Submitted by Xu Zhang

Objectives:

Content:
Students will:

• Compare the folklore to the historical facts of the origin of the city;
• Compare the folklore and the historical facts to the present reality;
• Comment on the value of folklore to historical facts and cultural understanding;
• Extract historical facts that mark the development of the city;
• Locate the city districts;
• Use mental maps to compare their own city to Beijing.

Cultural:
Students will:

• Understand the Chinese concept of "country" and "city" both historically and in the modern Chinese perspective;
• Understand the absolute power of the Chinese emperor in ancient times;
• Appreciate the Chinese concepts of beauty and grandeur (symmetry, balance, color);
• Understand the Chinese concept of "order" and an ideal orderly society in relation to city planning in ancient China and the changes at present times;
• Understand geographical and political reasons of city locations in history;
• Learn about a popular figure in Chinese mythology --Ne Zha

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will:

• Use the following words and phrases (see attachment, Word List Lesson 3, List 1)
• Use the following grammatical structures (see attachment, Grammar List Lesson 3, List 1)

1. Passive voice
2. Past perfect indicators
3. Past tense indicator
4. Special pattern

Language: Content Compatible
Students will:

• Raise their awareness of the different vocabulary and structural differences between languages referring to ancient and present-day entities/events (language production not required);
• Raise their awareness of the difference between title words and face-to-face referential words for a person (e.g. see Word List Lesson 3, List 2) as compared to their own language (e.g. teacher/Miss, Ms, Mrs., Mr., Sir, Professor);
• Notice the difference between two different genres: the historical expository and the folklore narrative;
• Use discourse indicators for comparison and contrast
  

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:

• Note-taking skills
  

Time Frame:

1.5 hours

Materials Needed:

• Photos and pictures of the city, people's activities, etc.;
• Tape recordings of the folk lore and a student worksheet for noting down information;
• Reading passage for the historical facts of the city;
• A guide sheet for comparison;
• Blank/simplified map of the districts of Beijing;
• Blank sheets for students to draw mental maps.

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

Context:
By now the students have gained a knowledge base of the geography of China and Beijing as well as some cultural aspect of interpreting and perceiving the geography. The students have learned words and phrases for terrain shapes and spatial relations, practiced the informal and formal, the colloquial and the journalistic, register in either or both oral and written Chinese. The students may also have increased his/her sight vocabulary for natural resources and some skills for seeing both merits and drawbacks. The teacher also keeps the students' predictions, analysis, and prior knowledge written on transparencies for later use. It is now time to draw more attention to the relationship between the geographical aspect of the city and its human aspect. Having learned U.S. geography (and probably world geography), the students should also be familiar with the concept of the mental map and how to draw a mental map.

Pre-task:
Describing your city. The students are to work in groups of four and discuss the following question in English and whenever they can, use Chinese words and phrases (if the students are at the advanced level, they may also discuss in Chinese):

In the U.S., what characteristics/features does a city have that mark it as a city (it can be a city you are close to, or living in)? Draw a mental map of this city together.

After the discussion, members in each group select a representative to summarize the result of their discussion and another to describe their mental map. Group members may add and clarify when necessary. Other students may ask questions, or share with the class whatever is unique. Teacher writes down the students' key points on board or transparency. This should last less than 10 minutes.

Task set-up:
Examining pictures of Beijing. Students are given several pictures of Beijing: A Sketch of the city in History (accompanied by a modern-day photo of the ancient city), and two or more photo pictures of the modern city characteristic of the present-day Beijing. Each group (the original four-person group) is to discuss in English (in Chinese whenever they can) the differences and similarities of Beijing in comparison to U.S. cities both in history and at present. As their discussions finish, members in each group select a representative (a different representative than the two in the last discussion) to tell the whole class one similarity and difference [how much the representatives speak depends on the size of the class]. Members may add whatever is left or make further explanation/clarifications. Teacher writes the key points on board or transparency for later reference. This activity lasts about 10 minutes.

During task:
Step 1: Listen to a story about how the city of Beijing came into being, think about why it is similar/different from U.S. cities, and re-examine the results of their previous discussion. The students are to listen to the tape recording of a Beijing resident talking about the origin of the city for three times. For the first time, they should understand the gist of the story and be able to tell in a few sentences in Chinese how the city came into being. The students should form pairs and work out the gist of the story with their partners. The teacher monitors while the students do the pair work. At the second time listening, they are to listen for more detailed information and fill out half of a table concerning the story. The third time listening is for them to double-check the quality of their answers. The teacher then asks the students to exchange their answer sheets with their pairs and use a different color pencil to evaluate each others' work while the teacher discuss the answers with the whole class. The suggested table is in the attachment, Tasks Lesson 3, Category 1 (this table is both for this activity and for the next reading activity).

Step 2: Reading a passage on the history of the city of Beijing. The students are to skim and scan the passage and fill out the other half of the table individually. After comparing their answers with their pairs, the students will discuss the answers as a whole class together with the teacher. They will use a different color pencil to correct, add, or delete on their own worksheets this time. Then they will discuss with their pairs on the differences of accounts between the folklore and the historical facts by using the key words and phrases recommended in the objective section of the lesson. The teacher monitors while the students discuss. After the discussion, the teacher encourages the students to volunteer and share the results of their comparison with the class. Any disagreements and additions may be discussed at this point. The students are also to examine the linguistic differences between and among the two genres under the guidance of the teacher.

Step 3: Discussion on the Chinese concept of city planning. The teacher turn on the transparencies generated at the pre-task and task set-up stages. The students, by looking up at the transparencies and by using their worksheets, are to discuss in groups of four the Chinese concepts of city planning and make comparisons to those of the U.S. cities. Discussions could involve the following aspects:

(1) The Chinese and U.S. reasons for choosing sites of cities (e.g. geographical, political, economic);
(2) The religious, philosophical, and aesthetic conceptions underlying the designs of cities.

Each group is to be assigned a specific topic by the teacher (the students can also draw lots from a pool of possible topics). Proper guidance by the teacher while monitoring the discussion should be given according to the students' language proficiency.

Step 4: Group presentation. The students are to present in groups. Each of the four persons in all the groups must speak and present to the whole class on their findings on the topic. While they present, the rest of the class listens and make notes -- whether the notes should be in Chinese or English depends on the students' proficiency level (preferably in Chinese). They may also ask questions for the presenters to answer or clarify. After the presentation, the students are to turn in their notes for evaluation.

At the end of this whole activity, the teacher collects the students' worksheet for evaluation.

Post-task:
Map Dictation. The students are provided with a blank map of Beijing and a word list with removable stickers containing all the words for district/place names of modern Beijing. The teacher describes the names and locations of the places by using the spatial relationship words learned in the previous lessons. The students put the stickers unto the right places the teacher has described. After the activity, the teacher asks the students to compare their own maps with the official map. The students may also be led to see the characteristic square shape and straight streets of the city. This activity may also be used as a game to recycle the spatial relationship words by making the students competing to see who is the quickest.

Cultural Extensions:
1. The students may read more in Chinese on the stories of Ne Zha, a well-known figure in Chinese mythology and folklore. Recommended books: "The Money King" or "A Battle under the Sea"(Ne Zha Nao Hai).
2. The students may rehearse on a Chinese drama adapted from the folklore they heard in class by playing the Emperor, the designer, and NeZha. Different districts, palaces, etc. of the city may also be acted by students, who may tell the audience what are they, their functions, and why they are there according to the Chinese concept/philosophy.

Assessment:

Embedded in the tasks.

References and Resources:

Sit, V. (1995). Beijing. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: Chichester, NY, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore. (p115 district map).

Please see my Yahoo Photo Album, open the link, then choose "Urban Public Landscape"

http://serve.cei.gov.cn/map/beijing/index.htm (teachers may use this or erase the Chinese characters on the map)

A map of old Beijing in the Qing Dynasty:
http://www.oldbj.com/bjhutong/bjmap/oldbj.JPG

Marlene
Audio files on folklore: in folder "new_bj_folklore", including three audio files "new_bj_folklore1", "new_bj_folklore2", and "new_bj_folklore3", and a word doc "Description Folklore"

Attachments:

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

Folklore.PDF
History.PDF
Grammar List Lesson 3.PDF
Word List Lesson 3.PDF
Tasks Lesson 3.PDF

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