A Case Analysis Of Unit Revision Heterogeneous Classes Of Primary School English

The case analysis is concerned with three heterogeneous classes of unit review of 5B Unit 4 Seeing the doctor in the primary schools.Its theoretical bases are schema theory,constructivism and multiple intelligence theory.Its significance lies in two aspects:helping teachers learn from each other to maximize their advantages and minimize their disadvantages so as to improve their teaching effectiveness;and helping teachers to promote their professional development.The procedures of the study included observing the classes,watching the videos of the classes repeatedly,discussing the classes,analyzing the designs of the classes and summarizing the advantages and disadvantages.For the sake of convenience,the three teachers were labeled as TL,TS and TT.TL mainly employed the mind map teaching method.To be more specific,she reviewed the unit with the mind map first in terms of Story time and Cartoon time about Su Hai,Mike and some animals;then in terms of Checkout time about Tim and his friends;finally in terms of Grammar time and Fun time about the sentence patterns related to inquiry about illness and giving advice.TS mainly adopted the situational approach.She reviewed the unit by creating an overall situation "Kids' Check-up Day,which was divided into three sub-situations:Jack's colour blindness check-up in terms of Grammar time and Sound time;Amy's tooth check-up in terms of Fun time;and Liu Tao and Tim's absence from check-up in terms of Culture time and Checkout time.In the end,she applied what students had learned in this unit to writing:giving tips about a healthy diet.TT mainly used the game-based approach.The games centered around Doctor Sandy from the Picture Book with three mainlines:knowing illness in terms of Sound time,giving advice in terms of Grammar time and Checkout time and being helpful in terms of Checkout time.The study has yielded the following major findings.In terms of their common advantages,all the three teachers had the following.The first was clear teaching objectives concerning the language knowledge and language skills;the process and method;and the emotion,attitude and value.The second was achievement of their objectives through different teaching methods:the mind map teaching methods,situational approach and game-based approach,which indicates that all roads lead to Rome.The third was embodiment of the characteristics of a unit review lesson:consolidating the words about illnesses,the grammatical items:should and shouldn't expressing "suggestions",and some communicative English like "What's wrong with you?";expanding the teaching content in breadth to some degree;and highlighting the comprehensiveness of the language.In terms of their individual advantages,TL emphasized the development of the students' thinking ability and had an awareness of stratified teaching.TS designed her class in such a topic-led way that a general situation was created which was subdivided into three specific situations,thus making all the activities mutually relevant.What's more,she stressed her human concern by encouraging her students to develop a healthy lifestyle and care for others.TT employed the game-based approach,which centered around Doctor Sandy:the character in the Picture Book from a certified doctor to a qualified doctor,thus arousing her students' interest to some extent and making all the games relevant.In terms of their common disadvantages,three teachers did not dig into the teaching material deeply enough and neglected the linguistic functions,which appeared somewhat superficial.Besides,they ignored some details in the classroom management due to the nervousness in the demonstration classes.In terms of their individual disadvantages,TL forgot to evaluate her students after the activity of being a volunteer in the Health-Care Room,which left them at a loss.TS made her class a little messy and chaotic in the fifth step by giving the wrong direction that whoever finished their tips came to the front and pasted them on the blackboard.TT created one situation where the patients from the Emergency Department were called in due order,and another situation where the doctor gave the patients injections,which were not real or logical.There were three limitations of the study.First,together with some helpful suggestions from their colleagues and their team members,the three teachers practiced their classes many times before the teaching research activity,which could not reflect the daily teaching reality very well.Second,the sample size was somewhat small to be generalizable to other classes.Third,only one expert made comments after the demonstration classes.If there had been more discussion,it would have been more revealing and enlightening.