Great Chinese Class!

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit one of Jung Jung's Chinese 1001 classes and was impressed by her well-structured lesson plan. She's generously given me permission to share, so take a look:

1. As the students arrived, they were immediately given a practice in which they were asked to write-out various months, dates, and times in characters. This was a great review for the students, and got them working as soon as they entered the classroom.

2. After letting the students work for a few minutes, Jung Jung pulled out a calendar from Taiwan. She then pointed to different dates on the calendar and asked students, in Chinese, for the indicated date. This gave students the opportunity to practice saying aloud the months and days as well as prompting them to formulate their responses quickly. Jung Jung also pointed out some of the beautiful photos of Taiwan, giving the students a sense of the landscape.

3. She then quickly shifted to asking students about their ages and birthdays. The questions were quick-paced and conversational, and Jung Jung's encouraging attitude made all students comfortable participating. When a student struggled, she pulled out a set of flashcards and quickly reviewed the numbers with the group by having the students look at the character and say the proper number, and then to count without looking at the characters.

To read more of Jung Jung's lesson, click below...

The Story Shuffle

Here's an activity that I observed in Shane's Chinese 1001 class this week:

1. When the students arrived, they saw a mixed-up story on the board (all in Chinese) and were told they had five minutes to put it into the proper order.

2. The students went to the board, each with a marker, and confronted three columns of text. For example, students doing a story shuffle in English might see...

Tomorrow, October 8th        Hank went to the store             that she finds in the classroom.
Yesterday, October 6th         Egli is eating five cookies          but he will leave hungry.
Today, October 7th              Hank will look for the cookies   and bought seven cookies.

3. As the students worked together, Shane reviewed some written assignments that students had completed at home, pulling students aside one-by-one to review their mistakes with them. As one student worked with Shane, the others continued their group work at the board.

4. After all students had reviewed their work with Shane, he told them that it was time for them to read him the story in the right order. Each student read a different sentence.

Students doing the English-language version above would read the following:
Student One: "Yesterday, October 6th, Hank went to the store and bought seven cookies."
Student Two: "Today, October 7th, Egli is eating five cookies that she finds in the classroom."
Student Three: "Tomorrow, October 8th, Hank will look for the cookies, but he will leave hungry."

After the students had read the story in the correct order (and had their pronunciation mistakes corrected), Shane asked them questions about it in Chinese (When did Hank buy cookies? Who eats the cookies? Egli, are cookies your favorite food? How many cookies will Hank find in the classroom?) Shane used the students' names and information about them in the story, and the students really enjoyed the activity.

Great activity, Shane - and nice job using time spent on group-work to quietly work with individual students as well. Nicely done!

Spectacular Classes: Props, Realia, and Visual Aids

This fabulous Chinese 1001 class, courtesy of Ying, is full of examples of how to use visual cues and props in the classroom. Take a look at the videos below:

1.

In the above video, Ying has students help her fill-in a family tree. Students supply the vocabulary, and are prompted and corrected with a variety of written, auditory, and physical prompts. Notice how Ying has a student match her hand gestures to represent the tones.

2.

Next, students answer questions and work on perfecting their pronunciation.

3.

The activity quickly transitions to a practice with Ying's own family photo, where students are told about the people in the photo and are asked follow-up questions. Notice that questions and responses are all in Chinese - including prompts, corrections, and praise.

4.

With new topic to practice, a new prop is introduced. Notice how the students are expected to already know the vocabulary - Ying is making sure that the students have it right, correcting their mistakes, and then making sure that students can use the vocabulary to answer questions and give information.

5.

Notice that all instructions are given in Chinese. Ying accompanies her instructions to the students with visual prompts, like hand motions, but does not translate. Even when a student comes into the lesson late, a potential distraction, Ying does not interrupt the flow of the lesson. Rather, she simply motions that he come in and join the other students (there will be time for English-language reminders about the importance of being in class on time after the period is over, when it does not interfere with the other students' learning and can be done one-on-one).

The use of props, realia, and visual aids are beautifully employed in Ying's class. The photograph and calendar both help students make a connection between the words and the ideas they represent, and serve as useful tools that help Ying keep the class all in Chinese and free of translations.

Ying, great work! Thank you so much for sharing!

Spectacular Classes: Act it Out

In one of the most energetic and fun classes I've seen, members of Jen's Chinese 1001 class perform a dialogue. Notice how they do not simply say the lines, but accompany the words with the proper gestures and actions:

Some of the wonderful techniques Jen employes here include:

1. She has students get up and act out the scene. By acting out the dialogue rather than just saying it, student are more likely to remember it - for some reason, matching words with movements seems to help with memory (think TPR).
2. Acting out the scene also gives students a sense of how useful the vocabulary they've learned can be, giving them an example of how they could actually manage 'real life' situations with the language they've acquired.
3. Jen has allowed the students to add funny details to the scene, keeping them engaged and letting them use the language to express their own personalities. She gave them a task - greet your guests politely, conduct introductions, and offer a beverage - but students still had room to be a bit creative within that framework.
4. When the scene was finished, Jen encouraged the students and pointed out what they'd done well as well as what they should practice. Then the next group presented their scene.
5. Notice how much fun the students are having!

Great class, great tutor! Thanks, Jen!

Chinese Films at The High

The High Museum of Art will be hosting a series of Chinese films in April. The films will include:

Last Train Home - April 2nd at 8:00 p.m.

Senior Year - April 9th at 8:00 p.m.

Suzhou River - April 16th at 8:00 p.m.

No matter what language your students are studying, I'm sure they will enjoy attending the film festival. For more information, visit the High's website.

GPC Student's Chinese Interview

This student began his studies of Mandarin here at our GPC, and after two years of study in our program has gone on to continue his studies at Arizona State. He first traveled to China through a GPC program, and has since returned several times. He is also the student who founded the Chinese Club at GPC. He has now started a Chinese-language blog, that is proving to be an inspiration for native-speakers of English trying to learn eastern languages. Take a look and see if you can use the interview in class!