YES Mentor Ping Zhu’s Report

Sweet Fountain Foreign Language School

Class 1 of the 7th grade

Teacher: Ping Zhu

The idea for this lesson was: we are all “Roots and Shoots.” Since no classes were given in the past two weeks, we spent the beginning of the first new lesson with a quick review. Then, I wrote a question on the board: “What would happen if, while growing plants, Roots and Shoots came into conflict?”  We came to the ideal solution of using cooperation. I then led the class in playing a paper-tearing game. First, following my instructions, the class tore their paper in a specific way. When I asked them what the purpose of this was,  they replied it was to teach them the concept of a precise instruction. I then picked a student to lead his 30 classmates in the exercise. This time I also required his instructions to be very precise, and most got the same result.

After the game, I picked four other students as leaders and split up the class into four groups, and led them to the playground. Everyone except the four leaders were blindfolded. Under my instructions, they played a trust game. After they were re-un-blinded, some accused me of cheating for telling them there was a plank bridge and scaring them to death. Afterwards, we all returned to the classroom. I asked them what the point of the game was, and they replied, the point of the game was to learn how to trust each other. We spent the remaining ten minutes of class discussing our activity.

(Translated by WFLMS Crunchy Zoo Language Club)