Lesson+3

Lesson 3
Tuesday, February 1, 2011

- //monkey// //- mountain// //- river// //- king// //- give// //- hat// //- shirt// //- shoes// //- sleep// ||
 * **Content to be taught** || * Journey to the West (a traditional Chinese legend)
 * 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** || <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Students should know vocabulary for several animals. They should be able to produce basic sentences of the form "He does (something)" and "He goes (somewhere)," as these will used in the story told during this lesson. They will use the vocabulary learned in this lesson in forming such sentence patterns.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Prior knowledge &**

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Students will record their voices but do not require any technological skills for this lesson. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Technologies ** || Puzzle Maker - Used to create a crossword puzzle to be completed for homework. Words and clues will be related to the Journey to the West story.

Rubistar - Used to create a rubric for grading each pair of students' reenactment of the story. ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Pre Lesson** || Students will have previously learned the Chinese words for several animals. These will be used to transition into the Journey to the West story, which features a monkey as the main character.

Students will be assigned partners based on who they get along with. An effort will be made to allow more advanced students to assist those who are less advanced. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Lesson Goals ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The goal of this lesson is to introduce the first part of the Journey to the West so it becomes familiar to students and can be expanded upon in later lessons. Students will also learn various useful vocabulary through their understanding and retelling of the story. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Activities ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(5 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Play each of the weather reports from Woices.com created by students in the previous lesson. Students practice the pronunciation of the Chinese city featured in each weather report.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(3 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Warm up students for today's lesson by eliciting animal vocabulary they know.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(10 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Using the online slideshow, tell the first part of the Journey to the West story. As each vocabulary word is introduced, write it on the board and have students say it several times.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(15 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Assign each student a partner and a section of the story to reenact. Each pair of students writes a simple script that uses some of the vocabulary introduced thusfar. Circulate the room while helping each pair of students write their script.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(12 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Using a webcam, record the performance for each pair of students while others continue to work on their scripts. Encourage students to perform physical actions along with their speech. Prepare the recorded video clips for viewing during the next lesson.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Homework Asia Society Kids @http://kids.asiasociety.org/stories/journey-west-part-1 || **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Reflections ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Prior to this lesson, I had been given permission to move students to a SMART Board-equipped room for any future lessons. I decided to show students the slideshow of Journey to the West on a SMART Board since it would allow for a much larger picture and allow me to annotate pictures on the screen. I had a student help me turn on the projector and make the connection from the SMART Board to the computer, which was quite simple to do. I navigated to the website featuring the slideshow before students arrived in the room and quickly familiarized myself with the SMART Board controls.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students complete a crossword puzzle involving the vocabulary from the first part of the Journey to the West story. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Student Assessment ** || media type="custom" key="8059176" ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Technology Samples ** || media type="custom" key="8059194" ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">References ** || Journey to the West: Part 1
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Student Work ** || [[image:crosswork2.jpg width="800" height="581"]] ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Lesson Annotation & **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Although the students were somewhat eager to touch the board, they eventually settled down and provided names of animals they knew during the warm-up activity, which went quite well. While telling the story in Chinese using the slideshow, I told students to write down any word they heard that they could understand. This was not in the lesson plan, but I felt it gave them something to do and a reason to pay attention. Although students did not understand every word I said, they could understand the basic structure of the story through visual clues. Whenever I said a new vocabulary word while telling the story, I wrote it on the screen beside the picture it corresponded to. For example, one slide showed a picture of a monkey receiving various gifts from a dragon king, including a hat, shirt, and magic shoes. I wrote the Chinese pinyin for hat next to the hat, shirt next to the shirt, etc. This embedded the words in the context of the story while giving students visual semantic clues. After telling the part of the story on each slide, I asked a few comprehension questions to students, such as “Where did the monkey live?”

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As with the weather report activity, I separated this lesson into two class periods to allow students more time to perfect their lines when retelling the story. After telling the story, I assigned roles to each pair of students and helped them begin preparing their scripts. During the next class period, we reviewed and practiced the script before recording it. Students seemed to recall the basic story well. I played the role of narrator, linking the scenes together. ||