DCLT_Oct13_2017

1. A UNIT INSPIRED BY
DREAMS OF KINGS
FOR CHINESE TEACHERS
Ying Wu
Ethical Culture Fieldston School

2. My School & My Students
 Ethical Culture Fieldston School, known as Fieldston, is a
progressive PreK-12 independent school in New York City.
 The school offers only Spanish in its lower divisions. Starting
in 6th grade, the school offers Chinese, French, Latin, and
Spanish.
 This unit is designed for the seniors who have been taking
Chinese since 6th grade.

3. Questions To Be Explored
How to use field trips, exhibitions and historical artifacts to create hands-on,
exploratory culture and language-learning experiences for students from a
variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds and age groups?
 Why should we integrate field trips, exhibitions, and historical artifacts in the
curriculum?
 How to develop unit plans centered on particular exhibits, such as Dreams
of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity? (Sharing our brainstorming, the
process for developing units, and the challenges.)
 What does the unit related to the exhibit look like? (Sharing the unit plan.)

4. Q1: Why should we integrate field trips, exhibitions,
and historical artifacts in the curriculum?
 The ACTFL 5Cs are naturally embedded.
5Cs: Communication, Comparisons, Connections, Cultures, communities
 Hands-on learning
 Interdisciplinary
 Differentiation
 Create exploratory culture and language-learning experiences for students from a
variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds and age groups.
 Turn students into active learners who are engaged in the process.
 Make connections between ideas and concepts across different disciplinary
boundaries.
 Develop cultural understanding and critical thinking skills.
 Retain learning better since the language learning is embedded in a meaningful
context.

5. •

6. Q2: How to develop unit plans centered on particular exhibits,
such as Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity?
 Aspects to be considered
• Is the exhibit related to the topics or themes students might study in your
class or in other subjects? Is it related to their prior knowledge?
• What are the potential focus for units that can be derived from this exhibit?
• Among all the choices, which focus will your students be interested in
exploring and learning about?
• What kind of language tasks can your students accomplish based on their
language proficiency?
• What skills do you want your students to develop at the end of the unit?
• What are the potential formal assessments at the end of the unit? How to
build up knowledge and skills to help students accomplish the tasks?
• How will the unit cover 5Cs and meet students’ different needs?

7. Q2: How to develop unit plans centered on particular exhibits,
such as Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity?
 Brainstorm potential focus for units with the team
o How the jade traveled: the Silk Road
• Jobs of those along the route
• The development of the Silk Road
o Who’s in the tomb?
• Exploration of social strata and societal roles
o What’s valuable to you ?
o Exploration of what’s in the tomb, and why
o If the emperor lived today…
o Why Qin Dynasty is so important yet so short, why Han Dynasty is
important.

8. Q2: How to develop unit plans centered on particular exhibits,
such as Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity?
 After deciding the focus for the unit
• Brainstorm what topics can be developed under this focus (mapping).
• Conduct research on your topics, build up background knowledge, and
collect resources.
• Map out the sequence of your unit.
• Decide on the final projects.
• Establish essential questions for your unit (connected and built upon
each other).
• Select the vocabulary and patterns/ sentence structures that evolve
around essential questions which help students accomplish tasks.
• Work on questions leading up to essential questions and design
activities/ tasks.

9. Q2: How to develop unit plans centered on particular exhibits,
such as Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity?
 Challenges
• Time.
• Build up historical background knowledge.
• Select the best focus for the unit among all the possibilities.
• Adapt the rich and sophisticated content to students’ language
proficiency (comprehensible input i+1).
•
 Guidelines
o Be student-centered. Take students’ interest and needs into
consideration.
o Make learning meaningful. Connect it with students and the world today.
o Let your passion or interest lead you there.

10. Q3: What does the unit related to the exhibit look like?
 Time Frame： 4 weeks
 Formal Assessments:
o Debate: What is more important to America’s future？ Globalization or nationalism？
(全球化和民族主义，哪个对美国的未来更重要？)
o Essay/ online chat after the debate: What is more important to America’s future？
Globalization or nationalism？ (全球化和民族主义，哪个对美国的未来更重要？)
o Project: A Dialogue Through Time
• Step 1: Each student picks one item from the exhibit, creates a story of it, presents it in
the form of a monologue, and records/ videotapes it. For example, if a student picks a
warrior, he/she will introduce the background of the warrior, tell the story of his/her
life, and share his/her thoughts and feelings.
• Step 2: Each student will be assigned one monologue to listen to/ watch, and then
record/ videotape his/her advice, opinions, thoughts, and questions in response to the
monologue as a person from the 21st century.
• Step 3: The student who wrote the monologue will listen to the recorded/ videotaped
response by the other student.
• Step 4: The student who wrote the monologue and the student who responded to the
monologue are going to meet in class, summarize their conversation for the rest of
the class, and complete their dialogue in class. Other students ask them questions
afterwards.

11. Q3: What does the unit related to the exhibit look like?
 Essential Questions:
o What is the importance of Han Dynasty? （Compare it with Qin Dynasty)
o What is the effective way to run a country? If you were an emperor of Han
Dynasty, how would you run the country after you replaced the previous dynasty
which had unified China? (Central government & subordinate kingdoms 中央政
府 & 封国, introducing the Chu Kingdom)
o What items are most valuable to you? Why were the items at the exhibit chosen
to be buried with the kings? Was this a waste or not? (A glimpse into the Chu
Kingdom through the exhibit Dream of the Kings)
o What is the importance of jade in Chinese culture?
o What is the importance of cultural and economic exchange? (Development of
Silk Road)
o What is the importance of Silk Road? What is its influence on the world today?
What can we learn from it? (Globalization; China’s One Belt, One Road)
o Which serves the best interest of a country? Globalization or nationalism?
(Reflect on Silk Road and examine current affairs)

12. Q3: What does the unit related to the exhibit look like?
 Vocabulary
o 朝代（~代：秦代、汉代）、皇帝、国王（楚王）、 封国（楚国）、封、 统一、治理、取
代、严酷、制度、中央、政府（政治制度、政策）、 权力、民族（多民族、汉族、少数民
族）、老百姓、穷、水深火热 （生活在水生火热中）、稳定、繁荣
o 展览 （一件展品）、生活 （活着， 过着……的生活 ）、奢华、陶 （陶俑、陶器）、
（士）兵 (兵马俑)、 金 （金~、金器、 黄金、白金）、玉（玉~、玉衣、玉器）、通透、
温润、高洁、蝉、象征、重生、保护、表现
o 丝绸、丝绸之路（~之~)、西域、亚洲 （中亚、西亚、东亚、东南亚）、欧洲、经过、防止、
侵略、敌人、商人、做生意 （A跟B做生意）、促进、交流、全球化、民族主义 （~主义）、
一带一路
 Patterns/ Sentence structures:
o 把……叫做……；把……(封)给……； 被……取代；
为了……，……/ ……，是为了……； v得起/ v不起；由于
o 既……又……/ 不但……而且……；并不/没……；像……一样(…);
假如……，……（就）……
o 来自; 对……有影响/ 受到……的影响; 一方面……，另一方面……；
对……有好处/对……有坏处/ 有利于……/不利于……；
在……上（在经济上、在文化上、在文化交流上）

13. Q3: What does the unit related to the exhibit look like?
 The unit is divided into 4 parts.
 Part 1: Han Dynasty (focusing on Liu Bang and the establishment of Western Han
Dynasty) <4 lessons>
 Why are standard Chinese characters called “Hanzi”? Why is standard Chinese
language called “Hanyu”? (Introducing Han Dynasty)
o What is the importance of Han Dynasty? （Compare it with Qin Dynasty. Qin Dynasty
lasted only 15 years after unifying China. Han Dynasty replaced Qin Dynasty and
lasted for over 400 years. Han Dynasty valued cultural and economic exchanges with
other countries.)
o How did Han Dynasty govern the country? (Central government & subordinate
kingdoms 中央政府 & 封国, introducing the Chu Kingdom. Can compare it with the
U.S. Discussion: If you were the emperor, would you appoint your relatives to be the
kings of subordinate kingdoms? Why?)
o Readings: 孟姜女哭长城and 鸿门宴 （动画、电影、电视剧）.
o Learn to play Chinese chess (象棋，楚河汉界).

15. Q3: What does the unit related to the exhibit look like?
 Part 2: The Exhibit: Dreams of the Kings <4 lessons>
o Prepare for the visit to the exhibit: vocabulary, sentence structures/ patterns, and
introduction of the tasks.
o Visit the exhibit, complete the scavenger hunt designed by the teacher, and think about the
following questions:
• Why did Kings of Chu love jade? What is the importance of jade in Chinese culture?
• Where did the jade for the jade suite on display come from? How did those jade reach
China? (Hetian jade, cultural/ economic exchanges with other areas, the development of
Silk Road)
• Find one or two items on display that show China received influence from other areas.
• Find out what one jade artifact was actually designed after. (Ss will be shown the outline of
a jade artifact before the visit. They will discuss what it was designed after and check
whether they are right at the exhibit.)
• What is your favorite item from this exhibit? Why? (Take a picture of the item and creates its
story)
o Debrief the visit to the exhibit.

16. Q3: What does the unit related to the exhibit look like?
 Part 3: Silk Road, Globalization v.s. Nationalism <5 lessons>
o How did Silk Road come into being?
o Show the official trailer of The Music of Strangers by Yoyo Ma and his Silk Road
Ensemble.
o What is the importance of Silk Road? What is its influence on the world (past and
present)? What can we learn from it? (Globalization; China’s One Belt, One Road)
o What is China’s One Belt, One Road initiative? Why? What are its benefits and
challenges?
o What message does Brexit deliver? If you were a British, would you vote for Brexit?
Why? (Globalization v.s. Nationalism)
o Can Nationalism be seen in America? Where do you see it? Why do some people
favor nationalism over globalization?
o Which serves the best interest of a country? Globalization or nationalism? (Reflect on
Silk Road and examine current affairs)
o Class debate: What is more important to America’s future? Globalization or
nationalism?
 Part 4: Ss prepare for their formal assessments and present <3 lessons>

17. Thank you！
Special thanks to
Shenzhan Liao, Xiaoxia Zhou,
Robin Harvey, Weina Ma, Frank Tang!