YouTube Video Links to Examples of Student Work &

Elective Commentary for Student Work by Huiching Chen

The incorporation of the ACTFLs standards in my lessons helps to create clear and precise goals for my
students. Starting with communication, the heart of second language study, my students gain
knowledge and understand better the new cultures, and make connections to more bodies of
knowledge through the study of the target language. By comparing and contrasting with the languages
and cultures, my students realize that there are different ways to view the world. Furthermore, with all
the elements together, my students are able to participate in the community and around the world in
the culturally appropriate ways.
I have included five examples from a unit which I named it Cat and Rat. First of all, I came across an
interesting video from YouTube (Tom and Jerry Real Life) which one of my Chinese friends shared with
me and I felt like to share it with my students as well, and I was thinking that the extension of the story
from the video could be the story of Cat and Rat from Chinese Zodiac. We could talk about why the cat
didnt get any place in the Chinese Zodiac! Cool! With that thought, I started to do backward planning.
First of all, I came up with a list of vocabulary with high frequency words which my students would need
in order to be able to discuss about the video and the story of Chinese Zodiac. Then I introduced the
vocabulary to them by creating gestures and by asking them personalized questions. Below is the list of
vocabulary words.
Differentiation: Vocabulary List for Chinese 1 students

zho
zhodo
shw
jude
p
kp
djio
zhun yunqun
shujio

look for
find
food
think; feel
is scared (of)
is scary
yell; scream
go(turn) in circles
sleep

Differentiation: Vocabulary List for Chinese 2 students:

zho
zhodo
zho de do
zho b do
shw
jude
p
kp
djio
du
zhun yunqun
shujio

look for
find
can find
cannot find
food
think; feel
is scared (of)
is scary
yell; scream
hide (from)
go(turn) in circles
sleep

Differentiation: I always assign jobs in my classes. According to individuals weaknesses and strengths,
individual students have specific jobs to do. For example, we have policeman who reminds people to
speak Chinese; an angel who says Bless you when someone sneezes; an artist who illustrates the class
stories; a person who tallies and counts how many times the teacher uses the new vocabulary in context;
a cheerleader who always says Applause when someone does something outstanding; a story writer
who records the class stories; a quiz writer who creates true or false questions for exit tickets; a who
person; a when person, etc.

Student Work A: https://youtu.be/NulhC9fbRTM

From there, the class came up with 2 class stories in two days.
In the 1st student work, it shows how students co-created the
second class story with me. The student actors demonstrated
their understanding of the language by synchronizing their
actions with the storylines that the whole class created and the
rest of the class showed their comprehension by feeding me the details of the story and by answering
my questions.
Standards Targeted
1.1 Interpersonal Communication
1.2 Interpretive Communication
1.3 Presentational Communication
5.1 School and Community

Reflection
1.1Students work cooperatively as a whole class using the language to create a class story.
1.2Students comprehend the class story.
1.3Students actors act out the class story.
5.1Students use the language in the classroom.

Student Work B: https://youtu.be/vjukdcx1ndk

Standards Targeted
1.1 Interpersonal Communication
1.2 Interpretive Communication
1.3 Presentational Communication
5.1 School and Community

After the class story was created, I retold the story and had the
whole class act out and did gestures to show their
comprehension at the same time. In the 2nd student work, all
students showed their understanding of the class story by doing
gestures and by acting out the story in groups of three while I
was retelling the story one more time.

Reflection
1.1Students work cooperatively as a whole class using the language to create a class story.
1.2Students comprehend the class story.
1.3Students act out the class story.
5.1Students use the language in the classroom.

Student Work C: https://youtu.be/lRwVvJKYkcQ

A student artist helped me illustrate the class story while I was
retelling it. When we are done with retelling, I showed the
illustrations to the whole class using document camera. We
discussed about the story one more time. In the 3rd student
work, students demonstrated comprehension of sentences
describing certain pictures by showing me the corresponding
numbers using fingers in the Chinese way. Then students wrote out the class story on the story board.
Standards Targeted
1.1 Interpersonal Communication
1.2 Interpretive Communication
1.3 Presentational Communication
2.1 Practice of Culture
5.1 School and Community

Differentiation: Students are only required to write the class story out in Pinyin (the Chinese phonetic
system) at this point. However, some students would like to take the challenge writing in Chinese
characters and they are highly encouraged to do so.
Reflection
1.1Students answer questions about the class story as a whole class using the language.
1.2Students demonstrate the comprehension of the class story by showing the corresponding
numbers using fingers in the Chinese way.
1.3Students write out the class story in Chinese.
2.1Students use culturally appropriate gestures to show numbers.
5.1Students use the language in the classroom.

Student Work D: https://youtu.be/eCEI8isAel4

After that, I showed them the YouTube video, Tom and Jerry
Standards Targeted
Real Life. It was only about 1 minute 25 second long, but we
1.1 Interpersonal Communication
took time to talk about the colors of the rat and the cat and we
1.2 Interpretive Communication
5.1 School and Community
talked about what had happened and why it happened. We
discussed the video in depth using the vocabulary they just acquired. Then I pulled out the story from
World Language Games web page which I had typed out earlier about this video. In the 4th student
work, students showed comprehension of the written languages by reading and translating it into
English as a whole class. At the end, students worked in pairs and put the segments of the story in order.
Then I confirmed their responses by showing them the correct order on World Language Games'
"Colorful Stories".
Differentiation for Chinese 1 students: One of the expectations for my Chinese 1 students is to
recognize about 130 Chinese characters by the end of the school year. However, some students exceed
the expectations. They choose to work on recognizing all of the Chinese characters they are being
introduced to. Thats why in addition to Pinyin (Chinese phonetic system), Chinese characters are
presented to challenge the fast processors.
losh h mo b sh pngyu. losh p mo, mo jude losh sh
shw.
losh kndo mo. t miyu djio. t fichng njng. mo zho
losh, ynwi t le. t xing yo ch losh,
mo zhun yunqun. t b tng de zhun yunqun. t knkn
shngmin, t knkn ximin, ksh t miyu kndo losh. t miyu
zhodo losh.
hu li, mo kndo losh , t jude hn goxng, ynwi t zhodo
losh le. ksh zu hu, mo jude hn shngxn, ynwi losh po le.

Differentiation for Chinese 2 students: Longer text is provided with more vocabulary words, more
complexity in sentence structures, and in Chinese characters only.

Differentiation: Students are paired up by abilities to put the story segments in the correct order.
Students who are interested in recognizing Chinese characters are encouraged to work on the second
set.
1.

2.

Reflection
1.1Students provide details and answer questions about the video as a whole class
1.2Students demonstrate the comprehension of the video by orally answering questions and reading
and translating the text.
5.1Students use the language in the classroom.

Student Work E: https://youtu.be/N05Y8MN6msM

After the reading activities, we moved on to discussing why cats
always chase rats and rats are scared of cats. Students shared
their thoughts in Chinese. Then I shared the reasons from the
Chinese perspective with them through the story of Chinese
Zodiac. In the meanwhile, we discussed about the different
attitudes and feelings towards dragons in Chinese and Western
cultures and the similarities and differences between Chinese
Zodiac and Horoscope. In the 5th student work, students were
able to articulate the order of Chinese Zodiac animals and explain why Cat didnt get a place in the
Chinese Zodiac and how Cat and Rat became enemies.
Standards Targeted
1.1 Interpersonal Communication
1.2 Interpretive Communication
1.3 Presentational Communication
2.2 Product of Culture
4.2 Culture Comparisons
5.1 School and Community

Reflection
1.1Students answer questions about the Chinese Zodiac story
1.2Students comprehend the Chinese Zodiac story through listening to the teacher and reading
from the PPT.
1.3Students present the order or Chinese Zodiac animals to their partners and explain why Cat is
not in the Zodiac.
2.2Students read about and discuss products of the culture, the Chinese Zodiac animals.
4.2Students compare and contrast products found in the two cultures, Chinese Zodiac and
Horoscope.
5.1Students use the language in the classroom.