Innovative Practice and Reflection of Poetic Digital Tools in Senior High School Chinese Language Teaching

Dong  yun 【China】

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of formalistic application of technology in senior high school Chinese language classrooms, proposing the concept of "poetic digital". Through the development of 12 domestic digital teaching aids such as text visualization toolkits and classical poetry rhyme analysis instruments, an action research was conducted in six senior schools in Shanghai. The study shows that appropriate use of non-intelligent digital tools can significantly improve students' close reading ability of texts ( 36.2%) and literary creativity41.5%), providing a practical example for the advocacy of "technological empowerment without replacing humanity" in the "Ordinary High School Chinese Language Curriculum Standards (222 Edition)".

Keywords: Poetic Digital Tools; Text Visualization; Rhyme Analysis; Senior High School Chinese Language; Technological Critique

1.Introduction

The "Ordinary High School Chinese Language Curriculum Standards (2022 Edition)" clearly requires "rational use of information technology to deepen language practice", but there generally three contradictions in actual teaching:

Technology dependency and humanities dilution: 73% of classrooms simplify digital technology into PPT page turners, and literary are fragmented by graphical images. Students find it difficult to immerse themselves in the text's artistic conception in the fast-moving screen information, and poetry appreciation is reduced keyword annotation, while prose reading stops at the extraction of the main idea of the paragraph, resulting in the expansion of "instrumental rationality" and the withering of "humanistic spirit" in Chinese language learning. For example, in the teaching of "Dream of the Red Chamber", some teachers only replace text close reading by playing video and displaying character relationship diagrams, which weakens students' deep thinking about the characters' fate and the appreciation of the language art.

Equipment stacking and lack of practical results: a "smart classroom" that has invested millions, the use rate of technology in Chinese classes is less than 15%, and in most cases, it only serves as an to the traditional blackboard, such as using electronic whiteboards to display blackboard writing, play recordings, and other basic functions, failing to play its interactive, situational and personalized. Research shows that 82% of Chinese language teachers believe that there is a disconnection between existing equipment and teaching needs, lacking specialized software or platforms for the cultivation of core language competencies such as text interpretation, writing guidance, and oral communication.

Digital literacy gap among teachers: 56% of teachers only master basic office software, unable to subject-specific tools, and lack the ability to screen and integrate massive digital resources when facing massive digital resources, making it difficult to integrate information technology with Chinese language teaching. For, in the teaching of ancient poetry and prose recitation, although there are online question bank resources, teachers are unable to accurately analyze students' common mistakes and provide targeted guidance because they not familiar with the data statistics functions; in the correction of compositions, although there are AI-assisted tools, teachers lack the ability to identify and provide secondary guidance for the feedback results resulting in the application of technology being superficial.

Based on three years of school-based practice, this paper explores digital paths that resonate with the characteristics of the Chinese language subject. By constructing a digital teaching model of “Deep Reading of Texts—Context Creation—Collaborative Inquiry—Personalized Expression”, we have developed specialized resources such as a classical poetry context simulation system, a cluster reading mind map tool, and a personalized writing feedback platform, effectively enhancing the supporting role of information technology in cultivating core competencies such as language construction and use, thinking development and enhancement, aesthetic appreciation and creation, and cultural inheritance and understanding.

2. The Core Architecture of Poetic Digital Tools

(a) Design Philosophy: Technology as a "Poetic Carrier"

"Digital tools should not replace students' literary imagination but become a 'lens' to activate poetry. Through a multimodal interactive interface, text, images, audio, and video elements are organically integrated to construct an immersive poetic experience space. For example, in the study of ancient poetry, the tool can link dynamic ink animation with classical music, transforming the "Moonlight in front of the bed" in "Quiet Night Thoughts" from static text into flowing visual and auditory images, guiding students to deepen their understanding of poetry in sensory resonance. At the same time, the built-in intelligent association function of the tool can push relevant poetry allusions, historical backgrounds, and famous commentaries according to the keywords input by students. For instance, if you enter "Willow", it will automatically associate with the emotional connotation of "Willows" and the famous poems of literati through the ages, expanding the literary horizon. In addition, the collaborative creation module supports students to engage in poetry relay, image collage, and other interactions in groups, with technology playing the role of "catalyst" in this process, promoting the collision of individual inspirations and the generation of collective poetry. As Wang Rongsheng emphasized in "Poetic Classroom in the Digital Age" (2023), the value of technology does not lie in providing standard answers but in building bridges for the encounter of cold code and warm humanistic spirit, ultimately achieving the educational goal of "Technology empowering poetry, and poetry nourishing the soul".

(II) Examples of Innovative Teaching Aids Development

A. Text Emotional Pulse Scanner

Priple: Based on Excel macros   color scale annotations, manually mark the emotional gradient of Xianglin's 41 appearance descriptions in "Blessing"

Oper Process:

A[Students read carefully and mark keywords] --> B[Teachers scan paper homework]

C[Excel generates a color scale heat map]> D[Classroom comparison of emotional curves]

Case: The gradient from blue to dark blue to black in the "shark" image in "The Old Man the Sea" reveals the existentialist dilemma

B. Classical Poetry Tone Meter

Composition: Sound wave collector (physical device, including a high-sensitivity microphone, conversion module, and data storage unit, which can capture the sound wave signal of human voice recitation in real time and convert it into a visual sound wave diagram)   Rhythm paper (self-made tool, made of off-white card paper, with time axis scales (accurate to 0.1 seconds) marked horizontally, and with flat andique identification areas (distinguished by different color lines for flat and oblique sounds), rhyme mark points (annotated with circles corresponding to the rhyme positions of poetry, and pause symbols (represented by vertical lines indicating the position of punctuation and intonation pauses), and the grid density can be flexibly adjusted according to the length the poetry sentence)

Practice: Students select classic paragraphs such as "The river and the sky are of the same color without a trace of dust, the bright moon in the is like a lonely wheel" in Zhang Ruoxi's "Spring River Flowers and Moon Night" for recitation, enter the sound wave of recitation through the sound wave, and generate a sound wave diagram including amplitude and frequency changes; the teacher guides the students to manually annotate the recitation content on the rhythm grid paper in combination with the knowledge poetry rules, specifically including: marking the flat sounds (such as "sky", "dust", "wheel") with a blue pen at the corresponding time axis position marking the oblique sounds (such as "river", "color", "no") with a red pen, marking the rhyme characters "dust", "" with a green circle, and marking the pause with a black vertical line at the end of the sentence such as "one color without a trace of dust", "a lonely in the air"; then superimpose the sound wave diagram output by the sound wave collector and the rhythm grid paper annotated by the students for comparison, and deeply analyze the broad of space constructed at the sound and rhyme level by the "river and sky of the same color" image—the alternation of flat and oblique tones creates a rhythmic of open space, the repetition of rhymes strengthens the continuity of space, and the setting of pauses simulates the process of extending the gaze from near to far, so students can intuitively feel the intrinsic connection between the sound and rhyme form and the expression of artistic conception.

Effectiveness: Through the practical application of this tool, 87% of students established the understanding of "sounds and rhymes convey emotions"only 32% before the pre-test), which is specifically manifested in: being able to accurately point out the impact of the tonal changes on the emotional tone ( as the fact that oblique tones often convey a sense of vastness, and level tones often create a sense of distance), being able to identify the emotional reinforcement effect brought by repetition of rhymes, being able to explain how pauses guide the reader's imagination of spatial scenes in combination with the waveform diagram, and significantly improving students' depth of understanding and perception of the aesthetics of the sound and rhyme of classical poetry compared to traditional teaching methods.

3. Three-dimensional innovation in teaching practice

(a) Reading teaching from linear reception to three-dimensional deconstruction

A deep learning case of the diet culture in a Dream of Red Mansions.

Data Comparison: The depth of cultural interpretation in the experimental class reached 2.3 times the level required by the curriculum standard (1.1 in the control class).

(II) Writing Teaching: Digital Media Empowers Traditional Expression

A. "Image Log" Method for Non-Fiction Writing

Steps

① Use an old-fashioned digital camera to shoot "community figures"

② Digitize photos with a film scanner

③ Write a text slice with pixel-level detail

Achievement: Student composition "The Watch Repairman at the Alley Entrance" won the "Golden Prize for Realistic Writing by Middle School Students in Shanghai

B. Rhetorical Structure Tools for Argumentative Essays

Tool: Mind Mapping Software (AI generation functions are prohibited)

Innovation Point:

Use color to distinguish the source of arguments (red = classical literature/blue = real-life cases)

The thickness of arrows represents the strength of logic

"The tool allows me to the flaws in my thinking - those almost invisible gray arrows."

——Student Reflection Note

4. Practice Effectiveness and Critical Reflection

(I) Quantitative Ver (Experimental Cycle: 2024.9-2025.6）

(II) In-Depth Reflection on Qualitative Dilemmas

A. The Risk of Techn Reversal of Poetic Imagery

Case: During the teaching process of "Rain Lane," the teacher relied too heavily on a sound wave analysis tool, dissect the "lilac girl" image in the poem word by word, breaking it down into technical parameters such as sound frequency and intonation fluctuations. The "lilac," which should have been filled with hazy beauty and emotional tension, was fragmented into isolated acoustic data points. Students gradually lost their perception of the overall artistic conception of the in the mechanical technical interpretation, leading to a fragmentation and superficiality of the complex emotional connotations carried by the "lilac girl," such as melancholy, expectation and melancholy, and the poetic beauty was greatly reduced.

Strategy: To avoid the erosion of literary aesthetic experience by excessive technical intervention, "black screen contemplation periods" be set up in teaching (≥8 minutes per class). During this period, all multimedia devices should be turned off, classroom lights should be turned off or only a faint background should be left on, and students should be guided to close their eyes and meditate, immersing themselves in the artistic conception created by the text through silent reading, association, and resonance. For example, during the "black screen contemplation period" of "Rain Lane," students can listen to the sound of rain (or play a soft background of rain), imagine themselves in a wet, cobblestone alley, and feel the kind of elusive encounter and loss when the "lilac girl" with an oil- umbrella walks by, thus truly experiencing the poetry and charm of the poem.

B. The Digital Divide in Rural and Urban Resources Intensified

Discovery: In the of rural schools, it was found that due to the outdated teaching equipment and insufficient scanning resolution in some rural schools, there were significant errors in the recognition of key phonetic elements as tonal levels and rhymes during the analysis of poetic prosody, with an average error rate as high as 42%. This technical deficiency made it difficult for rural to receive accurate guidance in learning about the rules of poetic prosody and rhyme knowledge, further widening the gap in the acquisition of classical poetry learning resources between urban and rural students

Localized Solution: In view of the technical conditions limited in rural schools, the method of traditional and low-cost wax paper printing can be used to teach poetic prosody.erring to the localized teaching strategies proposed in "New Horizons in Ancient Poetry Teaching," the teacher can first handwrite the tonal symbols (such as "○" for tones and "●" for rising tones) and rhyme positions of the poem, then transfer them to wax paper to make a simple prosody printing template. In teaching, students manually mark the tonal levels and rhyme of the poem by comparing the template, which is both intuitive and practical. For example, when learning "Spring Morning," the teacher a wax paper printed prosody template, and the students compare word by word the tonal patterns of "Spring sleep doesn't know dawn, everywhere you can hear birds singing. a night of wind and rain, how many flowers have fallen?" to understand the beauty of the poem's prosody through hands-on operation, effectively compensating for the shortcomings caused by insufficient technical equipment.

C. The Bottleneck of Teachers' Technical Capability

"Learning Excel macro programming is time- but worthwhile—I can finally design tools on my own instead of being at the mercy of technology."

——Teacher Interview Record (March 2025)

Conclusion

A true revolution in educational technology should permeate the Chinese language classroom like "salt dissolving in water," where its presence is imperceptible yet indispensable This permeation is not a rigid stacking of technology but a process of making technology an organic part of Chinese language teaching, like the traditional Four Treasures of the Study—brush ink, paper, and inkstone—that become tools to carry literary spirit and promote language learning.

The development of tools must adhere to the "literariness" bottom line transforming scanners, sonar devices, etc., into "new-style study tools." In developing digital tools for Chinese language teaching, the core goal must be to enhance literacy and deepen text understanding. For example, scanners should not be used merely for simple character recognition but should be combined with ancient book restoration technology to allow students to directly feel cultural connotation behind the evolution of fonts and the texture of paper when scanning ancient poetry and prose; sonar devices can capture the emotional interpretation differences of different readers for the same text helping students understand the role of intonation and rhythm in creating the literary mood through audio analysis, and making these cold instruments glow with the humanistic brilliance of "new- study tools," becoming powerful assistants to stimulate literary imagination and assist literary creation.

The application process should set up a humanistic protection mechanism, guarding against excessive technological intr into aesthetic experience. When using multimedia, virtual reality, and other technologies to present literary works, strict humanistic selection criteria need to be established. For example, when displaying scenes related "Dream of the Red Chamber," excessive commercialization and entertainment-oriented visual packaging should be avoided to prevent technological presentation from overwhelming the original's profound connotation and delicate. At the same time, students' space for independent thinking and imagination should be retained, and technology presentation should not be the only way to interpret the text, ensuring that technology to deepen the aesthetic experience rather than replace it, so that students can still maintain reverence for literary works and the ability for personalized interpretation under the assistance of technology.

The of teachers should shift from technology consumers to creative developers, mastering the ability to transform basic digital tools. Faced with the rapid development of educational technology, Chinese language teachers can no be passive consumers and users of existing technology but should actively become "creative developers" of technology applications. This requires teachers not only to master basic digital tool operation skills, such as course production software, online collaboration platforms, and simple programming tools, but also to have the ability to secondary develop or integrate existing tools according to teaching needs. For example, teachers can an interactive poetry mood generator using programming tools according to the characteristics of ancient poetry teaching, which allows students to generate corresponding landscape painting moods by entering keywords, thus transforming abstract texts into visual experiences and achieving innovative and breakthrough teaching effects.

Only when technology becomes a spring of nourishment for poetic expression rather than a flood that swamps literature can it safeguard the soul of education in the digital age. The ultimate goal of educational technology is to serve the holistic development of individuals, and for language education, it is about protecting the sensitivity to language and literature the pursuit of literary beauty, and the inheritance of humanistic spirit. Technology should flow like a spring, gently watering the hearts of students, stimulating their interest in literature, and enhancing aesthetic taste and humanistic literacy; rather than flooding like a deluge, washing away the depth of literature, diluting the charm of language, and turning language classrooms into showcases for technological demonstrations. Only by striking the right balance in the application of technology, by integrating technology with language education while maintaining an appropriate distance, can we ensure that the core values of language are not diluted in the digital tide, and truly protect the unique "soul" in language education—the eternal pursuit and inheritance of truth, goodness, and beauty.

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