DRAFT Lesson Plan

[Anonymous]

I love your lesson plan. I can't wait to teach the unit this year!

[Anonymous]

Hi Marlyn,
Per your request, I forwarded back to you of your first draft lesson plan. Here is my review to your plan as follow:
I went through your lesson plan. I found yours is complemantary to my lesson plan for the most part( please see my lesson plan from the USC forum ), because I do more hands on demo, and focus on practicing the 8 basic stroks through one Chinese charater " Yong". I think we could be a good team members together for the International Leadership class.
Because your lesson plan have a lot of coverage on the culture and history, I am not sure if the learners can really follow or retain that much in three lessons.
I talked to Joe last week about our lesson plan, he said we will collaborate with his master lesson plan.
Or we should have a lesson plan collaboration meeting before the actual lessons start. What do you think?

Yes, you could use my story and I could make myself to be available for your class in the future.

Wayne

edited by wchu on 9/5/2011

[Anonymous]

Hi Vivian,

I like the lesson plan you have created. It is very organized and written in details. What I like most are the "Online Search Questionnaire" and Video clips. Hope you can teach me how to get/make video clips some day.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dan,

Obviously, you have given a lot of thought on how to develop your lesson on "[font=Garamond, serif]The development of trade/commerce in China". I like the idea of helping students to understand trade through field trips and real life experience. [/font]

[Anonymous]

Hi,

My lesson plan is ready for review. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Hi Shelly,

Great lesson plan. I think your students must be very instilled by your attached pictures that show how Chinese characters evolved and what had involved in the evolution. And some of the questions will sure motivate your students to brainstorm in finding the answers. Your may add some solid details to your lesson objectives. For instance, instead of saying "Obtain a general knowledge on the evolvement of Chinese characters from historical perspective," you may say Students will be able to tell 3-5 facts about the Chinese character evolution. For the "Assessment" on Day One and Day Two, I am not clear about how you implement the assessment in your lesson - Do you evaluate students based on their presentations or do they need to answer questions on paper?
edited by vding on 9/4/2011

[Anonymous]

Hi Marlyn,

I really enjoyed going through your thoughtful and well-designed lesson plans. All the video clips, readings, and practices tie closely with your objectives. The use of the two video clips (Movie clip from Hero on Day 1; Calligraphy with "yong" on Day 2 ) are great strategy in setting the stage. Videos will include all students and no students will be left behind The Five Golden Rules of stroke sequences will make the writing easy for beginning learners. In China, we learned these rules in our first grade. I almost forgot the rules. Thank you for bringing them back. I would borrow this idea and share it with my students.

The assessment on Day 2, you said "What types of activities will be assigned to students." I would suggest, since the students are introduced to the Five Golden Rules, one activity you may consider is that you show the students few Chinese characters and ask them how to write based on the 5 Golden Rules. For instance, you post the word "春 （spring or chun )" on the screen, you go over the strokes with the entire class together. Then you may provide a handout with 8-10 characters (The characters are already printed out on paper). For the assignment, student are asked to trace and write down the stroke orders to each individual word. This would be the pre-hands-on practice for the actual writing using the paint brush.

For the lesson objective, you may add some solid detail like "Students will be able to create their own calligraffiti logo by the end of the session" since they will be asked to design their logo.

By the way, there is a kind of paper for practicing calligraphy, I call it "Ever Used Paper." The paper will dry it by it self in few minutes and it maybe used for 2000 times. This kind of paper is available in a lot of Chinese book store. It's inexpensive at all. You may ask Wayne about it.

Again, this is just my thought. Overall, I think your lesson plans are easy to follow and may be adapted to any cultural or Chinese language teaching/learning environment. Thank you for sharing.

Vivian Ding

[Anonymous]

In the first week of class I give the kids a series of tests, evaluate the students learning styles and then, and I believe to be the most important of all, I listen to my students. Then when I get a solid "feel" for my classes I then design the course to meet their needs.

My lesson China, Myth or Fact? Is all about listening to my students. They are filled with myths about China, none of them have had a firm grip on what China and the chinese people are all about. I attached two different files of the same lesson plan.

[Anonymous]

Hi Vivian.

I just finished reviewing your lesson plan. I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into your planning. Everything is laid out clearly with objectives, rationale, day 1, day 2, etc.

These are the teaching strategies that I especially like.
• The use of the personal whiteboards gives you instant feedback; who gets it and who does not. We use those in my classroom, too.
• I also like the "exit tickets" to check for student understanding and reinforcement. I assume this is something you do as the students leave the classroom? Would you ask all students on Day 3? How many students in your Level III and IV classes? I remember there were only four of us in my Level 4 French class in high school in my senior year.
• Working in pairs allows for students to ask each other first before asking you, if they do not understand something.
• Showing the 4 actual objects of calligraphy is great.
• The videos should be very useful and help to make the lesson clear to the students.
• The students seem to get plenty of practice with the calligraphy materials themselves.

These are questions I have from reading your lesson plan.
• Do the students pay a supply fee/donation for the materials you provide or does your department have a sufficient budget for you to purchase/order supplies?
• How many different styles of calligraphy are there? You mention two (Kai Shu and Li Shu), and I see the objective says students will identify 2-3 styles.
• Is the style of the example you write on Day 1, a sample of Kai Shu or Li Shu?
• Where do your video clips come from? If I wanted to show them to my students, how could I find them?
• On Day 2, is video clip 2 the same one you show on Day 1? On Day 3, is video clip 3 the same one you show on Day 1?
• I would add the "character model booklet" mentioned on Day 2 to your "Materials used". Is that from your own personal materials?
• On Day 2, for the reading, is 4 Arts of the Chinese Scholars your textbook?
• On Day 2, you model to students how to do an online search for Chinese painters. Do you need to do the same for Day 1, for finding a Chinese calligraphy master?
• In the Evaluation, are the "Reading Questions (10 points)" the same as the questionnaire handout that you provided for calligraphy and painting at the end of your lesson plan?
• In the Evaluation, does the "collage making" need to be a particular size and have a minimum number of samples of artwork?
• I'm curious, what is the difference between ever-use paper and red couplet paper?

Thank you for allowing me to review your lesson. Please accept my apology for not getting it to you sooner. Good luck teaching the lesson this year. I'm sure your students will love it!

Sincerely,
Dylis

[Anonymous]

Dear Vivian,
I truly appreciate your ideas and suggestions. My biggest challenge has been to focus on the main points of calligraphy both in written form and as art. I found so much information on the internet that I had to take time to analysis it for its authentic value and its importance to the lesson. You have provided valuable insight that will really help me complete my lesson plan. Thank you for telling me about the Ever Used Paper

Best wishes for a wonderful school year,
Marlyn

[Anonymous]

Catherine

I really like your fake facebook platform to teach different chinese philosophies. Great technique. I like the Venn Diagram, its really great technique to help with the visual leaners.

Joe
edited by jdarrough on 9/5/2011

[Anonymous]

Hi Robin.

I just finished reviewing your lesson plan. You did a fine job of designing and planning your lesson.

These are the elements I especially liked.
• Beautiful powerpoint slides, one for each of the three women.
• I especially love The Pillow Book lesson. I think middle school students would enjoy reading this excerpt and creating their own. After reading the excerpt myself, questions and thoughts arise: Why is snow on the house of common people unsuitable? How are duck eggs elegant? Hmmm, what does liana syrup taste like? What is a brazier? (I looked it up; a large container for coals.) Isn't it sad that for a young bride loved by her mother-in-law be considered a rare thing? Most will relate to awkward things, especially speaking badly of someone and having someone overhear and repeat it to the person in question.
Discussion questions are appropriate and thought-provoking.
• The primary source of Ban Zhou gives great insight into what worried her and what she was thinking. I can't help but think that she lacked self-esteem and self- confidence.
• Writing admonitions (advice, warnings) should be an appropriate and fun activity for students.
• Students who like to draw will especially enjoy illustrating a scene from Lady Hyegyong's life.
• The chart for three areas of admonition is a great processing activity, as well as the script writing for a 3-way interview.

These are questions I have from reading your lesson plan.
• In each of the three power points, there was only one slide. Is this correct?
• Where would you get the picture from the theatrical version for the lesson on Lady Hyegyong?
• Did you put together the abridged version of The Memoir of 1795 or did you find it somewhere? I like it.
• Where is the writing activity based on Jane Schaffer's writing format?

In one of Vicki Leon's books, there is a chapter of interesting information about Pan Chou that my students have used when researching their historical figure for Historical Figure Day, an all-school activity at Chaparral Middle School. I can't think of the title at the moment, but it has something to do with women of ancient times.
If you're interested, I can get you the title; my copy is at my school.

Thank you for allowing me to review your lesson plan. Please accept my apology for not getting it to you sooner. I'm sure the girls in your classes will enjoy this lesson and will come away with an enriched knowledge of women from East Asia. Good luck!

Sincerely,
Dylis

[Anonymous]

Hi Dylis,
Thank yu for reviewing my lesson plan. Yes, I only have one slide per person for the powerpoint. I did them at separate times and never condensed them into one slideshow, which I will more than likely do in the future.
I think if you go to google images and type in lady Hyegyong, it will bring up some of the theatrical stills.
I made the abridged version of the memoirs in this lesson plan. Please feel free to use it.
The TEC activity is based on the Jane Schaffer essay format. I have done it as a guided writing since the seventh graders are such fledgling writers at this point in the year. Many are still struggling with commentary.
If you remember the title of the historical fiction, please let me know. It was great meeting you this summer! I am glad to have another seventh grade teacher to bounce ideas off of. Your lesson plan was awesome! I'll be visiting it again as chapter 9 draws closer! Have a great year, and let's keep in touch.

[Anonymous]

Dear Marlyn and Joe:

I wanted to thank you both for your thoughtful reviews of my lesson plan (received via email). Marlyn, you encouraged me to do some research on rubrics, and I was able to find resources for developing collaborative rubrics as well as student generated rubrics for project based learning; I am very interested in integrating these assessment process into the course. Now that we will plan to have the course cover a semester (Joe), we can begin to break down the session by session. I love Joe's idea of incorporating design and critical thinking into the lesson on Innovation in Science & Technology in Ancient China - and in having the student participate in designing their own innovations during their journey through history, literature, poetry and film. I also really appreciate Marlyn's suggestion of being very specific about the primary resources used in the course....that was a great insight, as I thought they would come up with their own list of primary resources (naive on my part). I very much look forward to developing this course out for ECHS, and to continue learning from the experience of this group. The experience gained through the two weeks at USC has been invaluable. Many thanks, Arana

[Anonymous]

Dylis,

Many thanks for your review on my lesson plan. Your review helped me greatly improve my lesson plan. I also changed and added the missing information. I truly appreciate.

The following are my answers to your questions:

• Do the students pay a supply fee/donation for the materials? - No. I purchased them myself last year. This year I will ask the school's PTA for help.
• How many different styles of calligraphy are there? - I believe there are 7 styles. Correct me if I am wrong.
• Is the style of the example you write on Day 1, a sample of Kai Shu or Li Shu? - Kai Shu (standard style)
• On Day 2, for the reading, is 4 Arts of the Chinese Scholars your textbook? - online reading
• In the Evaluation, are the "Reading Questions (10 points)" the same as the questionnaire handout that you provided for calligraphy and painting at the end of your lesson plan? - Yes, as a reinforcement. However, students will listen to my question in the target language and answer the question in Chinese.
• I'm curious, what is the difference between ever-use paper and red couplet paper? - With ever-used paper, one can write with paint brush and plain water. The paper will dry by itself within few minutes. The paper can be reused for 2000 times. With red couplet paper, one writes with ink and paint brush. It can't be reused. when it was damaged, you have to start over with another piece of this kind of paper. Red couplet paper is broadly used for Chinese New Year's celebration.

Video clip links for my lessons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWuMe8tf_38 (4 Treasures of Study)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOH5RTj6oE&feature=related (Kai Shu, once you have it, you may find other calligraphy styles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9hl5B-BvAw&playnext=1&list=PL9C8458069F9AD55C (Calligraphy strokes with "yong")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_JPnUAwAZQ (Chinese painting)

Thank you again for your taking the time for the lesson plan review. Have a great school year.

Vivian

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