Daily Schedule

Grade-Level Thematically-Based Modules

• Theme, Goal, Population
• Can Do Statements
• Daily Lessons
• Summative Assessment

• Theme, Goal, Population
• Can Do Statements
• Daily Lessons
• Summative Assessment

• Theme, Goal, Population
• Can Do Statements
• Daily Lessons
• Summative Assessment

• Theme, Goal, Population
• Can Do Statements
• Daily Lessons
• Summative Assessment

Reading Material

我最喜欢的课

Grammatical features

语法：
最，让， 因为.....所以， 但是

Vocabulary

很难，很累，有趣/没趣,  好玩/不好玩， 有意思／没意思，时间很长／短，很容易／很难，高兴；开心，功课／作业太多 vs. 没有作业

课程的生词：科目，教室，数学，体育，跑步，汉语，历史，科学，音乐，健康教育，美术，导师时间，午饭，自习

文化的词：午休（睡午觉），升旗典礼，唱校歌  唱国歌， 排队，打扫，眼睛保健操, 操场，跳绳

Lesson 1

Objectives

• Activate student prior knowledge about everyday activities in a middle school.
• Hook students’ interest in this unit.

Puli Middle School Video
This is a video originally made by students in Pulin Middle School in Taiwan to introduce a typical day in their school. Students spoke in English.  The video was edited for this unit. The changes are (1) the captions were covered with simplified Chinese characters (no English) (2) some words were changed to fit into our scenario, such as 国文课-->语文课；合作社-->小卖部.

Activate prior knowledge and hook their interest

• Tell students that we received a video from our sister school and we are going to watch only some parts of it. No sound but Chinese captions will be provided. (video: L1_middle school life in Taiwan.mov)
• Play only the segments of video. The time length is provided after each question below.  
• 早上7:20 他们做什么？ (0:0:52-0:1:18)
• 下课时间有几分钟？ (clue: 9:10 am) (0:3:38-0:4:10)
• 他们在哪儿吃中饭？ (clue: 12:00 pm) (0:6:00-0:7:00)
• 中饭以后，他们做什么？ (clue: 12:30pm) ( 0:6:00-0:7:00)
• 他们几点回家？ (0:9:10-0:9:50)

**Remember to turn off the sound before you play the video.)

• Give students the worksheet (L1_class worksheet)
• Ask students to write down their name, date and period.  Ask them to glance through all the questions for 1 minute.
• Play the video segments and ask them to watch the video carefully and answer each question. Simply jot down the key word for the answer.
• After students watch the video and finish the worksheet. Students discuss their answers in pairs.
• Select one group to report their answers. The whole class can provide any additional information.

Homework (L1_homework)
Teacher will pass out “Homework--Pu Li Video worksheet” with 9 questions at the end of the class. Students will go home and watch the whole video clip about 10 minutes and answer all questions. They may listen to the English version. Turn in the Homework next class. (1 min.)

Lesson 2  
 

Objectives

• Use new words to describe one’s class schedule.
• Ask and respond to questions related class schedules.

Activity1: Introduce new words
(L2_activity1 introduce new words)

• In this activity, students are learning the names of class subjects.  Each animated slide includes a picture, characters and Pinyin in order. On each slide, first click to show the picture.  Students guess what subject name is with the hint of the picture. Then, click to show the Chinese characters, lastly show the pinyin.  Students will sound out each character. Guide students to learn all 12 school subjects.
• Teacher may use the Tic Tae Toe pages to play fly swatting  game/flash cards game.
• Students practice newly learned words in sentences, for example: 你上什么课？ 我上音乐课。你第一节有什么课？我有体育课.
• Provide students the new word list for this unit (L2_activity1 new word list).

Activity 2: Review new words
The tasks are designed to guide students to review the new words they have learned.  Except for the PPT slides, students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.

• Use the PPT slides in (L2_activity2 review new words).
• Fill-in-blanks exercise (L2_ activity2 fill in blanks).
• Matching exercise (L2_ activity2 matching), connecting characters, meaning and pinyin.

Activity 3: Talking about class schedules

• Teacher shows the two schedules in (L2_ activity3 two schedules), and models the questions related to class schedules, such as 他们都有什么课？他们几点开始上课？我们呢？
• Divide students in pairs.  Give them the worksheet (L2_ activity3 talk about schedules). Students in pairs take turn asking each other questions based on the schedule.
• Students in pairs play a board game.  See the instruction in (L2_ activity3 board game). 

 
Activity 4: Text Message

• Students in pairs read the text message in (L2_activity4 text message) and answer the questions in Part A.
• Teacher selects one pair to report their answers.  Other pairs can correct or add more information.
• Ask students to place the text message aside and give each pari the task in Part B in (L2_ activity4 text message) in which they have to reorder the text exchanges. 
• After reordering the text message, each pair reads aloud the lines.

Homework

• Create your own class schedule.  See the instruction in  (L2_HW create class schedule).  Bring the schedule to next class.
• Create you own text message.  See the instruction in Part D in (L2_ activity4 text message)
• Divide students in 4 groups.  Each group is assigned an article which is related to the school life and school system in China or Taiwan.  The class will discuss the 4 articles next day.  Here are the 4 articles:

(L2_HW A day in life of Chinese student)
(L2_HW Nine-hour tests and lots of pressure)
(L2_HW How much homework do American kids do?)
(L2_HW China’s children too busy for playtime)

Lesson 3

Objectives

• Compare class schedules between American’s and Taiwan’s middle schools.
• Identify the cultural differences reflected in the course schedules between American’s and Taiwan’s middle schools.

Activity 1: Culture Information
Divide students in 4 groups.  Each group already reads an article as homework.  Give each group 5 minutes to write down three main points of the article they read in a large poster.  Then, each group place their poster on the wall for the whole class to review during the day. 

Activity 2: Compare School Schedules

• Students are divided in the same 4 groups.  Give each group the worksheet (L3_activity2 compare school schedules).
• Use the class schedules on Page 2 of the worksheet to discuss the differences between the schedules.  See the guided discussion questions in the worksheet.
• Each group uses the Venn Diagram on Page 1 to write down the similarities and differences between the two schedules. 
• Each group presents their Venn Diagrams. 

Homework
Write 10 sentences in Chinese about the similarities and differences of the school life and school systems between China/Taiwan and the United States, based on the information they write on the posters and the venn diagrams they present. 

Lesson 4

Objectives

• Activate prior knowledge about classes in middle schools.
• Use reading skills, scanning and skimming.
• Use最and让in interpersonal communication.

Activity 1: activate prior knowledge
Tell students that a student from our sister school sent us an email titled
“我最喜欢的课”.

• Ask them what this title means.
• Ask them what words might be used in the letter based on the title.  Teacher writes down the words that students suggest.

Activity 2: Scanning and Skimming

• Scanning.  Divide students in pairs.  Give each pair the letter (L4_email我最喜欢的课).  Ask each pair to highlight the words that occurs in the email multiple times excluding pronouns “我” “老师”.  (such as 球，最，让，打，喜欢，有趣，踢足球，跑步, etc.)  Teacher, then, shows the letter on the computer screen, and highlight the words suggested by each pairs. 
• Skimming:  After each pair highlights the frequently occurring words, ask them to guess the meanings based on the context.  Teacher first calls each pair to suggest the meanings of the words; then, show the accurate meanings.

Activity 3: 最

• Teacher modeling: Teacher says the following two statements, using flash cards of drawings. 

我喜欢游泳，打篮球，打乒乓球。我“最”喜欢打乒乓球。
我喜欢吃意大利饭，日本饭，中国饭。我“最”喜欢吃中国饭。

• Ask students to describe the position of最and guess the meaning 最.
• Confirm the meaning and the position of 最.
• Practice.  Give each student the following dialogue with blanks, and show them three drawings: play soccer, play baseballs, play volleyballs.  Ask them to fill in the blanks using the three items.  Select a couple of students to read aloud their dialogues.

(show 3 flash cards: 踢足球，打棒球，打排球)
老师：你喜欢什么运动？
学生：我喜欢 ______, ______, ______.
老师：你“最”喜欢什么运动？
学生：我“最”喜欢 ________。你呢？
老师：我 “最”喜欢 ________。

• Repeat the same task using different drawings about dishes. 

(show 3 flash cards: 意大利饭，日本饭，中国饭)
老师：我喜欢吃意大利饭，日本饭，中国饭。我“最”喜欢吃中国饭。
老师：(point one randomly 你呢？你喜欢吃什么饭？)
我喜欢吃 ______, ______, ______.
你“最”喜欢吃什么饭？
我“最”喜欢吃 ________。

Activity 4: Use of最

• Give each student an interview worksheet (L4_activity4 interveiw worksheet).
• Each student goes around the class and interview 3 classmate’s most favorite items in terms of colors, pets, sports and fruit. 
• Teacher places 4 large posters (L4_activity4 interview charts) on wall before the activity starts.
• After interviewing 3 students, students take turn writing the interviewees’ names in the charts according to their favorite items.  For example, John likes banana, dog, baseball, and blue.  The interviewer writes John’s name in the box above the category of banana, dog, baseball, and blue.
• Summary: The whole class complete 4 statements as follows based on the charts.

我们班的同学最喜欢______ (颜色)。
我们班的同学最喜欢______ (小动物)。
我们班的同学最喜欢______ (运动)。
我们班的同学最喜欢______ (水果)

Activity 5: Use of 让

• Write on a white board:让: _____ 让  (人/n.)   很 adj.
• Teacher interacts with students by asking questions and demonstrates the use of让.  See the following three modeling exchanges.
  

Demo 1:
老师：大中，你喜欢吃什么？
大中：我喜欢吃冰淇淋。
老师：吃冰淇淋“让”大中很开心。
(接着，老师在白板上写下两个句子。)
a. 大中喜欢吃冰淇淋
b. 吃冰淇淋“让”大中很开心。

Demo 2:
老师：小文，你喜欢什么运动？
小文：我喜欢打棒球。
老师：打棒球“让”小文很开心。
(接着，老师在白板上写下这两个句子。)
a. 小文喜欢打棒球。
b. 打棒球“让”小文很开心。

Demo 3:
老师：大明，你的数学作业多不多？
大明：我的数学作业很多／不多。
老师：你高兴 (不高兴) 吗？
大明：我不高兴。
老师：数学作业很多 “让” 大明很不高兴。

• Guided Practice
  Divide students in pairs.  Give each pair several flashcards (such as having a cookie, watching TV, studying, etc)  for students to practice using让-sentences.

• Improvisation  (即兴演出)
  Provide course flashcards, such as数学课，体育课，汉语课，历史课，科学课，音乐课，电脑课，健康教育课，美术课，语文课.  Randomly select one student at a time. He/she will pick one card, show it, make the sentence with 让 and act it out at the same time.  (For instance, holding a 数学课 card, saying, “上数学课 让我很累。”) .  Play it 3-4 times.

Activity 6: 最and让in the email

• Students in pairs read the email, “我最喜欢的一堂课” in (L4_我最喜欢的课).
• Circle “最” and underline the sentences with “最”.
• Circle “让” and underline the sentences with “让”.
• Each pair discusses the meaning of those sentences.
• Teacher selects several students to report their discussion.

Lesson 5

Objectives

• Use the connectives, 因为，所以，但是.
• Describe orally Puli video clips that present everyday activities in a middle school in Taiwan.
• Comprehend written descriptions.
• Describe Puli video clips in writing.
• Use reading skills, scanning, skimming, making inference, and summarizing.

Activity 1 : 因为，所以
Do this activity with the entire class.

• Teacher makes a statement： 我喜欢体育课。
• Students ask why? 为什么？
• Teacher answers using 因为体育课很好玩。
• Students ask why again
• Teacher answers again 因为老师让我打球。
• Teacher concludes 因为老师让我打球，所以体育课很好玩。
• Students echo.
• Repeat 1~5 using another set of  我喜欢......课。 因为......。  
• Start step 6 but get the students to finish the 因为......, 所以......conclusion.
• Teacher makes another statement： 我喜欢电脑课
• Students ask why? 为什么？
• Teacher answers using 因为电脑课很有趣。
• Students ask why again
• Teacher answers again 因为老师让我玩电脑游戏。
• Teacher concludes 因为老师让我玩电脑游戏，所以我觉得 (wait and encourage students to finish) 电脑课很有趣。
• Students echo.

Activity 2: 但是

• Teacher shows a powerpoint slide and asks students to read：
  我不喜欢数学课。
• Teacher shows in a powerpoint slide and say：
  但是我喜欢数学老师。
• Students read this entire sentence.
• Repeat the same steps showing
  我喜欢体育课，
  但是我不喜欢跑步。
• Students read this entire sentence.
• Teacher shows in a powerpoint slide and ask students to read：
  我不喜欢美术课，
• Teacher shows 但是 and ask students to finish the sentence：
  但是我.......。
• Teacher shows this sentence pattern in a powerpoint slide：
  我喜欢......课, 但是......。
• Ask students to use this pattern to make a sentence and say it to the partner next to him/her.

Activity 3: Comprehend the school life presented in the Puli video

• Use the clips from the Puli video (L5_activity3 video clips). 
• Show the first slide with a photo and questions first, and students discuss in pairs for the answers. 
• Teacher selects a couple of students to provide their answers.
• Show the second slide which provides the description of the photo.  Have students to read the description.
• Continue the same steps for Slide 3-4 and 5-6.

Activity 4: Skimming skill  

• Divide students in pair.  Give each pair the email (L4_activity2 email 我最喜欢的课) and each pair skims for the main idea for each paragraph. 
• Teacher selects a couple of pairs to state the main ideas.

Activity 5: Scanning skill  
Demonstrate how to scan the text to find the answers.  Use
the first page of (L5_activity5 questions for scanning).

• Teacher modeling: Ask a student to read the first question
  什么课最好玩？为什么？
• Teacher asks “To answer this question什么课最好玩, 我们在文章里要找什么词？Wait to see whether any student is going to blur out before saying “最好玩.”
• Tell students that大家一起帮老师找 “最好玩” .
• After finding “最好玩”, ask a student to read the sentence including “最好玩” which is “体育课最好玩”.
• Then ask students 什么课最好玩？
• Teacher asks, “为什么？”
• Teacher asks “To answer this question为什么体育课最好玩, 我们在文章里要找什么词？” Wait to see whether any student is going to blur out before saying “因为”.
• 大家一起帮老师找. After finding “因为”, ask a student to read the sentence including “因为” .
• Divide students in pairs.  Students in each pair work together to answer the rest of questions.
• Then fill in the rest boxes in the graphic organizer (L5_activity4 graphic organizer for reading).
• Show students the completed graphic organizer (L5_activity5 graphic organizer for reading answers).

Activity 6: Making Inferences
Use the second page of (L5_activity5 questions for scanning)

• Ask a student to read the first question 这个人喜欢打排球吗？为什么？
• Demonstrate scanning skill to find the answer/
• Ask students, “我们在文章里要找什么词？” The answer is “打排球”.
• 大家一起帮老师找 “打排球”
• After finding “打排球”, ask a student to read the sentence including “打排球”, which is “我们有时候打排球或是打篮球，让我很不开心”.
• Ask the question again这个人喜欢打排球吗？为什么？Select a student to answer the questions.
• Students in pairs complete the rest of the questions on Page 2.
• Teacher checks their responses. 

Activity 7: Summarizing

• Divide students in groups of three.  Have students placed the email aside.
• Each group writes a summary of the email together based on the completed graphic organizer (L5_activity5 graphic organizer for reading answers).
• Each group summits a summary to the teacher. 

Homework
Students write descriptions for the clips in each slide. (L5_HW video clips for writing).  Writing rubric (L5_HW writing rubric). 

Formative
Assessment

Formative Assessments

• Two exercises are for formative assessment.
• Divide students in pairs.  Give each pair the worksheet (Formative FITB).  This exercise assesses their ability to use最，让，因为，所以，但是.
• Divide students in pairs.  Give each group the complete set of sentences and the task is to place the sentences in correct order.  See the instruction in (Formative reorder sentences).  This task is to evaluate their ability to organize sentences cohesively.

Summative
Assessment
1 &2

Summative Assessment (1)

• Give each student the reading in (Summative1 reading). 
• In-class: Answer the multiple-choice and truth-false questions (Summative1 reading questions).

Homework:

• Fill out the graphic organizer (Summative1 graphic organizer) based on the summative reading.
• Use the graphic organizer to summarize the reading in 3~4 sentences.
• Summative Assessment (2)
  Write a short email about your favorite class and responding to the email sent by a student in the sister school in Taiwan.  For instruction, see (Summative2 writing instruction and rubric).

Summative
Assessment 3

Video Project: A Typical School Day

Divide students in groups of 2-3 depending the number of students in class.
Technology requirements: a smartphone (or an iPad), a USB cable, a Mac computer with iMovie or a PC with Movie Maker.

Task: Each group produces a 5-minute video clip introducing your typical school day to your sister school. 

Review the video “Puli Video”
The video presents the school life in Puli Middle School in Taiwan.  Use the version with subtitles in simplified Chinese with no English. 

• Give each student the worksheet (summative3 review worksheet). First, each student reads the questions in silence. Then, check with one’s neighbor and make sure one understands the meaning of the questions. (Depending on the time, Teacher can choose a certain number of questions, instead of doing all 17 questions).
• Play the video for students and ask them to write down the answers.
• Select some students to report their answers.

Video script requirement (summative3 video script requirement)
Each group writes the script for the video following the requirement below:

• Opening: Welcoming, location of our school, introducing yourself
• Introduce a typical school day
• Introduce your teachers (name & nationality)
• Introduce your favorite class(es) and explain why.
• Ending

Format
It is a Video project using the tools iMovie or Movie Maker.  Some photos are allowed but should be limited.  If you do use some photos, you have to import the audios which have to match with the photos.

Team leaders
A team leader is responsible for coordinating the times with the teammates. It is the team leader’s responsibility to submit your group’s script to the teacher.

Grading
You will be given a group grade and an individual grade for this project.

Scripts
Write the script with your teammates.  Get approval before filming.

Filming and editing
You will be given 3-4 class periods to film the project.  Upload the video to google drive when it is completed.  Editing the video as a team in class, 3-4 periods.

Activities
for Intermediate-low students in immersion programs

These activities demonstrate reading strategies that can be used by intermediate-low middle school students in immersion programs.  

Objectives

• Use parsing strategies to segment a sentence.
• Use contextual information to guess unknown four-word idioms.

Activity 1: Parsing a sentence

• Teacher demonstrates the strategies of ‘parsing a sentence’ using the first paragraph in the reading “我最喜欢的一堂课.” (IL_reading).

• Use parts of speech:  Find and underline the verb in each sentence and segment the sentence in two parts, pronouns and verb phrases.  For example:
  每个人 ／都有自己喜欢的科目
  
• Use 的: Use的to segment modifiers and modified noun. sFor example:

自己喜欢的/科目
“自己喜欢” modifies  “科目.”  If “科目”  is unknown word to a reader, the reader can at least assume that科目is something that oneself likes it. 

• Use punctuations:  顿号 is used to present a list of items that are similar in meaning or function.  For example:

有跳绳、排球、足球、跑操场
If one does not know the meaning of 跳绳, one can assume
跳绳 is a type of sport. 
 

• See the segmented paragraph sample in (IL_segmented sample).

            Ask students to segment the second paragraph.

• First, students in pairs segment the paragraph.
• Second, each pair finds another pair to compare their parsing and discuss the strategies they use to parse the paragraph.
• Teacher randomly select a group to share with class their parsing.
• Guide students to comprehend the paragraph via segmentation.

Activity 2:  Understand Four-character idioms (身体健康)
4-character idioms express rich meaning using only 4 characters, and these idioms are commonly used in more formal writings, such as the email we are reading.

Tell students that they may not have learned the 4-characters idioms used in the email, but they can guess the meanings of idioms based on the learned characters in the idiom and the context.

• Use the idiom 身体健康 as an example.

• Divide students in pairs and discuss the following questions that help understand the meaning of身体健康.

• What is the context (上下文) when these two idioms were used?

(answer:踢足球可以让我们的身体健康、精神百倍.The context is about what can do for you.)

• You have learned 身体and健康 before.  What are the parts of speech of? adjectives, nouns, verbs?

(answer:In this idiom身体is a noun “body”, 健康 an adjective “healthy”)

• What do these two words mean?  Can you guess the combined meaning of身体健康?

Activity 3:  Understand Four-character idioms (精神百倍)
Students only learned one character 百in this idiom. Ask each pair to discuss any other strategies to decipher the meaning of this idiom.

If none of them mention, give students the hint, focusing on the contextual information (上下文) and the punctuation before/after the idiom.
(Answer:  The use of顿号 between 身体健康 and精神百倍indicates there is a similarity shared by these two idioms: 1) they are about ‘what can 踢足球do for you; 2) the combination is noun + adjective. )
Also, students know the meaning of 百, the meaning of 精神百倍, as we guess, about 踢足球giving you 100 something which is good for you. 
Homework

• Assign the three idioms, which are used in the email, for students to decipher on their own using the strategies explained in class.
  头脑清醒、 一举两得、迫不及待
• For each idiom, students write the strategies used to guess the approximate meanings.