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Grade-Level Thematically-Based Modules

Complete Unit K-5 Complete Unit 6-8 Complete Unit 9-12 Complete Unit 13+
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Theme, Goal, Population, Time Can Do Statements Daily Lessons Assessment

Complete Unit K-5

Day-to-day lesson plans and activities you can use in your classroom

 

Reading Materials

  • Authentic materials
    • 长城游-- bottom up, rauding/skimming, indicators
    • 爬长城-- top down, predicting, skimming, word spacing 
    • 不到长城非好汉—a modified task
  • Modified and teacher created materials
    • 长城小导游-- facts, historical perspectives

Sentence patterns

长城游:

  • 先… 然后…, 最后…

爬长城:

  • 因為…, 所以…

长城旅游:

  • 除了…,还有…
  • 认为…,所以…

Vocabulary

长城游:  城墙,缆车, 鸟笼子,砖,晃,登,慌,陡,惊讶,弯曲,原来,怪不得

爬长城:  刚,满头大汗,台阶,厘米,舒服,夸,游客,困难,
了不起

长城旅游:唯一,门票,成人,开放,售票,

Day 1
Text1长城游

 

Objectives:

  • Raise students’ interests and motivation
  • Identify what students already know, want to know
  • Identify the meaning of 长城
  • Identify the location of 长城

Activity 1: 你猜你猜我猜猜
Use the PPT slides (day1_activity1 guessing) to raise students’ curiosity and interest about this unit.  After they guess it right that the unit is about the Great Wall, ask them to voice their predictions about what they are going to learn.

Activity 2: 长城是什么?长城在哪里?

  • Teacher uses Google Earth to fly and shows students where the Great Wall of China is.
  • Teacher shows students a short PPT presentation about the Great Wall before reading the text (day1_activity2)
  • Locate 长城 on the map. (day1_activity2 map)

 

Activity 3: 学习新词汇 (bottom-up approach)
Teach target vocabularies with pictures using quizlet. https://quizlet.com/_1g7rsk

Activity 4: 课文扫读 (skimming skills)

  • Students skim the key words in the text 长城游 (day1_activity4 reading长城游).
  • Teacher leads a class discussion using a graphic organizer as demonstrated below, to record what students know from the reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Homework

Review new vocabularies in Quizlet.   https://quizlet.com/_1g7rsk

Day 2
Text1 长城游

Objectives

  • Apply skimming strategies to find the keywords in the text
    • identify 3 different places the author was at
    • identify some details happened in each place
    • identify at least one feeling/mood in each place
    • visualize the text  
  • Use the connectors: 先,然后,最后
  • Describe the main ideas in the text

 

Activity 1: Predicting, skimming and making inference

  • Students predict the contents based on reading the title.
  • Students skim through the text and circle the three locations at the beginning of each paragraph. Remind students that the first and second sentence in a paragraph are important to locate the information.  (answers: 在车上, 在长城门口 and 在长城上).
  • Give each student the worksheet (day2_activity1 roadmap worksheet).  Ask them to draw the 3 places in the roadmap and label the names of places.
  • Teacher explains what an action verb means.
  • Students in pairs skim through the text and circle action verbs, share with the whole class, and teacher records the verbs on the board.
  • Teacher uses the following guiding questions to help students find out the locations, feelings, and different activities in each time frame.

第一段:

  • 作者去了哪里?做了什么?
  • 你觉得他开心/兴奋吗?为什么?
    (mark the feelings in the worksheet)

第二段:

  • 他们怎么上长城的? (think-pair-share activity)
  • 你们有没有坐过缆车?你们开心吗?害怕吗?紧张吗?哭了吗?这是一种感觉。
  • 他一直很害怕/慌吗?(mark the feelings in the worksheet)
  • 解释“心里好多了“:生病了是20分,病好了是100分, 病好多了是90分,那心里好多了是多少分呢? 90分(mark the feelings in the worksheet)

第三段:

  • 他在长城做什么了?
  • 作者感觉怎么样?(mark the feelings in the worksheet)
  • 他看见什么了?
  • 作者的感觉怎么样?(mark the feelings in the worksheet)

Please see the finished sample of the roadmap worksheet below for more details.

Activity 2: Use
然后最后

  • Teacher demonstrates how to use 先、然后、最后and models using the connectors.
  • Alternative activity: prepare a pile of cards with various actions; have 3 students draw one card stating 3 actions and act out what card says, other students guess the 3 actions with the sentences: 他先______,然后________,最后_______。
  • Students do think-pair-share activity and practice using the connecting words, 然后最后, to narrate the author’s experience of climbing the Great Wall based on the text. 
  • Teacher selects a couple of pairs to present their narrations. 

Activity 3: Draw “我心中的长城

  • Students draw a picture of  “我心中的长城” in the worksheet (day2_activity3 Great Wall Imagined).
  • Students label their drawings with the keywords: 城墙,砖,缆车.... . Students fill in the sentence: “我心中的长城像______。”
  • Students’ drawings will be put on the wall for Gallery Walk activity. 

Homework

Day 3
Text2爬长城

Objectives

  • Predict the content through reading the title
  • Parse words in a sentence
  • Describe one’s feelings

Activity 1

  • Show students slide #1 with the question (他们在做什么?) Students discuss in small groups and share with the class their discussion (day3_activity1 PPT).
  • Show slide #2 and let students predict on what kind of content might be written by this author. Students again discuss in small groups and share with the class. Write down a few of the shared ideas on the board (students can revisit the prediction after they read the text).
  • Show slide #3 and explain the activity process. Go through the guiding questions on slide #4 to make sure students understand the questions.
  • Show videos on slide #5 and #6 and do group discussion on the questions.

Activity 2

Activity 3

  • Practice sentence segmentation.  Use slide #10 to #21 (day3_activity1 PPT).  Once students get the ideas, they can work in groups to finish segmenting parts of the text.
  • Students discuss how they determine the chunks of a sentence.

Activity 4

  • Divide students in pairs.  Each pair works together to circle the keywords, according to the questions in slide #23 (day3_activity1 PPT).
  • Students share with the whole class their findings.
  • Teacher use slide #24 to #29 to highlight new words and enhance reading comprehension.
  • The whole class discusses and draws out a diagram (slide #30 as an example) to analyze the contents.
  • Use slide #31 to #46 (day3_activity1 PPT) to practice new words and character recognition.

Activity 5

Homework
Summarize  the text in “day3_activity2 text2” using about 100 characters.  The summary has to include the phrases “满头大汗、困难、不舒服、害怕、高兴”.

Day 4
Text3
长城小导游

Objectives

  • Talk about the basic facts of the Great Wall of China;
  • Identify the characteristics of the Great Wall;
  • Identify the unique features of Chinese number and place value;
  • Explain what the Great Wall means to the Chinese people;
  • Compare and contrast with another historical landmark.

Activity 1

  • Tell students that we are taking a bus on our way to the Great Wall.  Students move their seats as they are sitting on a bus.
  • Play the music video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OfQdylhHKc as students are sitting on the tour bus and set a feel of touring the Great Wall of China.
  • Use长城小导游  (see the link below), an introduction of the Great Wall by a tour guide. Students first listen to the introduction without seeing the slides.

长城小导游 video clip: https://edpuzzle.com/media/55b999c04cbb1c98232d858f
(To see the answers for questions posted in this slideshow, you need to sign up Edpuzzle. It is free.)

  • For the second time, students listen to the introduction and watch the slideshow simultaneously.
  • Check what students have heard from the announcement.
  • Discuss and practice naming large numbers involving 万.
  • Divide students in small groups and give them the print-out text and a question sheet (day4_activity1 text长城小导游).
  • Students work together to find answers and share their findings.

 

Activity 2: Great Wall for the nation’s security

  • Reiterate that the Great Wall was built to protect people in China.
  • Make a slideshow of photos of two neighboring country and have students to observe carefully.
  • Students in small groups discuss what other boundaries are between two countries. Each group writes down their answers in words or draw pictures; post and share the lists through gallery walk.
  • Students discuss and share what other ways two countries do protect their territory and people. Make a list and post on the board.

Activity 3:

  • Provide a worksheet with a Venn Diagram (day4_activity3 Venn Diagram).
  • Ask students to choose a historical landmark they already know.
  • Model the process of comparing and contrasting by doing one example together with the students.
  • Provide hints for comparing points, such as:
    • 在哪里?(地点)
    • 有多久了(历史)
    • 做什么用的? (功能)
    • 要不要门票? (花费)
    • 去那儿能看到什么?做什么? (活动)

Day 5
去长城要买票- selective use of authentic materials

Objectives

  • Comprehend targeted information from an authentic text; 
  • Solve a real life math problem; 
  • Make suggestion for things to do.

Activity 1Authentic material 

  • Identify and select teachable content from the original authentic material (day5_activity1 authentic material).
  • Skimming: ask students what they notice from the texts in red.
  • Decode selected authentic texts: use comprehensible input to teach 门票、价格、成人、开放、售票; 除了......还有
  • Think-pair-share: discuss and answer following questions:
    • 长城在哪一个城市的附近?
    • “除了八达岭长城,北京还有很多特色的长城“ 告诉你什么?
    • 在月球上真的能看到长城吗?

Activity 2: (day5_activity2 purchase tickets)

  • Students identify the number of adults and children in their own families, and list who they are.
  • Calculate the cost for buying the Great Wall entrance tickets for their own family.
  • Interview 5 classmates and find out how much they have to pay for the tickets for the whole family.
  • The whole class finds out whose family has to pay the most to purchase the entrance tickets.

Activity 3: 到长城能做什么?

  • Students brainstorm the activities on and during the trip to the Great Wall.
  • Students list 5 favorite activities individually.
  • Students find a partner and negotiate at least one activity they can do together
  • Post their activities on a big poster as a reference for their individual writing and final presentations.

Activity 4: Design interview questions

  • Divide students in small groups of 3 and brainstorm for the possible reasons that people visit the Great Wall of China.
  • Form a questionnaire that consisted of 2 questions.
    • whether people would go to the Great Wall of China (yes/no) 
    • the reasons why if they answer “yes”.
  • Each student is required to interview 5 persons and record the responses on Google Form.  Students analyze the results and use what they find for their final presentations.

Homework

  • Some people said that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure that is visible from space.  Find out if this statement is true or a myth.
  • Write down the reasons that you think one should visit the Great Wall.  Also, interview 2 people about their reasons that they want to visit the Great Wall.  Students use Google Form to input their interview results.

Day 6

Objective

  • Clarify the myth about the Great Wall.
  • Identity the reasons to visit the Great Wall.
  • Compose a persuasive writing.

Activity 1

  • Divide students in groups of three.  Students discuss about their findings and thoughts about the homework #1 in Day 5.
  • Students use Google Form to input their interview results.
  • The whole class clarifies the myth about the Great Wall.

Activity 2

  • In the same groups, students share their reasons of visiting the Great Wall.
  • Post all of the various reasons on the wall, which can be used as reference for the persuasive writing and final presentations.

Homework

  • Write a persuasive text to convince people to visit the Great Wall with the help of the interview results and the graphic organizer (day6_HW graphic organizer). 

Day 7

Objective

  • Organize materials and prepare for final presentations

Activity
Divide students in four groups.  Each group works on a different section of the final presentation.  Here are the focuses for each group.  Each member in the groups will present.

  • Group 1: What is the Great Wall? Where is the Great Wall?
    • make posters with maps and pictures
    • include the facts learned in this unit
    • write the outline for the presentation 
  • Group 2: Why do people visit the Great Wall?
    • make posters demonstrate  the data and the results of the interviews
    • include some people’s travel experience at the Great Wall
    • write the outline for the presentation 
  • Group 3: Make suggestions
    • make posters to show what we can see, do, and learn from visiting the Great Wall?
    • write the outline for the presentation
       
  • Group 4: Conclusion
    • Review the individual persuasive writings
    • Select the writings to explain the benefits of visiting the Great Wall
    • To explain the disadvantages of not taking on this opportunity to go
    • write the outline for the presentation 

 

Homework
Practice the presentations.

Day 8

Objectives:

  • Present the final presentations.
  • Evaluate one’s performance (day8_rubric)

Activity 1

  • Group 1 presents facts about the GWOC
  • Group 2 presents data collected from interviewing and reading about traveling experiences to the GWOC
  • Group 3 presents suggestions for activities to do in the area of the Great Wall
  • Group 4 presents the conclusion that the Great Wall is a must when traveling in China. 

Activity 2

  • Post the individual persuasive writing collection as bricks on a big poster of the Great Wall of China in the hallway
  • Display each group’s presentation posters in the classroom.