Submitted by Cristobal Alvarez

Objectives:

Content:
Students will..

• identify the major components of the Chinese zodiac(e.g. 12 animals)

 

Cultural:

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will... 

• Learn and use the following vocabulary words and expressions: parloteaban, refunfuñar, guiar, riña, estar de acuerdo, partir, de un empujón, and pelaje to describe the behavior of the characters in the story.
• Use connectors such as luego, cuando and de repente to sequence the story.
• Use the past tense in the third person (singular/plural)  of the verbs jugar, comer, sentarse, guiar, tirar al río, empujar, and cruzar to describe the actions of the characters in the story of the Chinese Zodiac.

Language: Content Compatible
Students will...

• Use the first person(singular/plural) in present tense of the following verbs: creer, opinar, pensar(yo pienso, nosotros opinamos...) to predict the different events in the story of the Chinese Zodiac.
• Use connectors such as más adelante, luego and más tarde to sequence the story that they need to write.

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will...

• Predict facts during the reading of the story of the Chinese Zodiac.

Time Frame:

7 sessions: 2 sessions of 50-minutes prior to the writing post-task activity. Post-task activity: 5 sessions of 40-50 minutes each.

Materials Needed:

• Story of the Chinese Zodiac/ El zodiaco Chino
• Checklist (see handouts below)

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

Pre-task
Before reading the story El libro del Zodiaco Chino,students will make predictions about this story.The predictions will be based on their prior knowledge on the Chinese Zodiac(the fact that there are 12 animals in the zodiac), the illustrations on the cover of the book, and the tittle of the story. The teacher will record the predictions on the board.  On the board the teacher will record the predictions  in  3 columns. One for the characters in the story. A second for the plot, and the third one for the posible solution in the story.

The teacher will teach the following key vocabulary words from the story: parloteaban, refunfuñar, guiar, riña, estar de acuerdo, partir, de un empujón, and pelaje  prior to the reading for a better understanding of the story.  To do this, the teacher will write key words on the board along with pictures that illustrate the meaning and written sentences that include those key words for a better understanding.  The teacher and the students as a whole group will discuss the meaning and use of those words.

During-task
The teacher will read the story to the students. During the reading the teacher will ask the students as a whole group for predictions and questions related to the reading such as

What do you think that it is going to happen?
What do you think about how the ox feels when the rat pushed the cat off?
Do you think that the rat is doing the correct thing?

The teacher expects that the students use the vocabulary already taught in the pre-task phase to address some of the questions.

Post-task
The teacher will show a sample of a representation of a Chinese Zodiac to the students. The teacher will explain how the Chinese zodiac is used.To do this, the teacher will model that use by asking a few students for their birthdate year.  Then, the teacher will show the description for that specific year and read to the class. The teacher will explain that each animal represents several years and each  animal has a different description.

The students will write a similar story to the story that the teacher just read. That story will explain the formation of a zodiac. The students need to include the following requirements in their story: the plot must be an animal race, 6-12 animals are involved in the race, it needs to include a beginning/middle/ending, problem of the story and solution and it takes in a place. In terms of language,the students need to use sentence connectors that they previously learned such as más tarde, después and luego.

They also need to incorporate in their writings the expression to begin the story - érase una vez.

Assessment:

The teacher will use a checklist to assess the story that the students are writing (see handout).

References and Resources:

Chang, Monica.  (1994) Story of the Chinese Zodiac: English Vietnamese. Pan Asian Publications (USA) .

The book can be found at Amazon.com:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/9573221446/qid=1092169473/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-4255947-3134527?v=glance&s=books   

Attachments:

NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)

 Check list

A Lesson from the CoBaLTT Project
/cobaltt
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
University of Minnesota