Message from sperez

[Anonymous]

I also think it is important to incorporate art in the teaching of different cultures since that not only reflects their aesthetic values but often is used to represent their philosophies and traditions as well. One of the forms of art I use to teach China is calligraphy because it is so highly valued in China, and because it allows students to, both figuratively and literally, translate their thoughts into Chinese. This makes it possible for them to more closely identify with, and appreciate this culture.

There are various sources for teaching some of the basic strokes and characters in Chinese calligraphy. History Alive has some very good lessons on this. I use handouts that I made from the book Long is A Dragon. The students make an English to Chinese dictionary of about 15 different characters (mostly the ones with th fewest strokes, such as Man, big, mountain, up, down, one, two, ten, etc.) Their homework is to write a simplified sentence using four of these characters.

In class the next day they work in pairs to choose one such four character sentence to write. Each practices writing two of the characters with a brush and black water colors as ink ( in a large class this avoids mishaps which might stain clothes.) Then, each pair is given a blank 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper which they fold in half, then folded two more times to the side to form eight rectangles about 2 x 5 inch. When they open it, they write their four character sentence in the top right rectangle, and trade it with another pair who has finished their sentence also. Each pair rights their sentence on the paper, starting on the top right, then middle right, bottom right, and likewise across the paper. Each also writes their names in small letters in the rectangle with their sentence. When the paper is filled, the last pair takes it back to the first pair whose job then is to translate all the sentences. In this way, each person gets a chance to write and read in Chinese.

This usually takes two to three days, but if you have extra time, more characters and more practice can be done before the paired writing. I've found that while some students think this is too difficult to do at first, they end up feeling very proud that they can actually read and write some in Chinese.[Edit by="sperez on Mar 22, 11:30:53 PM"][/Edit]