Effective Project-Based Learning:

Teaching Chinese Through Projects, Song

& Drama

Robin HarveyNew York UniversityProject for Developing Chinese Language

TeachersAugust 24, 2010

To paraphrase Dr. Galal Walker, Ohio State University

We don’t teach students Chinese, we teach studentshow to do things in Chinese.

This changes our whole concept of teaching language.

The New Bloom’s Taxonomy

How We Learn

Engage the Emotional Brain

“Why do I have to learn Chinese?”“I have no choice, it’s the ONLY language offered here!”

Vs.

“I LOVE CHINESE! We wrote skits and they were soooo funny!“My Chinese teacher taught us the coolest song in class!”

Brain-Based Learning

Engage the Emotional Brain

But that’s not REAL learning!

Real learning entails suffering!

But I didn’t learn that way!

But the kids are so NOISY when I teach this way!

What do we want our students to do in Chinese?

-Order food-Discuss the weather-Talk about themselves and what they want to do-Learn About Others-Share opinions-Understand new friends-Figure out what a character means

Engaging the Meaningful Brain

What is the purpose of learning a language?

To know all the rules and never make a mistake

To pronounce every tone perfectly or

To communicate and share your meaningTo share what you are thinking with others and learn about

them.

Language is a TOOL we use to communicate ideas, meaning, feelings, and more.

Sing the song (conjugating “To Be”):

Sum es est sumus estis sunteram eras erat eramus eratis erant

ero eris erit erimus eritis erunt

And Pray to the God of the North for a Snow Day!

Latin was the most popular class in my high school

Language is the tool to get a day off school!

The Meaningful Brain Seeks Patterns

• Find the similarities!

呢妹妹

姐姐 妈妈 林林

树树

吧吧

听听

呢呢吗吗

梅梅

森森

果果

春妈妈春，是花的妈妈红的花，蓝的花张开小小的嘴巴春妈妈用雨点喂她。

What’s the old way of teaching poetry?

冬奶奶

冬，是雪人的奶奶大的雪人，小的雪人张开小小的嘴巴冬奶奶用热巧克力喂她。

夏爸爸

夏，是棒球的爸爸Yankees 很棒，红娃子很臭。夏爸爸我最喜欢棒球！

Engaging The Social BrainCooperative Work

Interviewing classmates, Creative Writing (skits, plays, songs)

Language is the tool to enjoy an activity with friends.

Harry Potter 3

Engaging The Social Brain

Cooperative WorkInterviewing classmates, Creative Writing (skits, plays, songs)

Language is the tool to sell things (and to make jokes).

Language is the tool to tell a story.

The Curious Brain

Role-Play Activity:Who Am I? Guess the secret identity (you must speak as that

person, describing something about your day)

Language is the tool to discover something about someone

The Curious Brain• “Alibi”: who is the criminal?

– 你昨天晚上在做什么 ?– 我昨天晚上在睡觉，做功课，看电影 , etc.

Language is the tool to solve a problem.

The Olympics Projects

Model Expectations

奧运选手李小鵬简介

李小鵬是中国奧运体操选手。他是中国湖南省长沙市人。他的生日是 1981 年 7 月 27 日。他今年 26 岁。家有爸爸跟妈妈，沒 有兄弟姊妹。他喜欢吃妈妈做的湘菜。他平常喜欢玩电游、打电话 和 跟朋友逛街。

Olympic Athletes 奥运选手

Olympic Torch

福娃

中国爱福娃。 中国的福娃热。

这是福娃笔

这是福娃花园

What the names mean （ part 1）

贝贝 和 晶晶代表 Beijing 。

欢欢 和 迎迎 代表 Welcomes 。

妮妮 代表 You 。

Comic Life –

Story-telling

New York City

Brochure

Sing a Song: Make your own video

• Learned the original song, vocabulary and “patterns”

• Designed/drew pictures of our own dream houses

• Wrote the lyrics

• Scanned pictures and recorded voices to create PowerPoint• (could use voicethread or other programs as well)

Language is the tool to express ourselves!

Chemistry through Dance

• A failing student astounded everyone with his remarkable dance intelligence. He was able to repeat a complex twelve-count phrase after seeing it only once. "I really put in an effort to understand the chemistry so I could make a good dance," he explained..”

Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers (DCLT)

New York University

Robin Harvey, Project Coordinator

Robin.harvey@nyu.edu

(212)992-9367