Chinese I
Full year
Essential Questions
- Why study another language?
- How does one study and learn another language?
- What are the building blocks of the Chinese language?
- What is the relationship between language and culture?
- How is language used to communicate about one’s life and learn about others?
- How can technology be used to find out about another culture and language?
Semester I
Declarative Knowledge: Content
- Introduction of the Mandarin phonetic system “pinyin” and tones
- Vocabulary and language used in greetings, introductions and in simple interactions communicating about oneself, time, daily life, family, school, and in communicating about recent events
- Communication strategies with a limited range of vocabulary and grammatical structures
- Basic Chinese sentence construction: verb, adjective and noun predicate sentences
- The rules of writing Chinese characters including the strokes, the sequence of the strokes, the radicals. To learn about 100 characters
- Current happenings in China
- Fall & Winter holidays
- Study techniques to learn and practice both oral and written language
Declarative Knowledge: Content Procedural Knowledge: Skills & Processes
- Greet others using language appropriate to the situation and participants involved
- Communicate orally about basic events in one's life using short sentences and contextual cues
- Recognize and write basic Chinese characters
- Describe current events in China (English)
- Identify and describe main Fall and Winter holidays and related customs (English)
- Describe Chinese geography. Sketch a freehand map of China and label major province, cities, bodies of water and surrounding countries
Assessment
- Daily use of oral language in class
- Quizzes and tests which include writing, listening and recognition tasks
- Oral tests: oral tasks, interviews and skits
- Writing tests: short dialogs and stories
- Participation in current event discussions (English)
- Short written answers to questions about Chinese customs and holidays
(English)
Multicultural Dimension
- Basic cultural differences in interactions
- Students use the internet to access information from a variety of sources and perspectives
- Awareness of the relationship between language and culture begins to develop
- Knowledge and understanding of traditional ideas and perspectives of Chinese culture
Resources
- Text: Learn Chinese With Me Textbook and Workbook 1
- Teacher-created materials
Semester 2
Declarative Knowledge: Content
· Communication strategies with a limited range of vocabulary and grammatical structures
· Basic Chinese sentence construction: verb, adjective and noun predicate sentences
· Vocabulary and language used in simple interactions when shopping, traveling, seeing a doctor, extending and responding to invitations, and requesting assistance
· To learn about 200 Chinese characters
· Current happenings in China
· Spring and summer holidays
· One aspect of Chinese culture or society(each student chooses one topic of personal interest)
· Study techniques to learn and practice both oral and written language
Procedural Knowledge: Skills & Processes
· Communicate orally in shopping situations, to extend invitations, and to request assistance
· Read short descriptive paragraph and extrapolate key information
· Write a diary about one's weekend or one day at school and use as many as Chinese characters that have been learned
· Describe current events and trends in China (English)
· Identify and describe main spring holidays and related customs (English)
· Describe one aspect of Chinese culture or society in detail (English)
Assessment
· Daily use of oral language in class
· Quizzes and tests which include writing, listening and recognition tasks
· Oral tests: oral tasks, interviews and skits
· Writing tests: short stories and essays
· Participation in current event discussions (English)
· Short written answers to questions about Chinese customs and holidays (English)
· Written report and oral presentation of Chinese cultural topic (English)
Multicultural Dimension
· Basic cultural differences in interactions
· Students use the internet to access information from a variety of sources and perspectives
· Awareness of the relationship between language and culture begins to develop
· Knowledge and understanding of traditional ideas and perspectives of Chinese culture
· Students begin to develop an awareness of sociolinguistics and adjusting language use depending on the situation and participants
Resources
- Text: Learn Chinese With Me Textbook and Workbook 1
- Teacher created materials