13+ Daily Lessons 2012

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

Day 1

Objectives

• Students can comprehend a short invitation message
• Students can interpret the basic types of invitation messages in authentic invitations
• Students can use 认识 ‘know’ and 知道 ‘know of/about’ in appropriate contexts.
• Students can identify the basic components, radicals and stroke order of the target characters.

Activity 1 

• Listen to an invitation message  (Day1_Activity1 InvitationMessage.mp3). 
• Show the PPT slide of the questions related to the recording (Day1 Activity1 Receive An Invitation Message Listening.)
• Play the recording two times and ask students to answer the questions.

Activity 2 Target Character Activities: 人，认识，请 , 叫，吃，茶，菜

• Characters will be introduced in context with the use of pictures on PPT (Day1 Activity2 Target Characters).  In one instance, students will be shown a picture of Abraham Lincoln in a book cover with a Chinese title “名人与时代”. The target character “人” is circled. At the same times, students are asked with the question, “nǐ 认 shi tā mɑ ? tā  shì zhōngguó人 ma?”, where the target characters are written in Chinese characters and color coded for emphasis.
• Once students have some exposure to the target characters 人 and认 in context, they will be asked to compare the two characters and identify the order in putting components together. Literally, in writing 认, which part (left or right) goes first?
• After the teacher demonstrates how to write人 and认, students will be encouraged to identify the common component in 认、识、请.  Again, they need to identify the order in putting components together, left to right.
• The teacher will demonstrate stroke orders in人、认、识、请 and ask students to write in the air or on a notebook following his/her example.
• After students have mastered how to write these target characters, the teacher will provide explicit knowledge of the common phonetic component, e.g.人 and认, and semantic radical, e.g. 认、识、请 in these characters.

Activity 3

• Use 认识 ‘know’ and 知道 ‘know of/about’
• Show pictures of famous people to students and ask “请问你认识他吗？” (Day1_Activity3RenshiQ&A.)
• If students claim to 认识 any of these famous people, the teacher should act surprised and ask follow questions like “can you introduce us,” “how did you meet”, etc.  The point is to make it clear that the student “knows of” (知道) this person, but doesn’t “personally know” them.
• Next, pictures of the teacher/s and students from the class can be shown.
• “请问你认识他吗”? is asked. Obviously, the answer this time should be affirmative.
• Students break into small groups and ask amongst themselves about specific famous and local individuals.  After their Q and A, teacher checks 他们认识谁，知道谁. 

Activity 4

• Identify Characters in authentic materials (Day1_Activity4IdentifyCharactersInAuthenticMaterials, both in Words and PPT).
• Students are provided with several invitations and cards where the target characters 人，认识, and 请 are included. They must circle these characters and use inference to answer questions about the materials.

Assignment

• Identify the radicals: (day1_Radical Component Search Worksheet)
• Character worksheet with stroke order illustrated (人认识请叫吃) (Day1_Assignment2CharacterWorksheet#1)

认识的 Q & A Question Sheet (Day1_Assignment3RenshiQ&A) [Pair Work]
Each student will find three or four pictures of famous people or friends/classmates and create a question sheet for their partner by writing the characters they just learned, literally, “请wèn nǐ认识tā ma”? Then they need to exchange their question sheets before next class and answer their partner’s questions.

Day 2

Objectives 

• Students can use请＋verb in contexts.
• Students can invite orally a friend to a party or an event.
• Students can identify some major cities on a map of China for social interactions. 
• Students can use and interpret the body language and gestures in the Chinese culture in a party context

Activity 1 

• The purpose of this activity is two-fold: 1) to review what is covered in Day 1; 2) to help prepare students for the following activities. 
• Divide students in pairs.  Distribute each pair the script of the phone message listened in Day 1 (Day2_Activity1ReceiveAnInvitationMessageReading).
• The first task is to circle out the learned and new target characters, including人, 认, 识, 请, 吃 and 叫.
• Second, students reply to the comprehension questions orally.
• Third, they are asked to generalize the pattern when请 is used in an action even:  请＋verb (吃,喝,坐,进, etc.).  Continue to use the handout (Day2_Activity1ReceiveAnInvitationMessageReading).
• Teacher checks their understanding of the message and use of 请.

Activity 2

• Back Tracing Activity: Review target characters and use请.
• All target characters are reviewed including stroke order, component parts, meaning and pronunciation.
• Students work in pairs.  They trace the various characters on a partner’s back or their hand with one student closing their eyes. Students can pick their own partners, who they feel comfortable to work with.
• After several minutes, the large group activity will begin. Beforehand, the teacher should place the bowl of candy, several cups of tea. 
• Two at a time, students come to the front of the room.  One student is the tracer and will be responsible for tracing a character on the other student’s back.  The tracer selects a characters card, which is then shown to all classmates except for the student’s partner.
• The tracer traces the character on his partner’s back. The partner must say the character traced. If correct, the entire class says “对，请吃糖、请喝茶”, if incorrect, the entire class says “不对，请坐”. The partner proceeds to take candy to eat, drink a cup of beverage, or go back to sit down in their chairs.  

Activity 3 

• Putting People on the Map: locate places in the maps of China and USA.
• Assumption: Students already learned the country names in previous units, such as 德国，美国，英国，加州，纽约， 佛罗里达州…and Chinese cities/provinces (上海，香港，北京，西安…).  
• Review and model the question and statement: 这是谁? 他是。。他是哪里人？他是上海人 .  Also practice, 你是美国哪里人？ and 你是中国哪里人？
• After the sentence patterns for 这是谁 has been introduced and reviewed, the teacher should review some of the same individuals asking, 他是哪里人？Day2_Activity3 famous people
• Make the cutout of the famous figures from the worksheet (Day2_Activity3 famous people) and give each student one cutout.  
• Students go around the classroom and ask each other the figure in their cutout:  这是谁？他是哪里人？
• Teacher prepares strips of tape.
• Students return to their desks. One by one, students are asked to come to the front of the room.  The entire class asks the two questions.  After responding to two questions, each student tapes his/her cutout to the maps (Day2_Activity3PuttingPeopleOnTheMap).

Activity 4 

• This is a roleplay task, responding to the invitation message listened on Day1. 
• Divide students in pairs.  Play the message again ‘Day1_Activity1InvitationMessage.mp3.’
• The scenario: You are to bring a date to a party.  Invite your boyfriend or girlfriend.  At least 5 exchanges between the two students.  Explain and ask about the party, such as what is the party for, who will be there, when/where is party…etc.  The information does not have to be restricted to the phone message.  No need to write the script, just having the conversation orally.  
• The teacher will walk around the class to assist students. Later, students will be asked to perform in front of the class. Summary feedback will be provided at the end.

Assignments

• Assignment 1: Day2_Assignment1 radicalworksheet #2.pdf
• Creating a Mini Comic Book (Day2_Assignment2 comic)
• Part of a mini comic book is created with many callouts to be filled out. Students are asked to finish the comic book and fill in proper sentences or questions.  Write the characters that you have learned and use pinyin for the rest words.  For example, the target structures or building blocks covered in this class, for example, Nǐ认识tā ma? Duì, 请zuò, 请hē, 请jìn, Zhè shì shéi?  Nǐ shì nǎlǐ rén?
• Here is the storyline. An American student is walking on campus. Suddenly he notices a cute Chinese girl who looks a little lost. He decides to see what this Chinese girl needs and discovers that she does not speak English. He decides to put his new Chinese language skills to work and volunteer to help:
• Ask her where she is from;
• Walk her to the place she wants to go and ask her if she wants to sit down;
• Exchange phone numbers;
• Invite her to have lunch or drink sometime.

3.    Body Language Observation (Day2_Assignment3 Video Script)

• Compare the similarities and differences in body language and gestures in both cultures.
• Students will watch the Chinese movie ‘Eat, Drink, Man and Woman’ and observe body language of characters in the following contexts:
• How did the father and his daughters greet their guests at home (Jing Rong and her mom)? Did they shake hands?
• Did Jing Rong’s mom bring the father anything when she visited him?
• What was his reaction (or the daughter’s reaction) when they receive gifts from their guests? Did he open the gift right away?
• Did they take off their shoes before entering the house?
• How did the second older daughter’s response to Jing Rong’s mom compliment?
• How did the youngest and the oldest daughters bid goodbye to her father when she moved out?
• Did the father and his daughters ever hug?
• Did the father and his daughters ever say they love each other?
• In your opinion, how did the father express his love to his daughters?
• In your opinion, why did the father only smiled when his newly wed wife say ‘I love you’?
• Students share their observations and discuss similarities and differences of the body language between the target and the home cultures on their blogs in English. They do not need to turn in the response to the above questions.

Day 3

Objectives 

• Students can recognize the target characters in context: 茶, 菜, 过, and 这
• Students can orally describe past dining experiences.
• Students can read a written invitation in Chinese. 

Activity 1  

• Show (Day3_Activity1_TargetCharacters) to review人、认、识、请、叫、吃 and the radicals 人，言，口.
• Show 茶, 菜, 过, 这 and ask students to find the common components these characters share.
• Introduce the radicals 艹 ‘grass’ and 辶 'walk'.
• Illustrate the stroke order of 茶, 菜, 过, 这 and have students practice on their notepads or in the air. 
• Focus on the internal structures of the target characters.  Divide students in small groups of three.  The task is to divide the characters into two parts. Comparisons will be made between the internal structures of these 10 characters: such as left-right, top-down structures.

Activity 2  

• Discuss the cuisines in the world with particular attention to types of cuisine from greater China.
• Review the questions and responses:  他是哪里人？这是哪里的菜?
• Divide students in groups of 3.  Provide each group the worksheet, the first page of (Day3_Activity2_FoodFromPlaces).  The task is to find out where these dishes are from.
• Teacher cuts out the dishes and place them in a box. Prepare a world map and a China map.  Students take turns drawing a card and asking the entire class, 这是哪里的菜？Teacher selects a student to provide the answer and the student tapes the dish to the correct location on the map. 

Activity 3

• Introduce the use of 过, using the handout (Day3_Activity3_guo).
• Provide each student the second page of the worksheet in   (Day3_Activity2_FoodFromPlaces) and the form (Day03_activty3_interview form).
• Students go around the classroom to do the interview.  For each dish, students need to find at least one person who has had that dish before.  They have to use the question: 你吃过。。菜吗？.  Once the person is located, ask that person to sign.
• Whoever completes the list first is the winner.

Activity 4

• Reading Task: use the PPTs in (Day3_Activity4_ReadingTask.pptx).
• Show the short narrative passage written in Chinese characters with Pinyin.
• Guide the students through the reading and ask them to the comprehension questions in pairs.
• Review the use of过using the slides #5-7.  Students will go back to the above reading activity to find out what John has done or not done before the party. 
• Lastly, ask students to find the characters (last slide) they have learned人、认、识、请、叫、吃   and the new characters of the day, 茶, 菜, 过, and 这.  

Assignments

• Assignment 1:  (Day3_radical component search worksheet #3)
• Assignment 2: Character worksheet with stroke order illustrated （茶菜过这）(Day3_character worksheet #2) 
• Assignment 3: Interview Local Chinese Restaurants
• Step 1: Students are given a list of different types of Chinese cuisines in today’s class, including Shanghai cài, Guangdong cài, Taiwan cài, Sichuan cài, etc.
• Step 2: The task for each student is to call a local Chinese restaurant and ask the staff where the owner is from and what cuisine they serve using Chinese:  他/她是哪里人? 这是哪里的菜 (refers to the cuisine of the restaurant)?
• Step 3: Students bring the information they gather about the restaurants to next class, such as the name, where the owner came from, and the type of cuisine of the restaurant, their webside (if applicable.)    

• Assignment 4: Write an Invitation Letter

Two scenarios will be provided and students need to select a scenario and write an invitation letter accordingly. They can write the invitation with the use of a mixture of Chinese characters and Pinyin. Below are the two scenarios:
Scenario 1:
You are on vacation in North Carolina and staying in a resort for a week. At the pool you meet a family from China who is vacationing in the United States for the first time. They were excited and became very enthusiastic when they found out that you knew Chinese, so they took you to lunch today. You would like to return the favor by inviting them to a well-known local American restaurant tomorrow evening. You stopped by their room, but they were not there. Leave an invitation message. Including the following information such as:

• You name and room number;
• Invite them to dinner tomorrow (where and when);
• Some drinks/dishes that the restaurant offers.
• Something that makes that restaurant special.
• Anything else you want to share that explains why you like this restaurant and why your new Chinese friends should try it.

Scenario 2:
It is the beginning of the semester. You want to invite some of the new Chinese friends to your house for a party.  You might want to include:

• when and where will the party takes place;
• the food and drinks that will be served;
• and who are invited.

The invitation will be sent to the Chinese Student Association email-list.  Be sure to leave a reply email for those who are interested. 

Rubric for Invitation Writing

Day 4

Daily Objectives  

• Students can use ask and answer questions about past experiences.
• Students report the results of the interview assigned in Day 3.
• Students do peer-review of the invitation letters that they write.

Activity 1 

• Report the interview results assigned on Day 3.
• Divide the students in pairs. Ask them to find out their partner’s interview result by asking 老板是哪里人？那个饭馆有哪里的菜? 你吃过那里的菜吗？

They should answer the questions in complete sentences.

• After the pair work, everybody reports to the class in Chinese about their partner’s interview results.
• The teacher puts the results on a chart and asks students to summarize where most of these people come from and what food they eat.

Activity 2   

• Ask and answer questions about past experiences.
• Review the verbs and sentence patterns: 吃喝去看玩学，你看过卧虎藏龙吗？我看过，我没看过。
• Give each student the worksheet (Day4_activity2 Have you ever). 
• Students first complete each question and go around the classroom to interview their classmates.  If the answer is ‘yes’ in Chinese, such as , qù 过／吃 过, ask that classmate to sign his/her name.  Whoever gets the signature for every question wins. 
• Teacher checks the result at the end.  Based on the students’ questions, ask students, such as 谁看过中国电影？什么电影？谁吃过中国菜？那里的菜？

Activity 3   

• Peer review of the invitation letter.
• Before the teacher grades students’ invitation letters (Assignment 4 of Day 3), students will be asked to read one of their classmates’ invitation letters.
• Students in pairs read each other’s letter and comment: 
• if they understand the invitation
• if they have all the information needed to attend the event
• whether they will attend the event and why or why not.
• Students will be given 4-5 minutes to revise their invitation letters according to the comments given by their partners before they turn in the assignment to the teacher.

Activity 4 

• Build Character Game.  This is a group-work activity. The teacher will create a “character component bucket” with various components from the target characters, such as乞，口， 辶 ，寸，讠，只 , 采，艹…etc.
• Each student will pick one item the Bucket and goes around the classroom to find partners they can work with to form legal characters. 
• In terms of communicative function, students should greet their partner appropriately with 很高兴认识你.
• At the end, the teacher walks around the classroom to go over the characters students have come up with by asking 这是什么字?, with expectation that students respond with 这是…我学过这个字。

Assignments 

• Assignment 1: (day4_character worksheet #3 StrippedRadicals).  Students are asked to add the radical for each character. 
  
• Assignment 2: Appropriate and taboo topics for first meetings -behave like a Chinese
• Students will gather information on appropriate and taboo topics for first meetings from the following websites:
• http://secondchina.com/Learning_Modules/BUS_web/content/BUS_taboo_topics.html
• http://secondchina.com/Learning_Modules/BUS_web/content/BUS_taboo_topics_avoid.
• html
• http://traditions.cultural-china.com/en/14Traditions5519.html
• http://www.fccchina.org/reporters-guide/sensitive-areas-and-topics/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IqdV5EfByg
  (Introduction of China in 10 minutes)
• They will be asked to share their comments and thoughts on a class blog/ twitter.
  
• Assignment 3: Skit Performance

Scenario:
You are going to work in groups of three, and come up with a skit for a house party. You may decide as a group where the scene takes place. One of you will be the party host, while the other two are:

• attending a reception for new students in a Chinese college;
• having dinner at a Chinese friend’s house;
• or, meeting new friends at a dorm party, etc.

The role play must include what we have learned in this unit so far:

• introduce yourself;
• introduce your friend to others;
• present a gift;
• ask others where they are from;
• ask and talk about some past experiences;
• offer food and drink;
• talk about preferences of certain dishes
• and anything else you want to add to make the conversation flow.

Please pay special attention to the similarities and differences in the home and the target cultures. You are expected to communicate in the target language, integrating cultural awareness in a role-play setting modeling the dialogue of the unit. You are encouraged to improvise the dialogue of the unit, and incorporate the cultural knowledge that they have learned in class.  

The skit should be about 3-4 minutes long. Post your skit on the class blog before midnight today. The instructor will provide brief comments tomorrow morning. The skit will be performed in class on Day 5.

Give students the skit rubrics: Day4_skit rubrics

Day 5

Objectives:  Summative Assessments

• Complete a character test
• Present skits
• Present the written invitation and cultural practices engagement task.
• Discuss and provide feedback to both tasks.

Activity 1

• Give each student the test (day5_character test). Students are required to write the target characters in context.  The test includes two short narrative passages and one dialogue.

Activity 2   

• Skit performance.  Students perform their skits in class with attention to the appropriate and taboo cultural practices. Five to eight minutes’ prep time will be provided before the formal presentation in front of the class. The teacher will go around the room to share his/her comments (also posted on twitter before class).
• Students are expected to communicate in the target language, integrating cultural awareness in a role-play setting modeling the dialogue of the unit. Students are encouraged to improvise the dialogue of the unit, and incorporate the cultural knowledge that they have learned in class.
• When one group is performing, the rest of the class will observe and monitor one another to see how their meanings and intentions are communicated in a culturally appropriate manner. To ensure that the rest of students are attentive, the skit members will raise several questions related to their skit and point their classmates to respond to their questions.
• At the end, discussions with questions, comments, clarifications and suggestions will be made involving everybody in the class. The teacher will make a brief summary and provide further constructive feedback. 

Activity 3    

• Present the Invitation Letter.
• Before the class, ask students to revise their letters based on the feedback from the teacher and their peers.  
• Work in groups of 4. Each student gets to present their invitation letter to the group. Take turns to check if the group understands and accepts your invitation. Provide explanation if there are any questions.
• Each group selects one best invitation to present to the class. The class will be asked to raise their hands if they will attend the event. The well-attended event will be selected. Students will be asked to briefly explain why or why they would like to attend the event.
• If time allows, students will present their invitation letters in class; if time is not sufficient, students will post their invitation letters on their blogs. After reading the invitation letters, the students can vote for events they would like to attend on the blog website as well.

Assignment   Review what is covered in this unit. Preview the next unit.