Lesson+4

Lesson 4
Wednesday, February 2, 2011

- //green// //- deer// //- woman// //- rain// //- fish// //- go// ||
 * **Content to be taught** || Chinese Poetry
 * review of colors
 * pronunciation of Chinese umlauted "u"
 * Vocabulary:
 * **Standards ** || This particular school asks that teachers pay close attention to student behavior and needs. These should be noted for later discussion in middle school team meetings. Due to the small class size (six students), the teacher is also responsible for being relatively personal with each student. Chinese is considered an elective at this school; therefore, the teacher should assign only light homework.

The Chinese elective has an emphasis on speaking and listening rather than reading and writing, so the Chinese romanization system, //pinyin//, is used for most lessons. The objective of the course is to introduce students to Chinese culture as well as the language. A notional syllabus is used that focuses on topics rather than grammatical constructions. Students are also encouraged to work together to solve problems and develop interpersonal skills. || **Level of Technology Use** || Students will already be familiar with much of the vocabulary in the Chinese poem, "Sister," which will be read during this lesson. They will have heard the Chinese umlauted "u" several times before but perhaps be unsure of how to pronounce it themselves.
 * **Prior knowledge &**

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Students will record their voices and should know how to operate a cell phone or telephone for homework. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Technologies ** || Ringpoem.com - Will be used in class to record students' Chinese poetry online via their cell phones. If they do not have a cell phone, the teacher's will be used. Students can then call the website from home and let their parents listen to their poem.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pikiwiki - Used to create visuals for the Chinese poem "Little Sister" used in this lesson. Each line of the poem recorded and linked to the corresponding picture.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Voki - Used to create male and female characters modeling the pronunciation of the Chinese umlaut "u." Chinese text-to-speech was used to achieve a native-like accent for both male and female voices. ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Pre Lesson** || Students will be told before this lesson to review any vocabulary they have previously learned that they might find useful in constructing a poem. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Lesson Goals ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Through a study of Chinese poetry, students will be able to freely use any vocabulary they have learned so far. They will understand Chinese rime (sic) and practice their pronunciation of difficult Chinese sounds, such as the umlauted "u." They will also learn the names of several famous Chinese poets, important contributors to Chinese culture. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Activities ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(10 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students watch their reenactments of "Journey to the West," which they had recorded in pairs during the previous lesson. Ask a few comprehension questions to the class to gauge understanding of the story. When finished, segway into the topic of Chinese poetry by introducing it as another important aspect of Chinese culture. Name several Chinese poets, including Li Bai and Du Fu.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(5 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pass out a copy of the Chinese poem, "Sister" (see reference below) to each student. Open the Pikiwiki created for the poem and play the sound for each picture. Have students repeat each line of the poem and elicit the meaning of words as they are read. Students may be able to tell from the pictures what is happening.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(5 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Write a teacher-created poem on the board about a deer who goes to a green forest to take shelter from the rain. This poem will incorporate many vocabulary words that have the Chinese umlaut "u." Read the poem to students. Then, access the Vokis created for this lesson and allow students to listen to them and repeat the umlaut "u" sound.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(10 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students form pairs and create a poem using any Chinese words they may know. Circulate the room and assist students with forming rhymes and modeling correct pronunciation.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(10 mins) http://www.pikiwiki.com:80/ews/editor.jsp?2kwsGzeELoTIi6idpQ8BrHQ
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Each pair of students records their poem to Ringpoem.com using their own cell phones or the teacher's. Tell students to call the number given on the website when they get home to let their parents listen to the poem. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Technology Samples ** || Pikiwiki for "Little Sister" poem

”fish“ media type="custom" key="8059576"

"green" media type="custom" key="8059584"

"rain" media type="custom" key="8059604" || @http://people.wku.edu/shizhen.gao/Chinese101/pinyin/lyrics.htm
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">References ** || Chinese poem, "Sister"

Online Chinese Dictionary http://www.nciku.com || media type="custom" key="8354746" ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Student Work ** || media type="custom" key="8354742"
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Lesson Annotation ****<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">& Reflections ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like the previous lesson on weather terms, this lesson was split between two class periods. After passing out the “Little Sister” poem, I read each line and had the class repeat. Before showing the Pikiwiki, I had them try to guess the meaning of each line. When they saw the pictures, they were satisfied with those which they had guessed correctly. Pikiwiki would be convenient for carrying pictures between multiple classrooms. Because it can be accessed online, it is faster than using a USB drive.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I decided to show the Vokis to students before they read the poem so they would understand how to pronounce the umlaut “u” in advance. Rather than write the deer poem on the board, I typed it and printed copies for each student. We also read this as a class and went through several activities on the white board to help students recognize where the Chinese “u” gets umlauted and where it does not.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The portion of class in which students created their own poems went quite well. One group of students created a simple poem in the form of, “Dad wants rice, mom wants rice, brother wants rice, sister wants rice, grandpa wants rice, etc.” which I felt was indeed rather poetic in form and allowed them to use the same structure many times, which is beneficial in language learning but usually boring for students. The other group created a poem about a walk in the park, for which they referred to me for vocabulary. Because they were having fun while they were told this new vocabulary, they remembered it more easily when they had to record their poem. Words in their poem included “bird,” “bee,” and “to sting.” Unfortunately, the students did not have their cell phones on hand and mine did not have service in the classroom, so Ringpoem was not used. I recorded students’ voices with Audacity instead, and later transferred them to Ringpoem to let them show their parents at home. ||