Language and Section: Chinese Class—Intermediate Conversation (11)

Date: Sep. 11th, 2012

Class theme/topics discussed:
Numbers and daily life

Goal of the class:
People in China do like some special numbers and do not like some numbers. By talking about numbers, students will understand Chinese Culture.

Structure of the class :
1 Count from 1 to 10 using hand gestures and explain reasons (3 minutes)
2 Introduce games which are related to numbers, such as 24 Points, Sodoku, Skip 7. Explain rules of 24 Points and play games of 24 points. (25 minutes)
3 Practice numbers such as one hundred, one thousand, one million, one billion. Ask students some fact using numbers. For example, what is the population in America, China and India? What is the population in CA? (5 minutes). Teach students how to say percent, over, less than etc. in Chinese. Instructor will read some numbers then ask students to write down the numbers. (2 minutes)
4 To introduce some fact in China. For example, people spent 1 million for car license plate. People spent 2000 dollars for cellphone number. To ask students what is the reason for these facts. Explain lucky numbers and unlucky numbers. Talk about lucky or unlucky number in other countries. To learn website number slang, such as 520 which means I love you. (15 minutes)
5 Talk about Pomona College lucky number 47. What are the 47 things you should do before graduating? (5minutes)

What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
Powerpoint
Internet resouces
∗ http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090903081727AAPtI3y
∗ http://japanese.about.com/blqow7.htm
∗ http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/4004891.html
∗ http://www.pomona.edu/magazine/pcmfl04/47thingsLIST.shtml

What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students are interested in Chinese people’s concept. So this is a good topic.
However, the students are not so involved in the class. Some of them are too shy.

How could this class be improved/ modified?
Use some kind of activities to encourage all students to talk.

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.