Teacher: Hong Xu lesson plan for : 7 day/45min

Teacher: Hong Xu lesson plan for : 7 day/45min. session

General guide-line information

Education Standards Addressed: learning Chinese language and culture According to Dyersburg High School curriculum

Teacher guide: My three basic questions:

Where are the students going/goal?How are they going to get there/reach the goal?How can I know when they've arrived(check or test)

Student Guide: With the help of teacher and the material provided, they need to understand cultural knowledge and related basic words and sentences.

This is 7-day Chinese culture-philosophy languge learning series

Day 1 ：Gugong de men 故宫的门 (1)

Cultural information：why there’s door stud, why there are nine lines and nine columns of door studs, what’s the meaning of threshold, what is that image on the door-slab

Language point: men(门), menhuan（门环）, menkan（门槛）, mending（门钉）

Procedure:

1. Group activity: (15 minutes) 故宫探宝gugong tanbao

Searching the web-site of Gugong and note down the following info.

a. Why the imperial palace is called “Forbidden City”

b. How many rooms are there in the forbidden city故宫到底有多少间房

c. What is exactly forbidden city, who resided there, how many people lived there

d. Can you tell anything about the big door of forbidden city

2. Group report time as what they found out about forbidden city（15min.）

3. Teacher summarize the main cultural significance of the door-slab(10min)

a. Threshold has two meaning:

*practical reason: stopping the raining water from coming in

*spiritual reason: warding off evil spirits(devil force couldn’t jump over threshold), symbols of high status: higher the threshold, more important the family was.

*the way of stepping over a threshold: people are not suppose to stand on top of it, but step over it. If standing on top of the threshold, little spirits could still reach the hem of your pants and nag you.

*Religious meaning: Buddhism believe that when people step over a threshold, they are leaving all the worries behind them and becoming carefree.

4. Assignment: Go over the new words we learned relating to the door way

Try to google more information about the door way: its color, its animal image, the number of door studs, etc

Day 2 Gugong de men 故宫的门 (2)

Teaching goal:

Cultural Appreciation：Continue our exploration of the mysterious door way of forbidden city

Language point: words and sentences relating to me门

New word: men you duo hou (门有多厚)

men you duo zhong 门有多重

Procedure:

Review (15min.): the words related to the door men(门), menhuan（门环）, menkan（门槛）, mending（门钉）

Ask students to come to the front, pointing to the picture and use “men” to contruct sentence （故宫的门很漂亮，故宫的门是红色的，故宫的门很大，我们教室的门小，etc）

2. With teacher’s prompt，ask students to think about and answer the questions:(10min.)

a. How many door studs are there on top of the door slab

b. from the picture, can you tell what are materials are used to make the door slab

c. Can you tell the meaning of this gorgeous red color

d. Can you guess how thick the door way is and how heavy one slab is

3. Cultural exploration: (10 Min.)

Teacher explain symbolism in Forbidden city’s layout

The design of the Forbidden City, from its overall layout to the smallest detail, was meticulously planned to reflect philosophical and religious principles, and above all to symbolize the majesty of Imperial power. Some noted examples of symbolic designs include:

· Number 9： On the door slab, each line and each column has 9 studs, 9 is highest number in the decimal system and symbolizes supremacy, it represent heaven.

· Forbidden city has got 9999.9 room units for the same reason，air view of forbidden city rooms from the picture below

· Red and yellow is the color of the royal family. Ever from royal time, red color has been the color symbolize happiness. So traditional wedding gown is always red color. Yellow is solely reserved for royal family in old days. Ordinary people couldn’t use yellow color at their own wish. Almost all roofs in the Forbidden City bear yellow glazed tiles. But, there are two exceptions. The library at the Pavilion of Literary Profundity (文渊阁) had black tiles because black was associated with water, and thus fire-prevention. Similarly, the Crown Prince's residences have green tiles because green was associated with wood, and thus growth.

· Forbidden City has been made of wood and stone. Each door slab could weigh 120kilos..The thickness of the door slab is around 30cm. If the room is more important, then the door way is more majestic looking.

· On the door ring, there’s animal image: he is one son of the dragon, good at making noise and guard off evil, that’s why he’s there.

(龙生九子，各司其职)

Day 3 ：故宫的房顶和屋脊Imperial roof and its decoration

gugong de fang ding he wuji

Cultural appreciation: the very ornate roof of forbidden city

Language point:房顶，金黄色， 动物（also called吻兽）

Extension of words: hong se红色, hei se黑色, lu se绿色,

Ma马, niu牛,ji鸡, long龙, etc.

Activity Procedures:

1. Group of 4 observation/discussion:(15 min.)

· What’s your general impression of the roof of the forbidden city

· Count the number of animals on the ridges of roof, can you guess what are they, why they are there,

· Can you make an intelligent guess as how big these animal statues are if they are placed on the ground, further guess how high the room is in the forbidden city

· Try to pronounce the words relating to animals and colors with the guide teacher put on the blackboard

2. Teacher’s instruction time:（10min.）

· The sloping ridges of building roofs are decorated with a line of statues lead by a man riding a phoenix and followed by an imperial dragon. The number of statuettes represents the status of the building — a minor building might have 3 or 5. The Hall of Supreme Harmony has 10, the only building in the country to be permitted this in Imperial times. As a result, its 10th statuette, called wenshou吻兽， also unique in the Forbidden City. They can ward off evil spirits and fire devil, because the palace area is made of wood

· The biggest statue can be around 1 meter high, it’s solid wood. We can also imagine the height of the palace should be quite imposing and quite dominating. The biggest palace room (太和殿)is meters high.

· Stress forbidden city is the Symbol of power, every decoration is a reminder of Royal family’s supreme status.

3. Teacher and students Q&A and practice words and sentences time (10 minutes)

4. Conclusion of the hour

Day 4: 故宫的洞房

Goal:

Cultural information：The marriage of the Emperor and Emperess，what the wedding chamber is like, what are the decorations are in the wedding chamber, what are the activities during the ceremony, how old were the emperor and empress when they got married

Language point: Huangdi皇帝, huanghou皇后, dahun大婚, jiehun结婚, xingfu幸福, shuangxi双喜

Words review: color words: hong se红色, hei se黑色,lu se绿色, jinhuangse金黄色

Animal words: Ma马, niu牛,ji鸡, long龙, etc.

Activity:

1. Review: Go over the words and phrases relating to the animals and colors.

2. Retell the story of the forbidden city doorway and roof

(15 minutes)

Cultural exploration:

3. Group of 4: Google the information of Ming, Qing dynasty royal wedding party and how to choose Empress.(10 minutes)

4. Teachers summery (15min.)

# In royal family, wives were chosen because of the lady’s background, it’s not because of their appearance，in royal family everything decision was made in accordance with the balance of power and stability of the kindom.

# The emperor and empress were teenagers when they were married, usually between 14-17 years old.

# The wedding chamber is Palace of Earthly Tranquility (坤宁宮). It is a double-eave building, In the Ming Dynasty, it was the residence of the Empress after the wedding ceremony. The husband would move out after the honeymoon. Following is the indoor scene of the palace on the wedding night.

# pointing out the “double happiness” signs inside the palace, and tell the significant meaning of “双喜”for married couples

# Guide students to appreciate the furnishing of the wedding chamber, and the prevalent gorgeous happy red, warm color of the room, show students the dragon bed and the wording hanging on the frame of the bed: 日月同升, sun representing the emperor; moon is the empress, sun and moon also reflect YIN＆YANG

# Every aspect of the new couple should be in conformity of traditional Chinese ideology of Balance, Harmony.

# Royal couples have their individual bedrooms, they could join each other, but separate bedrooms were built for them.

5. Conclusion of the hour

Day 5. Shuangxi（喜喜）

Learn: Double Happiness paper cutting

Goal: Cultural appreciation: paper cutting in chinese people’s life and Royal Palace

Language point: xi喜, jianzhi剪纸, shuan双, chuanghua(窗花)

Activities:

1. Review sentences and word we have learned about forbidden city:

(10min.)

2. Teacher does demonstration as how to use a pair of scissors to cut out “double happiness” sign. (10 min.)

3. Teacher also gives a brief introduction of Chinese paper-cutting culture and answer questions (10 min.)

China   paper-cutting  is a unique art,  which may benefit from  the fact that paper is  invented by  Chinese and dates back to ancient China. The people cut animals, flowers and figures in the paper with a pair of scissors or a knife mainly to decorate their doors and windows. Paper-cutting is also called window flower or cutting picture.   In Forbidden city, all rice paper window panes in festival time was decorated with Dragon- phoenix Paper cuts.

Sometimes paper cuts are made from single color paper, sometimes it can be multiple colored, both present pictures vivid and natural.

Though small piece of paper is, it can reflect many aspects of life like prosperous atmosphere, healthy persons and harvest year, etc. Some is even drawn from stories representing common goals and expects to happiness.

Archaeological finds trace the tradition back to the 6th century; it is supposed that the beginnings of paper cutting were even a few centuries earlier. Paper cuttings are used for religious purposes, for decoration and as patterns.

Papercuttings are chiefly used as decoration. Apart from window decoration, they ornament walls, doors, columns, mirrors, lamps and lanterns in homes and are also used for decoration on presents or are given as presents themselves. ALL columns and pillars are pasted with “gold leaf” paper cuttings!

4. Students practice making paper-cuts of “喜喜”. It is not a difficult task, with the teacher’s help, students can usually cut one out successfully (15 minutes)

5. Wrapping up the class, students bring back home their art work.

Day 6. Story of the empress: 皇后的故事

Goal:

Culture discovery: An insight look of royal family power struggle-the story of the empress

Language points: yima姨妈, tangxiong堂兄,zhangfu丈夫,qizi妻子,haizi孩子

Extension words: the other family member words

Activities:

1. Review the previous language knowledge and culture phenomena：(It can be any knowledge students have in their minds.) (15 minutes)

2. Group work: Discuss what they think royal family relationship should be like, what royal family life should be like.(10 minutes)

3. Teacher’s led discovery : ( Q&A lecture time) 15 min.

This is the picture of one of the empress of Qing Dynasty. She was from aristocrat family那拉氏); She was better known as the Empress Dowager(the mother of the emperor). She had the honorable tile: Longyu(隆裕). Her husband ,Guangxu Emperor ,was her cousin, , who reigned from 1875 to 1908. She was only a nominal wife and never loved by her husband. Her marriage was arranged by her aunt, who tried to strengthen her own family power. Longyu had no children, and was most famously known for signing the abdication on behalf of the child Emperor Puyi in 1911, ending imperial rule in China. Because she was detested and ignored by her cousin emperor, she undermined Consort Zhen, who was her husband true love by reporting and exaggerating stories about Zhen's rebellious nature to her aunt Empress Dowager Cixi Dowager. Cixi eventually grew more hostile to the Imperial Consort Zhen and sent her to a "cold palace", a place reserved for an emperor's disfavoured consorts. After learning that the Consort Zhen had secretly supported and cooperated with the Guangxu Emperor's attempt to gain power from the Empress Dowager Cixi's hand, Cixi had her drowned in a palace well before the imperial court fled to the City of Xian when Beijing became occupied by foreign armies.

4. Conclusion: Royal family is a dis-functioning family, with no true family bond and love, it’s functioning on the axis of power. Royal glory is good to look at, to listen to, probably not great to experience.

Day 7：总结： 美丽而又神秘的故宫Meili er you shenmi de gugongGoal: wrapping up Forbidden City discovery learning seriesstudents led language summery and cultural information summery Activities:1. Table group activity : (15 minutes)Students sum up what they have learned about Forbidden City, by recapping the already known, they can further discover the new one. Try to use as many Chinese sentences as possible.2. Reporting time: (15 min.)Group come to the front to do presentation with the help of the 4 forbidden city pictures below. In their presentation, they need to tell a. what is forbidden city b. What’s the main color used in the forbidden cityc. How big Forbidden City isd. What’s the meaning of its name “forbidden city”e. Was the people living there very happyStudents are allowed to combined English and Chinese together, but there’s a competition on how many meaningful Chinese sentences they can construct based on Forbidden City.3. Conclusion and reward time (10 min.): The winning group is going to get magnets or postcard of Forbidden City.

( the End )