TED Lesson

In this TED lesson, I would like to introduce the Chinese Zodiac. It is an interesting and representative perspective in Chinese culture. The Chinese Zodiac is a 12-year cycle in which every year is assigned an animal according to a repeating pattern: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar. Each animal has a different personality and different characteristics. In Chinese culture, people believe that a person is born in a specific year and the corresponding animal to be the main factor in a person's life that gives traits, success and happiness in life.  

In this TED lesson, I target beginner-level students. I selected a video with a Chinese girl talking/teaching to other kids in natural way, which is to match my students with ages from 4 to 9 years old. When I prepared my Ted lesson, I selected materials and designed questions/exercises to achieve lesson goals like what students should know, understand, and be able to do as a result of the lesson?

In this TED lesson, the language learning objective is to introduce Chinese Zodiac animals and different culture understanding by using the video and articles, including “Know what the Chinese Zodiac is?”, “Know 12 animals’ names in Chinese”, and “Know their own signs within the Chinese zodiac.” Students view the short video lectures at home before the class session, and this direct learning is performed at home based on selected video. I intend to allocate more class time to practice conversations and carry out in-class activities. I think my TED lesson meets my learning objectives. I created 3 thinking multiple-choice questions based on the video. The questions allow me to check and evaluate the students’ listening and comprehension. In classroom discussion and conversation, I will use the explicit teaching method “I do, you do and we do” practice the animal names in Chinese. During the discussion, students will have opportunity to explore their understanding about the Chinese Zodiac. Each student will practice and collaborate with other students, in which students in different levels have positive attitude towards doing the discussion.