学在赫德|赫德首开Topic主题课程：扩充通识知识提升英文阅读能力

At HD Qingdao this year, we have introduced the new subject of ‘Topic’ into the international curriculum. In this article we will explore the reasons why we have added this subject into our Primary Curriculum and why we think teaching general knowledge, through Topic, is essential to our students’ developing English reading skills.

今年，青岛赫德小学国际课程推出新课程—“Topic”主题课。在接下来的文章中我们将会带领大家一起深入解读赫德缘何要推出“Topic”主题课程，为什么赫德认为通过“Topic”主题课教授通识知识是拓展提升学生英语阅读能力的关键。

Reading

阅读

The process of learning to read fluently is a complex one that requires a focus on several different strands. A useful model for reading is Scarborough’s ‘reading rope’ model from the Education Endowment Foundation’s Improving Literacy at Key Stage 2 Guidance Report:

流利阅读能力的提升是一个复杂的过程，需要从几个不同的方面进行关注。教育捐赠基金会在《提升第二关键阶段读写能力指导报告》中提出的“Scarborough阅读绳索模型”是一个非常有效的阅读模式。

Here we can see that phonological awareness (Phonics) and the ability to recognize and decode words from a text are the essential foundational skills that children require to be able to read. At HD Qingdao we use a high quality phonics programme, Read Write Inc, to ensure that our children acquire the essential word recognition skills as early as possible in their Primary Education.

从上图，我们可以看出，学会自然拼读，也就是从文章中识别音素和分解单词至音素的能力对于学生掌握阅读是至关重要的。在青岛赫德，我们使用的是高质量的自然拼读方案—RWI课程，以确保我们的学生在小学阶段就可以尽早地掌握必要的单词识别能力。

Once children have mastered the word recognition skills and can sound out and blend sounds from a page to form words, comprehension becomes the main challenge. So what are the most effective ways to teach reading comprehension?

当学生们掌握了单词的拼读能力，阅读理解能力就成为了他们下一个阶段的重要挑战。所以，什么才是帮助孩子们提升阅读理解能力最有效的教学方式呢？

Increasing Demands on Comprehension

提高阅读理解要求

As the students pass through Primary School, the texts that they read become more complex, meaning that we place greater expectations on children to coordinate meaning from beginning to end. Research over the last 30 years has shown that knowledge of specific topics is a powerful aid to comprehension.

随着小学部的学生们年级地递增，他们阅读的内容变得越来越复杂，这意味着我们对于学生通篇理解能力寄予了更高的期望。过去30年的研究表明，了解文章主题所涉及的相关知识，对理解文章内容有很大的帮助。

The Importance of Background Knowledge

背景知识的重要性

In Raising Kids Who Read, Daniel Willingham (2015) provides an example of the powerful role that background knowledge plays to comprehension. In one Primary School, children took standardised tests of their verbal comprehension and reasoning skills. They were also tested on their knowledge of football. The researchers then separated the students in to four groups based on their football knowledge (high or low) and their general verbal and reading skills (high or low). Then students read a story about football and experimenters measured their comprehension and recall:

在Daniel Willingham2015年出版的《培养读书的孩子》一书中就曾举过一个关于背景知识帮助阅读理解能力提升的例子。在一所小学，学生们参加了语言理解和推理能力的标化考试，其中涉及足球相关知识。调查员根据学生们对足球知识的了解程度以及语言和阅读能力的高低，将学生分为了四组。然后，学生们读了一个关于足球的故事，实验者们评测他们的理解力和记忆力。

In the experiment, “verbal skill”, or general reading skills, didn’t mean much compared to knowledge. Knowing the rules and the kinds of things that happen during a football game enabled those children who had been identified as poor readers to score highly in the comprehension test based on the football story.

实验发现，对于背景知识的了解，远比口语能力或者阅读技巧更为重要。对于足球比赛规则的了解或是其他跟足球相关知识的了解可以帮助那些原本被认为阅读理解能力较差的孩子，在这次关于足球故事的阅读测试中获得高分。

The Importance of Acquiring Background knowledge

知晓背景知识的重要性

This is just one example from the growing body of research drawn from the past 30 years that shows that reading depends on a broad knowledge of all subjects including history, geography, science, mathematics, literature, drama, music and so on. If we want our students to be able to read and comprehend English fluently, we cannot afford to simply focus on reading during English lessons. We need to expand our students’ knowledge of the world so that their vocabulary expands and they are more likely to be able to comprehend the increasing complexity of the texts that they will encounter as part of their education.

从过去30年不断增长的大量实验研究中可以看出，对各学科知识的广泛了解，包括历史、地理、科学、数学、文学、戏剧、音乐等等，能够非常有效的帮助阅读理解能力的提升。如果我们希望学生们能够流利地阅读英文，准确地理解英文，则不能只是寄希望于在英文课上阅读，而是需要不断地扩充孩子们的知识面。这样，随着学业阶段的上升，他们随之增长的词汇量就会帮助他们去理解那些难度不断攀升的文章。

Topic at HD Qingdao

Topic主题课程在赫德

As a way of helping our students increase their general knowledge of the world, expand their vocabulary, and improve their comprehension of English, we have added ‘Topic’ to the International curriculum this year. In this subject the children learn important knowledge about the world they live in and this also helps us meet our vision of educating the globalized Chinese leaders of tomorrow.

为了帮助我们的学生学习到所需要的知识，扩充词汇量，我们的英语主班老师按照每个学习主题设计的内容创建了“知识构建者”。每一份“知识创建者”都囊括了该主题课的关键信息、概念及术语以供学生在学习的过程中参考，练习以及及时修正错误。

We have sequenced the curriculum so that the children in Grade 1 learn about the things that are most immediate to them; their family and their local surroundings. From there, we expand outwards. Over the course of their time in our Primary School, the children will learn about the geographical features of China, they will learn about the great rivers of the world and the different continents. Topic will also support learning in Science and the children will learn about the weather cycle, electricity and how volcanoes are formed among many other things. Please see the example Topic Maps below from Grade 1 and Grade 4:

我们对Topic主题课程内容进行了合理地排序，因此，一年级的学生会学习与他们最直接相关的事物，比如他们的家庭以及周围的环境事物。我们会在此基础上不断扩展延伸，在整个小学的学习过程中，学生们将了解中国的地理特征、世界上伟大的河流和不同的大陆。Topic主题课程还涉及科学的相关知识，学生们将学习到大气循环、电力、火山是如何形成的等各个方面的知识。

以下就是我们一年级和四年级的学习案例。

Knowledge Organisers

知识构建者

To help our students learn all the knowledge and vocabulary required, our teachers create Knowledge Organisers for each topic covered in this subject. Each Knowledge Organiser captures the key information, concepts and terminology for our students to refer to, rehearse and revise as they learn:

为了帮助我们的学生学习到所需要的知识，扩充词汇量，每一个主题我们都安排了一位知识构建者。每个主题的知识构建者需要提供该主题的关键信息，概念及术语，以帮助我们的学生在学习的过程中参考、演练以及及时地修正错误。

Summary

总结

Research over the past 30 years has shown that after children have mastered phonics and decoding, they need to acquire a wide body of general knowledge and increase their general vocabulary to aid reading comprehension.

过去30年的研究表明，学生们在掌握了自然拼读之后，需要掌握大量的通识知识，扩充他们的词汇量，这样才能更好地提升阅读能力。

At HD Qingdao we teach general knowledge through Science and Topic and carefully increase the students’ vocabularies, using Knowledge Organisers to support this process.

Through engaging and fun lessons, our students develop a global outlook and a deep understanding of the world they live in.

在青岛赫德，我们通过科学课和Topic主题课程来教授孩子通识知识，利用知识构建者这一角色帮助孩子们增加词汇量。通过有趣和互动的课堂，培养了学生们的全球视野，同时也加深了他们对所生活的世界的了解。

As the American educator, academic and literary critic, E.D Hirsch, has said, “Our students become more intelligent when they know more. So does everybody. Researchers have been telling us this fact about human intelligence for many years. Intelligence increases with knowledge. General knowledge is the best single tool in a person’s intellectual armory.” (Hirsch, E.D 1999)

正如美国教育家，学者和批判家E.D Hirsch所说，“我们的学生知道的越多，越聪慧。每个人都是如此。多年来，研究者们一直在与我们探讨人类的智慧，智慧是随着知识的储备量而增长的，知识是一个人智慧库中最好的工具。”

Thus, we intend to increase our students’ intellectual armory through Topic.

这就是我们开启Topic主题课程的原因，我们期望通过这门课程帮助学生们扩大他们的知识储备量。

References:

The graph was taken from Willingham, D. (2015) Raising Kids Who Read, Jossey-Bass – source “Domain specific knowledge and memory performance: A comparison of High and Low-aptitude children” by W.Schneider, J.Korkel, & F.E Weinert

Hirsch, E.D (1999) The Schools We Need: And Why We Don’t Have Them, Anchor Books.

Written by Jamie McNamara（Primary school principal）

本文作者：杰米·麦克纳马拉（小学部校长）

教育家陶行知曾说过，要解放孩子的头脑、双手、脚、空间、时间，使他们充分得到自由的生活，从自由的生活中得到真正的教育。在赫德，我们所追求的，正是这样的教育状态——让学习自然发生，让生命自由绽放。【学在赫德】栏目的开设，旨在重现赫德课堂，带领大家一同去感受，那些和生活息息相关的课程；一同去领悟，如何让学习成为生活的一部分。