Ancient China: Language

Introduction

 Lesson Topic: Chinese Language

 Length of Lesson: 45 min.
 VA Standards of Learning:
2.1 The students will explain how the contributions of ancient China and Egypt have
influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar, and
written language.

Objectives

Students will:
 Explain how the written Chinese language has influenced the present world.
 Compare and contrast the written Chinese language with written English language.

Materials and Advanced Preparation

Materials:

 Laptop computer and projector

 Beyond the Great Mountains: A Visual Poem about China, by Ed Young
 Chinese character cards
 Chinese character handouts
 Sheets of white paper
 Copies of a simple children’s poem written in Chinese

Advanced Preparation:

 Set up laptop computer and projector.

 Prepare Chinese character cards (each card will have one character on top and a picture
of its meaning on the bottom).
 Prepare Chinese character handout (the handout will have all of the characters featured
on the cards, as well as the accompanying picture meanings).
 Hang up Chinese character cards over the blackboard.
 Copy Chinese character handout, one for each student.

Teaching and Learning Sequence

Introduction / Anticipatory Set

 Explain to class that we will learn about the Chinese language

 Distribute to students copies of short poem written in Chinese
 Ask students what they think of how the poem is written (ex: What does the language
look like to you? Do you think they look like pictures?)

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  Direct students’ focus to the blackboard. Draw a vertical line in the middle of the
blackboard. On the left side write the word “tree,” and on the right side write the Chinese
character for “tree” (木).
 Ask students what they think the character on the right means. After receiving students’
input, explain to the students that 木 is the same meaning as “tree.”
 Erase both sides of the line. On the left side of the line, write the word “river.” On the
right side, write the character for “river” (川).
 Ask students what they think the character on the right means. After receiving students’
input, explain to the students that 川 is the same meaning as “river.”

Lesson Development

 Ask students how they think written Chinese differs from written English. After receiving
students’ input, explain to them that Chinese characters are like pictures or symbols of
what they mean. Explain to students that written English uses letters instead of picture
symbols.
 Explain to students that we will watch a short video that uses Chinese characters to tell a
story. Show Video 1.
 Ask students what they thought of the video.
 Show students some of the simple characters viewed in the video, using the Chinese
character cards hung over the blackboard.
 Ask students if they think the characters resemble the pictures they represent (pictures
shown below characters).
 Explain to students that the characters that they see now have changed over time.
 Tell students that they will watch a video that illustrates how the character for “sun” (日)
changed over time. Show Video 2.
 Pass out Chinese character handout to each student. Tell the students that they will look
at how the characters are written and trace the characters using their pencils.
 Ask students to practice writing the characters for a few minutes.
 Pass out sheets of white paper, one sheet for each student.
 Explain to each student that they will pretend that they are living in ancient China and, on
the white sheet given to them, will write a short story (roughly one or two paragraphs)
about a day in their life living in China. Tell students that they should mention in their
stories at least one of the contributions from ancient China that we’ve studied thus far.
 Explain to the students that they should incorporate the Chinese characters into their
stories (writing the character rather than the English word).

Closure

 Ask students to gather at the reading corner.

 Explain to students that I will read a book to them titled Beyond the Great Mountains: A
Visual Poem about China, by Ed Young.
 Read out loud in front of the class Beyond the Great Mountains: A Visual Poem about
China
 Ask students about the characters in the book, and if they recognize any characters they
practiced writing earlier.

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  Ask students questions about what we have learned thus far about China (the Great Wall,
silk, kites, fireworks, etc).
 Ask students if they have any questions related to China or Chinese language.
 Tell students that they can finish their stories for homework if they have not finished it
during the time given in class to write them.

Homework

 Finish writing stories if not completed during given time in class to write them.
 Write a summary about written Chinese language (4-5 sentences).

Assessment

Formative

 Ask students how they think written Chinese relate to and differ from written English.
 Walk around the classroom while students trace the Chinese characters and ask if they
have questions about the written language.
 Walk around the classroom while students are writing their stories and see if they are on
task writing about a day living in ancient China, mentioning a contribution from ancient
China, and incorporating Chinese characters in place of English words.

Summative

 Ask students questions about the contributions from ancient China (while reading
Beyond the Great Mountains: A Visual Poem about China).
 Check homework to see if they summarized what they have learned about written
Chinese language.

References

Virginia Department of Education. (2008). History and Social Sciences Standards of Learning
Curriculum Framework

Virginia Department of Education. (2008). History and Social Sciences Standards of Learning
for Virginia Public Schools

Young, Ed. (2005). Beyond the Great Mountains: A Visual Poem about China. Chronicle Books.