Exploring the Chinese Culture 中国文化欣赏

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

OverviewThis Chinese culture appreciation series aims at opening elementary and middle school students’ eyes to Chinese culture through multimedia resources and hands on activities.

There will altogether be 45 units with 9 themes, each unit focusing on one cultural topic. This series can serve as a toolkit to cultural exploratory curriculum and enrichment classes.

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

Design PrinciplesThis series aims at stimulating students’ interest in Chinese language and culture and enriching their understanding of Chinese people and culture through:

• watching multimedia resources• hands-on activities • discussing cross-cultural differences

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

Sample Contents：

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

For Each Unit• 3-5 minute Video

• Lesson and Activity Plan

• Supplementary Materials

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

Sample Unit

Peking Opera

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

Video

Lesson and Activity Plan

The plans include teaching objectives and relevant class activities, suggested hands-on activities, and teaching resources for each unit. This plan will be provided as a PDF file.

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

Sample Lesson and Activity Plan

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

Beijing Opera Overview:

Beijing opera is the most influential opera in China and has a history of around 200 years. It synthesizes the arts of singing, dancing, recitation, martial arts, and instrumental music. Symbolism dominates the motions and stage designs. For example, the action of waving a horsewhip represents horse riding, and several equipped guys can be used to represent an army etc.

• （ http://www.jingjuok.com/；http://baike.baidu.com/view/2088.htm）

Supplementary Materials ：

Supplementary materials include textual and pictorial background information as well as URLs for online resources.

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

Supplementary Materials ： PicturesSupplementary Materials ： TextSupplementary Materials – Artifacts

Class StructureEach class can consist of the following parts:

• Introduction: (3-5 minutes)

• Watch Video: (6-10 minutes)

• Cultural Background: (10-14 minutes)

• Hands-On Activities: (20-25 minutes)

• Wrap up:(2-3 minutes)

密西根州立大学孔子学院Confucius Institute Michigan State University

Introduction introduce the cultural topic through interesting questions or background information. (3-5 minutes)

Watch Video (6-10 minutes)

Cultural BackgroundsElaboration on the cultural background information (10-14 minutes)

Cultural BackgroundsElaboration on the cultural background information (10-14 minutes)

ActivitiesClass discussion or hands on activities (20-25 minutes)

Choose a celebrity in the U.S. Design a Beijing Opera style mask for him/her and share your design with the rest of class.

Activities