Lesson+5

Lesson 5
Thursday, February 3, 2011 (Chinese New Year!)

- //a lot// //- a little// //- how much// //-// //hong bao// (traditional Chinese red bags) //- long deng// (paper lanterns) //- shi// (lion) - //wu// (dance) - //fang bian pao// (to light firecrackers) || (public school) or training guidelines for non-public institutions || 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.
 * **Content to be taught** || * Chinese New Year traditions
 * New vocabulary:
 * **Standards **

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 //eat// as well as the pronouns //I, you, he// and //she//. They should also recall the word for //give// from the previous lesson about the Journey to the West.
 * <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 ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pikiwiki - Will be used to record students' voices saying sentences about the Chinese New Year and linking these recordings to the corresponding pictures. ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Pre Lesson** || Bring several Chinese coins, //hong bao// (red money bags), and a large paper lantern to class for the purpose of demonstrating vocabulary. Students should know the Chinese numbers 1-30 for this lesson. They will also understand the value of each type of Chinese coin, which they learned in a previous lesson. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Lesson Goals ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will be introduced to several traditions used to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and will learn the Chinese words for each. When finished, they should be able to give an introduction about the Chinese New Year festival to someone unfamiliar with it. ||
 * **<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;">Reveal various Chinese coins brought to class. Use them to model the Chinese words for "a little" and "a lot." Secretly fill each hong bao (red money bag) with a different amount of coins and give one to each student. Students take turns opening their hong bao and telling a sentence about whether the money inside is "a lot" or "a little." Then ask each student "how much" is in their bag (the Chinese word for "how much" is simply the words for "a lot" and "a little" said together). Finally, explain what a hong bao is and model the word while students repeat.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(10 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Elicit from students the date of the Chinese New Year in 2011. Play short clips of embedded YouTube videos (see below) to illustrate the Lion Dance and lighting firecrackers. Demonstrate the vocabulary for hong bao and paper lanterns by showing the realia brought to class, and explain the traditions of eating fish for good luck and giving the red bags filled with money as gifts. Write the name of each element of the Chinese new year on the board as it is demonstrated.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(15 mins)
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pass out a crossword puzzle created with Puzzle Maker to each student. Clues will be in English and the words will be the vocabulary introduced in this lesson. Students work in pairs to complete the crossword puzzle. Meanwhile, open the saved Pikiwiki for this lesson and have students come to the classroom computer one at a time and record their voice for one of the pictures, telling a sentence in Chinese about what is happening. Pictures are related to Chinese New Year customs.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(5 mins) media type="custom" key="8061852"
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Review the crossword puzzle answers as a class. When finished, show the Pikiwiki to the class and elicit what each picture shows. Then click on the picture to hear one of the students' recordings for that picture. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Technology Samples ** || Lion Dance Video
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Technology Samples ** || Lion Dance Video

Lighting Firecrackers media type="custom" key="8061856"

Chinese New Year Pikiwiki http://www.pikiwiki.com:80/ews/editor.jsp?2kwsGzeELoTICEBUV50wXVg || @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fGMqLWmb4
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">References ** || 2006 World Lion Dance Championship (Qualifying 1)

Chinese New Year - 2010 Year of the Tiger @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2APDrbR-xlQ&feature=related ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Lesson Annotation & Reflections ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I had originally intended to “segway” into this lesson by teaching dates in the previous lesson about weather, but a series of snow days foiled my plans. I wanted to teach the lesson about Chinese New Year on the actual Chinese New Year (February 3, 2011), so I was forced to teach this lesson earlier than expected. This did not pose a problem, and I began by simply teaching students the word for “new year” in Chinese.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I loaded the YouTube videos in this lesson before students entered the classroom to save time. Students seemed interested in the Chinese coins used in this lesson. However, I realized at the last moment that I did not have enough hongbao (red bags) for every student. I pulled out some red construction paper and altered the lesson slightly so that students made their own hongbao while listening to me give instructions in Chinese. They had not yet learned the words for “fold,” “turn over,” and such, but they were able to construct the bags through observing my physical gestures. This took somewhat longer than I had expected; therefore I had shortened the lesson and planned to review the crossword puzzle during the next class instead of during this class as planned.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> When playing the YouTube videos, the students got out of their desks and gathered around the screen, which I generally let them do due to the small size and informal nature of the class. This might, however, present difficulty with a larger class. They repeated the names of the celebratory actions as I instructed them too, but became very engaged in the videos and wanted only to watch. It was difficult to pry them away after the videos were finished. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Unfortunately, upon trying to record the students’ voices for the pictures on Pikiwiki, an error appeared stating a “server error” had occurred. I retried several times to no avail, and later tried the same procedure on my personal computer and got the same error. It appears the recording function on Pikiwiki is somewhat unstable. I modified the lesson by eliciting descriptions of the pictures from the class as a whole, which seemed to serve as a good assessment. The crossword puzzles were a little difficult for students, but I circulated the room and helped them individually. ||