The majority of students are Latino-Americans. Most of their first language is Spanish, and the second language English.

Students learned the following vocabulary, expressions, and grammar:

The time expression: 年, 月, 日, 星期, 早上/上午, 中午, 下午, 晚上, 点, /分

1. The adverbs of the speed of the action, such as 快 and 慢
2. The adjectives of expressing feelings and opinions: 累, 高兴, 不高兴, 忙, 有意思, 没意思, 好看, 漂亮, 容易, 难
3. The vocabulary of daily routine:  起床, 洗澡, 吃早饭, 上课, 吃午饭, 回家, 看电视, 做作业, 玩手机, 跳舞, 唱歌, 画画, 睡觉
4. The vocabulary of location: 家, 学校, 教师, 餐厅, 办公室, 图书馆
5. The conjunction words: 以前, 以后
6. How to ask and answer about one’s daily routine.

Standard: The World Language Content Standards for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve

https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/worldlanguage2009.pdf

In particular, this lesson plan meets the following:

2.4 Initiate, participate in, and close a conversation; ask and answer questions.

3.4 Describe, narrate, explain, and state an opinion.

ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages

Communication:  Communicate effectively in more than one language in order to function in a variety of situations and for multiple purposes.

Interpersonal Communication: Learners interact and negotiate meaning in spoken, signed, or written conversations to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions.

Connections:  Connect with other disciplines and acquire information and diverse perspectives to use the language to function in academic and career related situations.

Cultural perspectives: the issue of using cellphone
Performance-based Objectives—As a result of this lesson/unit, students will be able to:  

1. Talk about their daily routine.
2. Describe two simultaneous actions.

PowerPoint, projector, teacher’s whiteboard, students’ whiteboard, markers

Textbook: 中文听说读写Integrated Chinese

The opening of the class: The teacher says, “上课！” The class stands up and greet to the teacher together in Chinese. And the teacher greets the class in Chinese and says, “请坐！”

The teacher and students speak in Chinese throughout the class.

Students ask and answer today’s date in America.

Students ask and answer the current time in Los Angeles and Beijing.

(10m)

• Acts out and says in Chinese “我一边看电视，一边吃早饭。”

Then asks the class the personalized questions:

你们吃早饭吗？

你看电视吗？

你一边看电视，一边吃早饭吗？

你为什么不一边看电视，一边吃早饭？

一边看电视，一边吃早饭是个好习惯吗？

• Acts out and speaks in Chinese “我一边吃饭一边说话”.

Then ask the class the personalized questions:

你（们）吃午饭吗？

你（们）在哪里吃午饭？

你（们）几点吃晚饭？

你（们）一边吃饭一边说话吗？

谁不一边吃饭一边说话？

一边吃饭一边说话是个好习惯吗？

Listen to what the teacher says.

Answer the teacher’s questions.

(10m)

• One day I woke up at 9am. I got up quickly. I did not have breakfast and I did not take a shower, because I WAS LATE. I quickly brushed my teeth while washing my face. After I got ready, I realized it was Saturday.
• One day I got up at 5am. It was dark and cold. I got up early because I want to study. I sang while taking a warm shower. Then I had a delicious Chinese breakfast and tasty Chinese tea. Then I made myself look good. I left home at 7am and I drove to school. I am already 18 years old. On my way to school, my friend called me and told me she needed a ride. So I went to pick her up to school. We listened to rock and roll and checked social media while I was driving. We did not notice the car before us was slowing down, so I hit the car in front of us. We got injured. Ouch!! Then the police and ambulance came…

(5 m)

The assessment is through students’ response to the questions, TPR, storytelling, and the reading comprehension homework.

Assign a comprehensible reading comprehension homework. It is short, interesting, and related to the class story.

Suggested points:

1. Standard, philosophy, and/or rationale the plan has been built on

ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages

Communication:  Communicate effectively in more than one language in order to function in a variety of situations and for multiple purposes.

Interpersonal Communication: Learners interact and negotiate meaning in spoken, signed, or written conversations to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions.

Connections:  Connect with other disciplines and acquire information and diverse perspectives to use the language to function in academic and career related situations.

2. Teaching methodology

TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling)

Step one: establish meaning

Step two: spoken class story

Step three: reading

3. Teaching strategies

Comprehensible Input

TPR (Total Physical Response)

Circling

Comprehension checks

Pop-up grammar

Personalized question

4. Special focus and features of the plan

(1)       Step one: establish meaning

The teacher introduces the new vocabulary in this step. The new vocabulary Chinese character and pronunciation are shown on the PowerPoint slide projected on the whiteboard.

The teacher applies several strategies to assure the input is comprehensible, for instance, using gestures, interacting with students with circling questions, and asking individualized questions to increase students’ interest.

TPR (Total Physical Response) is one of the effective teaching methods to provide comprehensible input.
The teacher introduces 一边+ Verb 1, 一边 + Verb 2 (two simultaneous actions) by TPR.  For example, the teacher acts out “I watch TV while having breakfast”. While acting, the teacher speaks the sentence “I watch TV while having breakfast.”

“I watch TV and use cellphone while having breakfast.” “I use cellphone while having lunch.” “I use cellphone while driving.” “I use cellphone while teaching.” “I use cellphone while walking.” “I use cellphone while having dinner.”

The class acts out what the teacher says.  For example, “The teacher uses cell phone while eating.”

Circling is a teaching strategy of using the target language to ask a series questions related to the context. The repetition allows students to get familiar with the pronunciation and meaning of the new words. It is also an effective way of providing the comprehensible input. Have the class respond with gestures. Verbal response is optional at this step.
The teacher asks the class:

Do you sometimes use cellphone in class?

Do you often use cellphone in class?

Who does not use cellphone in class?

Is using cellphone in class a good habit?

Comprehensible Input by connecting to students’ lives:
The activity of Getting to Know Someone provides meaningful real-life situations of knowing someone. The questions, for instance,  “Does he like Chinese class?” “Does he use his cellphone while he is in Chinese class?” provides an opportunity to know their classmate’s likeness or dis-likeness of Chinese class and this person’s habit of using the phone in class or not using it.

(2)       Step two: spoken class story

This step provides students with comprehensible input with the new structures in the contextualized scenario. The teacher tells a brief but interesting story and asks volunteers to act out. The comprehensible input is provided to the class by hearing to the story and watching the acting. It draws students’ attention especially the visual learners. The actors acquire the language through listening, comprehending, and performing. It especially benefits the kinesthetic learners. The humorous performance of the volunteers may enhance the relaxed learning atmosphere.

After the guided practice, students take turns making a personalized class story. The teacher may give a starter phrase or sentence of the story, then the class develops the plot with details. When the class needs to help to carry on the story, the teacher may provide personalized questions. The volunteer actors perform the story. It is better if there are problems, surprise, conflict, or accidents in the story. The issues can be solved or unsolved. It is more important that students utilize the target language unconsciously, willingly

This process provides the opportunity for the class to demonstrate the learned, new structure in the meaningful context.

(3)       Step three: reading

Assign a comprehensible reading comprehension homework to the class. It is short, interesting, and related to the class story.

5. Strengths and limitations

Strengths: TPRS is a very effective teaching method which utilizes comprehensible input, circling, personalized questions, and frequently comprehension check. It can highly engage students to participate in class activities and acquire the target language unceasingly. Since students are in a relaxing and interesting learning atmosphere, thus their affective filter is low which is beneficial for learners to acquire the language in a natural and meaningful way.

Limitations: It require the teacher’s high classroom management skills.

6. Suggestions for users

Think about some interesting, humors, close to students’ lives storylines. The example stories are limited. The teacher should adjust the stories according to the real situation of students.

My English name is Yuxin Carcamo. I am from Beijing, China and arrived in America in 2007.  I earned my Master Degree of Linguistics with Concentration of Teaching Chinese from CSU Long Beach, California in 2009.  I have been teaching at Firebaugh High School which is located in a Latino community of Lywnood, California, since 2011. I have been teaching in city college as a part-time Chinese class instructor. I am blessed to have teaching as my career. I am honored to earn the California State Outstanding Student Teacher, awarded by Delta Kappa Gamma Society, 2012, and Certification of Recognition presented by California State Senator, 2014, and 2015. I have been attending various professional workshops and trainings.  One of the most influential workshops was Dr. Krashen’s Comprehensible Input because it shaped my teaching philosophy: language acquisition requires relaxed, meaningful, and understandable interactive communication.