The unit I write for the seminar assignment

Dear all: I am looking for your opinions and appreciate your voice. Happy New Year to you all!

Minhua Gu
US-China Institute Fall 2008 Seminar

“Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” -- Food and its role in Chinese culture
Indexes:
1. The rationale for this unit
2. Skills and objectives
3. Lesson plans with the assessment plan.
The assessment will be indicated as (assessment) in the lesson plans.
4. Extension

Contents:
1. The rationale for this unit:
This unit is designed for middle school beginning level Chinese learners. The students have learned basic greetings, courtesy expressions, and other communication expressions on daily topics. The students have also learned the basic sentence structure, interrogative words, and different personal pronouns and its use in sentences. The students have already learned various aspects of Chinese culture, such as perspective and practice, related to the learned topics. The students are able to appreciate the differences and evaluate the similarities of different cultures.

2. Skills and objectives
Because this unit will be applied in the foreign language classroom, the teacher uses the National Standards of Foreign Language for K-12 as guidelines, which is known as 5C, Communication, Cultures, Connections, Communities, and Comparisons. The teacher has to dedicate a certain amount of class time to language instruction. But the culture component plays an essential role in this unit.
The students will be able to :
• Interpret conversations related to topics in oral and aural way
• Engage in conversations of topics
• Order food in a local Chinese restaurant using learned phrases
• Present the understanding of Chinese cuisine through deigning a Chinese restaurant menu
• Use a Venn diagram to present the differences and similarities between the Chinese breakfast and American breakfast
• Design a post to show symbolic meaning of certain ingredients in Chinese cooking

3. Lesson Plans
This unit is composed of two classes and a field trip to a Taiwanese eatery.

Wednesday class 45 minutes
Opening: Show students the DVD cover of “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” and the title. Have students list the possible topics of the movie. Have students pay attention to the table setting and how the positions of the three ladies on the DVD cover. Then students share the topics and one student will list all the topics on the board (check students’ background knowledge).
Group activities & setting the stage: Group the students into a group of 3 or 4. Explain the K(what you Knew)W(What you want to know)L(what you have Learned after watching the movie clip) chart with a KWL chart on the board. Also emphasize the social function of food in Chinese culture. Have the groups finish the column K (check students’ background knowledge) and the column W. Share each group’s inputs and fill the columns of the chart on board.
Group activities & introducing the topic: Watch the beginning scene and the ending scene of the movie. Have students read the handout of An Lee after the movie. Ask students if they know any other An Lee’s films and have them share their impressions of this film director. Have groups finish the column L. Share the inputs and finish the chart on the board (assessment).
Group activities & introduce the vocabularies: Use the movie clip to introduce the verb “chi” in Chinese. Introduce the conversation “what you do you like to eat/drink?” and “I would like to eat/drink…”. Have students practice in pairs and then role-play the server and the customer in a restaurant.
Materials: DVD “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman”, copies from US-China Fall Seminar hand-out, textbook “Learn Chinese with Me”, PowerPoint for conversation & vocabulary introduction, paper, markers.

Thursday class of 55 minutes
Opening & introducing vocabulary: Use Total Physical Response and the flashcards made out of vocabulary handout “Chinese breakfast” and “Chinese dishes” to introduce the new vocabulary. Then have students read the vocabulary on vocabulary handout out loud together.
Individual activities & group activities: Use the game “hot potato” and have students take turn and tell the vocabulary according to the flashcard that the teacher shows them. Group students in a pair and have each pair match the vocabulary words in characters and syllables to the pictures (assessment).
Have each group categorize the items on handout “Chinese breakfast” and the food they usually eat for their breakfast. Have each group make a Venn diagram to showcase the differences and similarities of food choices for Chinese breakfast and American breakfast. Each group will present the Venn diagram to their peers (assessment).
Regroup the students into a group of 3 or 4. Have each group design a menu for Chinese restaurant. Then have students write a dialogue using courtesy expressions and the conversations learned last class. The teacher collects and redistributes the menus. Then each group role-plays in a restaurant setting (assessment).
Closure: Introduce the symbolic meaning of fish in Chinese food culture. Show students Chinese folk painting related to this subject. Have students corporate the idea that fish stands for abundance in Chinese culture commonly used in the Chinese New Year celebration and design a post for that use.
Materials: copies of textbook “Chinese for Youth” pages for handout, flash cards, and character cards and pictures, paper, makers, folk painting http://imgsrc.baidu.com/baike/pic/item/caae680950ade9bc2eddd48b.jpg

Field trip (Friday class)
A field trip to “Pa Pa Walk” located in Hilton Plaza on Valley Blvd., San Gabriel. Have students take notes of the development of Chinese community and the function of eatery places in the Chinese community. Have students read “A Brief History-Chinese Americans in Los Angeles” before arriving at the restaurant.
Group activities: Observe the social scene in the restaurant and study the menu. Order food in Chinese and make meaningful conversations with the service staffs in the restaurant. Learn the variety of the Chinese food apart from the version of American Chinese food.
Materials: copies of the webpage from Chinese American Museum website http://www.camla.org/history.htm

4. Extension
A follow-up activity: Have students study a recipe for a dish in the movie “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman”. Use whatever ingredients and equipment we might find in local stores and make the “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” dish. Learn the ingredients, its significance in Chinese cooking, and the preparation approaches to these ingredients in Chinese cooking. Record the entire process and present the photos/videos that might be taken. Present the dish to the students’ peers and other faculty members on campus.