their sensations of muscle, skin and sinew and the feelings in the body of movement, balance, and tensions. The two activities, as the students claimed, were fun because they were different than merely lecturing. While they were playing within each activity, they were also encouraged and guided to synthesize the cognitive thinking tools that led them to accomplish the class objectives.

        In the aspect of Chinese characters teaching and learning

        In Sparks of Genius, Robert and Michele Root- Bernstein state that “We humans tend to over-intellectualize, forgetting that our bodies ‘know’ how to do things that we understand only after we have done them (p.160)”. Thus, I planned to synthesize cognitive thinking tools that emphasized body thinking concepts into effective Chinese Characters teaching.

        Many of my students told me that it had been quite challenging for them to read and write Chinese, because   the characters are very different than phonetic written system, and the content of each seems very abstract and difficult to recognize. As Robert and Michele Root- Bernstein state that “incorporating extensions of the body is crucial for success (p.178).” Thus, I designed an activity that aimed to use physical body movements to help the students link other cognitive thinking tools, such as imagination, patterning, abstracting and dimensional thinking which ultimately helped them to improve their learning of Chinese characters.

        In order to help the students to learn characters, such as 山 (mountain), I suggest the students to pull their arms up above their heads and make the shape of山 with their body. I also suggested that they could use their body feeling of being strong and empowered when they were making the山shape (see the picture below)

         “To think is to feel and to feel is to think. Everyone should receive early and continuing stimulation of visual, aural, and other body senses and learn how to imaginatively recreate sense images (p.317).” In teaching them 飞 (to fly) I asked the students to pretend to fly (like a bird, plane or themselves). While the students were encouraged to “fly”, it helped them to FEEL the flowing texture of this Chinese character, as well as its structure. During the process of doing this activity, the students used observation, imagination and analogizing throughout body thinking and empathizing, thus, the 2D abstract Chinese character transformed into very lifelike 3D images that deeply laying in their minds (see the picture on right). This activity was my favorite and the most effective thus far in teaching Chinese characters to my students!

        Second, applying cognitive thinking tools guided both the teacher and students to become more creative thinkers in general.

        “We must emphasize the teaching of universal processes of invention in addition to the acquisition of disciplinary products of knowledge (p.316).” In other words, the students need to not only analyze the products of creative understanding, but must copy and imitate them, thereby learning the sensual and synosic processes of their invention that can guide them to be creative thinkers in different fields (p.317). For example, in order to guide the students to recognize the correct order and rules in writing Chinese characters. I created a poem that helped the students to compare and observe and then copy and imitate. Here is the explanation: to write Chinese characters, the rules in general are following the order: left to right; up to down; start from outside, but finish inside first then complete the outside; the dot (a Chinese character stroke) should be the last step. The Chinese character writing process can be analogized as to build an upside-down house: instead of from the bottom, this funny house will be built from the top; instead of completing from the outside first, this funny house will start from the outside, then go to inside before finishing up the outside; the person stands on the top to have a view once the house finishes is analogized that the little dot should be the last step. Thus, below is the poem that implicates this analogy into my teaching content. The poem is shown below:

To write Chinese characters

Is like to build a funny house

Just remember—

They both need to follow rules

And they are—

From left to right

From up to down

Start from the outside, but finish the inside first

Before complete the outside

Oh, you want to have a view?

Sure! Please stand on the top of the building~

What do you see?

To put a little dot as the last step to complete

Great job! Builders!

        The fact was that my students loved the poem! While they were reading/singing this poem, they were able to first observe and explore in order to think differently, then they were learning to perceive and recognize the unique patterns in writing Chinese characters. At the same time, they were abstracting the rules of writing Chinese characters and one of the most effective ways of doing it was the use of embodied thinking, which in this case, was acting like a great builder of a funny house. To build a funny house in order to learn how to write Chinese characters, how fun was that!? Well, it was certainly a fun game, the students loved it and were very proud of themselves. They also found a great way to learn Chinese characters! At the same time the students succeed in following the rules to write Chinese, they were as well able to develop essential cognitive creative tools to be able to think, learn and produce creatively. Furthermore, “tools for thinking stem from this core, providing a common language with which practitioners in different fields may share their experience of the process of innovation and discover links between their creative activities (p. 317).”

        To sum up, a French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty has written, ruing the fact that “we unlearn how to see, hear, and generally speaking, feel.” Psychologist Lawrence Marks and his colleagues are more positive, suggesting that because so many children have synesthetic experiences, “the potential to experience synesthetically may lie latent within everyone.” Neurobiologist Cytowic agrees: “I believe that synesthesia is actually a normal brain function in every one of us, but that its workings reach conscious awareness in only a handful…. We know more than we think we know.” WE KNOW MORE THAN WE THINK WE KNOW. The key point in this paper is that we should use the seven cognitive tools to guide us to explore and discover more potential intelligence and ability, so that we can become more effective and productive in our thinking, learning and producing. At the same time, the effectiveness brings more confidence and much enjoyment, which makes the whole learning process more fun and interesting. In the area of teaching and learning Chinese, if both the teachers and students learn to apply the cognitive tools into more effective teaching and learning, the outcomes are not only that students learn and teachers to teach better, but more importantly, the tools provide an excellent opportunity for both parties to be able to explore and discover our potential abilities which are valuable and priceless.

Xin Wang

Module 7 - How Do I Love Thee Assignment

Teaching topic:  Chinese Language Teaching.

Model of teaching topic: The students will

          Review to ask question: Ji dian le? (What time is it?) Answer: 6 dian (le) (It’s 6 o’clock)

          Review numbers: from 0 to 60

Explanation:

         The goal is to “‘Play’ with my teaching content topic and recreate it in a form that is not only fun, but more engaging and meaningful for the students.”

        This action game of heel-to-toe step is used when a police officer has a DUI (Driving Under the Influence) suspect walk a line. Because play is simply for the fun of it, for the enjoyment of doing it (Sparks of Genius, p.247). I hope my students who are 2nd graders will have fun with it, and of course learn from it too.

Action Game Heel – to – Toe Step:

        1. Use tape to create a starting and a finishing line.

        2. Have every student get a partner, then have all the partner “A”s line up at the starting line. Have partner “B”s stand next to their partner.

        3. Give “A”s 5 questions about the different times (please have a look at the TIME part). “B”s need to answer the 5 questions after “A”s said Ji Dian Le? (What time is it?)

        4. If a partner B answers correctly, he/she will take two heel-to-toe steps towards the finish line. If the answer is incorrect, he/she has to take one heel-to-toe step backwards.

        5. Each pair answers 5 questions. and the pair goes the furthest on the line wins.

Xin Wang

Module 7 Zoom In Photo

The reason I chose this picture as a Zoom In photo assignment is because I love SPICY food! The original image was actually from a Sichuan dish I made a few days ago: Crispy Sichuan Chicken. My husband and I ate all the small pieces of chicken, and what left was TONS of red chilly paper. I used Iphone to take the original picture and just now I used photoshop to edit it a little bit, so the imagine what you are looking at now is more fun and can be a bit scary, because they are SPICY!!~~ Enjoy :)!

Xin

Module 6 - How Do I Love Thee Assignment

Teaching topic:


Chinese Language Teaching.

Model of teaching topic:

Chinese grammar—the word order in a multiple-modifier attributive

Explanation:

The word order in a multiple-modifier attributive is different in Chinese than it is in English. In Chinese grammar, the central word is the key, any words that are modifying or limiting the central word should be placed in front of the key word, and a structural particle 的 should be employed when the attributive modifier is a pronoun, such as 我的 (my/mine). This idea is inspired by the process of building a construction. “Creative people think dimensionally when they change the scale of things, when they take two-dimensional information (blueprints, etc.) and construct them in three dimensions; or vice-versa, when they plot things that occur in three dimensions into two dimensions. This can be either (or both) a scientific or an artistic aspect of thinking. We call this zooming in and out of a topic or idea”. In this Chinese grammar lesson, the students first are encouraged to look at the phrase by zooming into each of the six different layers of the grammar construct. In this Zoom-in process, they need to understand what each word means and the function of each word in order to have a better rational understanding of the logic of organizing the multiple-modifier attributive phrase.

The second picture demonstrates the extension that is from one central word to numerous different phrases that are made of different words, and this process is a Zoom-out process. In Sparks of Genius, Robert and Root-Bernstein state that “to design and engineer these shapes one must be able to perceive how a flat thing can be transformed into one with body. The ability to relate 2-D blueprints, plans, or maps to 3-D reality is a critical part of the job (p. 213).” For the module of teaching Chinese grammar: the word order in a multiple-modifier attributive, the students first master the knowledge of each word’s meaning and function from the 2-D flat form, the 3-D view can assist them to observe Chinese language as a whole and thus explore more rational understanding from the dimensional thinking. Their transition process from a 2-D flat chart to a 3 dimensional observation can also be beneficial to prevent the students from being “form-blind (p. 218)” in order to guide them to be creative “linguistic” thinkers.

Xin Wang

Module 6 - Zoom In Assignment

A long time ago in a small town in China, big sister, middle sister and little brother were very excited to celebrate Chinese New Year. They knew that on Chinese New Year Eve, they would receive gifts from their mom and dad!

The big sister and middle sister said, “we can’t wait for tomorrow, Chinese New Year Eve!”

The little brother responded “Me too!”

But when Chinese New Year Eve came, their mama and baba needed to sell tofu so that they could buy gifts for their children. That day they got up very early…so early that the sky was still dark.

“My three lovely children, after we have sold all the tofu we will be back to celebrate our New Year Eve!”, Mama and Baba promised.

 The three children waited and waited. Finally, they saw their mom and dad had come back. Their hands were holding three pairs of boots… red boots, and they looked gorgeous!

“Mama, Baba, we missed you so much!” The three children ran up to them and gave each of them a big hug.

 

Then the big sister put the biggest boots on, and said “wow, perfect!” The second sister put the medium size boots on, and said “yes! perfect!” The little brother was also trying to put his boots on, but he was way too little to do it by himself, so he asked: “Mama, help, help!”

On Chinese New Year Eve day, the whole family: Mama, Baba, big sister, middle sister and little brother had a great time! They set off fireworks and put a paper cut 福 picture on their door and windows. In English, 福 means happiness and good fortune. Oh, they also said “过年好！which means---- Happy Chinese New Year! J

Happy Chinese New Year!

The End :)

Module 5 - How do I love thee assignment

        I am applying embodied thinking into teaching Chinese characters. Eastern culture is very different than Western, and Chinese ancient culture can be especially confusing, challenging and difficult to remember for the people who are born and grow up in the West. Thus, asking students to "act out" an ancient Chinese character is an effective way of learning the content and context from Chinese writing. It also helps the students have a deeper understanding of the Chinese characters' construction and root meanings. For example, the character 川 means big river in English. In order to help the students have a better and deeper understanding of the character, each student can be encouraged to act like a small river by using body movements. The three “small rivers” (students) can gather together and be a big river: 川. While the students are encouraged to use body movements to be a river, it will help them to FEEL the flowing texture of the Chinese character as well as the emotions of being a river. Here are some other examples of using embodied thinking tools to learn Chinese characters.

Embodied thinking activity No.1: Chinese character 山- mountain

Embodied thinking activity No.2: Chinese character 人- people/human

Embodied thinking activity No.3: Chinese character 飞- to fly

Embodied thinking activity No.4: Chinese character 木- tree/wood

Embodied thinking activity No.5: Chinese character 大- big/huge

Embodied thinking activity No.6: Chinese characters transition from 木 to 大- tree/wood to big/huge

Thank you and enjoy! Xin Wang :)

Module 5 - Zoom In Photos

        The animal I was trying to be is a mouse.


        From a mouse’s perspective, my 1st photo shows my living environment which I share with humans. Everything is high, but that is okay because I do not care. As long as I have a smooth floor that I can easily escape on, it is good enough!

        The 2nd photo shows that I need to be really quiet and careful when the house owner walks around. I do not want to cause any attention from her because that means I will be in trouble!

        The 3rd photo shows what my true passion is about: FOOD to fill in my empty stomach! I do not see anything (including a mice trap) but FOOD!

        The 4th photo shows that what I would choose between - money, which is what humans care much about, and a sandwich. I would definitely choose the half sandwich, because money means nothing to me in my world!

        Enjoy!


1st photo

2nd photo

3rd photo

4th photo

Mouse Xin Wang ;)