Lesson 1
Topic Talk：The Spring Festival
Lesson objectives：
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
l Listen to the main idea and some specific information in the video.
l Answer questions after reading the passage.
l Talk about their own experience about the Spring Festival.
l Write a short essay about their unforgettable experience in Chinese New Year.
A warm-up activity：
These pictures are shown to students. And students are asked to guess what festival it is and explain the reasons.
Activity 1:
Watch the video and answer the following questions.
Activity2:
Pair work: Multiple choice.
1. What is the main idea of the video?
l The legends and customs of Spring Festival
l The legends and customs of Christmas
l The legends and customs of Halloween
l The legends and customs of the Lantern Festival
2.Which of the following topics is not mention in the video?
l The legend of Chinese New Year
l The customs of Spring Festival
l Twelve Chinese zodiac signs
l The food of Spring Festival
3. Give some key words that you can remember in this video.
Activity3:
Read the text and answer these following questions in groups.
Another year of good fortune is beginning in China. Fireworks pop high in the sky, dragon dance in the streets, and the city slows down to celebrate Chinese New Year. In Chinese culture, it's the most important time of the year rooted in traditions and customs, passed down through the ages. The celebration lasts for 15 magical days full of family togetherness, delicious food and good fortune. Today, Chinese New Year is filled with happiness. But according to Legend, it didn't start out that way.
A long long time ago in China, there was a big scary nasty beast named “Nian”, whose name means “Year”. He had razor sharp teeth, giant claws and really mean growl. Most of the time you lived in the wilderness, but on the darkest night of the year when the new moon was in the sky, he would sneak into the village and scare everyone in sight, even animals. People dreaded the new moon for many years, until a wiseman that three things Nian was afraid of: Loud noises, Fire and the color Red. The next time Nian came, the villagers fought back.They hit their drums as loud as they could, lit every firecracker they had and wore the color red from head to toe. Nian went far away and never came back. After that, the people started celebrating the new moon instead of fearing it. That celebration became a 15-day festival of family food and good fortune called “Chinese New Year”.
Today, Chinese New Year glues families together all over the world. In fact, billions of people travel back to their homes and families in China to feast on a delicious reunion dinner with plates and plates of homemade food. Many of the foods like eggrolls, noodles and shrimp mean something special. Eggrolls symbolize wealth for the coming year because they look like bars of solid gold. “Chang Ming noodles” shouldn't be cut because long noodle symbolizes health for long life. Shrimp symbolizes happiness because the Mandarin word for shrimp and smile sounds very similar. As part of the festivities, lucky red envelopes called “Hong Bao” are passed out to children as well as unmarried adults. In Chinese culture, the color red symbolizes luck. In order to receive the red envelope, well wishes are given to the elder. Money is inside each envelope to bring prosperity and good fortune in the coming year. During all 15 days of Chinese New Year, it is a time to reflect on the passing year and celebrate the future. Bright fireworks light up the sky, and huge parades find the streets until the final day of the new year celebration: the Lantern Festival, and thousands of red lanterns glow in the night to bring good fortune to all. No matter where you live, you can join the festivities, whether it's one reunion dinner with your family or 15 days of celebrating together. Chinese New Year is open to everyone.
1. How long does the Spring Festival last?
2. What is Nian afraid of?
3. Which food symbolizes wealth for the coming year?
4. Why “Chang Ming noodles” shouldn’t be cut?
5. What does it mean when elders give red envelopes to children?
Activity4:
Students discuss their own past experiences in Chinese New Year in groups. Each group needs to represent and share their stories and thoughts.
Homework:
Write an essay about your most unforgettable experience about the Spring Festival. Please use the expressions that you learned in the class.
I found this lesson is culturally-relevant and engaging since the topic is about the Chinese Spring Festival. There are several visual aids such as pictures and videos for further understanding of the reading text, which can make the language input more comprehensible. Also, you pay attention to integrating four language skills through various activities. One question for activities 2 and 3 is whether the reading comprehension question is presented before or after reading? According to Wang (2006), reading tasks should help develop students' reading skills rather than testing their reading comprehension. Asking students to read the passage and then answer multiple-choice questions seems to test them not to develop their reading skills. Thus, I prefer raising the questions in advance so that students can have a clear purpose in reading. Also, open questions and communicative activities can have students discuss and share their opinions about the reading text, which can help them focus on the reading process and promote further understanding of the text.
ReplyDeletereference:
Wang, Qiang (2006). A course in English language teaching (2nd Edit). Higher Education Press.
Yinran
DeleteHello, Beijia and Andy,
ReplyDeleteI think it’s really nice that you incorporate spring festival into class for it can invite students’ existing knowledge about their native culture. This will increase students' cultural identity. The pictures and video put in guessing activity and video watching are both authentic materials which greatly make use of visual aids to help students recall their memory about this traditional festival. As for some suggestion, I think maybe you can try to design some activities combining festivals in both China and the countries where people speak English. Presenting the two kinds of culture simultaneously can make students have further understanding about their sesond language’s background information.
Chaoying Yang