Chinese HL Community School Teaching Unit

2014 STARTALK/NHLRC Teacher Workshop

Jeanie White, Wei Yin and Yue Zheng

OverviewTheme: HistoryTarget student population: all Chinese HLL narrow• Age group – 5th, 6th and 7th graders• Both simultaneous bilingual and sequential bilingual• Home use mainly Chinese or Chinese + English• No schooling of Chinese prior to attending Chinese

school• Various amount of exposure from family,

community, media and travelling abroad

Pre-requisites:• Be able to read an intermediate low text in

Chinese characters with limited assistance of pinyin.

• Be able to engage in oral activities in the intermediate high level.

• Struggling learners may need help with listening comprehension, reading and writing activities.

Overview

Goals and objectivesUnit Goals• Students can make connections to the Chinese classical

literature, specifically in this unit, 三国演义 (Romance of Three Kingdoms), from which the story is originally excerpted, and the historical period of China which is the setting of the story.

• Students are able to make connections to problem-solving strategies and the mathematics notion of equivalent substitute

• Students are able to make comparisons to similar stories they know (e.g., 爱迪生 ) in literature or in their lives

Content Objectives• Students are able to retell the story of Cao

Chong Weighed the Elephant ( 曹冲称象 ) in their own words

• Students are able to role play the story• Students can tell their own problem solving

stories.

Goals and objectives

Language Objectives• Students can read and write Chinese character from their memory for

10 phrases:

• Students know how to match the measure words: 一面墙，一块石头，一头大象 , 四根柱子 • identify the Chinese patterns and know how to use them to convey

information: 把 pattern, 又……又 ， 有的……有的……还有的• Writing: Use language close to their cognitive level to

report a story

Goals and objectives

Materials Used• The text of 曹冲称象 (for typical learners )• Dialogue version of the story (for struggling

learners)• Online program - text, dialogue, vocabulary

and exercises

Description of unit and instructional sequence

Four sessions:Session 1: Introduction to CaoCao and his son, Cao ChongSession 2: Introduce vocabulary and sentence patterns.Session 3: Introduce the text Session 4: Assessment interview / presentation of the skit

Day 1 (2hrs)

Sessions 1• Brainstorm the famous people in history• Introduce Caocao(155-220 the leader of Wei Kingdom),

and Cao Chong (196-208 who died at 13).• Watch the cardoon of Cao Chong Weighed an Elephant• In groups, discuss the story and summarize it in class.• Regroup with the same proficiency level to work on

vocabulary and flashcards.• Teacher show some strategies to memorize characters http://www.hwjyw.com/textbook/dzjc/zh/cd5/main10/index.htm

Session 2

• Introduce sentence patterns and phraseshttp://www.hwjyw.com/textbook/dzjc/zh/cd5/main10/index.htm 练习拼音选词• In groups, students make their sentences and

act out in class.http://www.hwjyw.com/textbook/dzjc/zh/cd5/main10/index.htm 句子替换 • Students read the text in three centers: reading,

listening, drawing centers. Students are divided by their learning style: Audio, Visual and kinestic.

Day 2 (2hrs)Session 3: Introduce the text Session 4: Assessment interview / presentation of the skit

Authentic Activities

• Interview about a story of yourself, friends, family members, celebrities etc.

• Interview a family member or a community member about their memory of a story from the classical novel, 三国演义 (Romance of Three Kingdoms

Assessment and evaluation

• Retell or role play the story of Cao Chong• Interview for a story in the novel and report or

present• HW: tell a story of your own (about yourself,

friends, family members, celebrities etc.)