Project based learning (PBL)

The title of my capstone is Chinese Culture Showcase. My Mandarin class students demonstrated what they had learned in Mandarin class.

According to my Mandarin project-based learning, I organize my students in America (Batesville Intermediate School)  and China (Chengdu Paotongshu Primary School Tianfu Campus) to share their life and culture to each other by recording videos both in

The EMMS Chinese Class Yearbook 2021-2022 is an artistic presentation of all the activities, what the students have learnt throughout the year, as well as students’ own understanding of things related to the language and culture learning. This is not only a collection of memory, but also an achievement exhibition.

The DLI program in our school is growing. It needs support and understanding from the local community. And our mural program met the needs in two different ways. One is training the chosen ones to practice Chinese calligraphy for the mural, the other is using the mural to inspire the interest of all the 472 students in our school in learning Chinese or Chinese culture. Besides, it gives extra support for the DLI program by being a complement of culture learning for all the 103 DLI students. They learn more about the Chinese language, writing, and culture by the project. Cooperation between the 6 DLI teachers and other 42 teachers increased too. Now more teachers understand and support the DLI program. And as multiculturalism is better understood through the mural, we draw more students into the DLI program, and now the community get more involved with DLI program and more people know our school and choose to send their children here.

In order to select some students for the mural program, we had the introductory classes for the basic, then the afterschool calligraphy club to learn more and finally the morning training session for 23 mural students. They practiced a certain character in the Chinese poem On the Stork Tower 《登鹳雀楼》for the mural with instruction videos and papers from me. Meanwhile I tutored them during the whole period of time to help them improve their calligraphy writing.

The students surprised me a lot by progressing so much in calligraphy. The first work and the last one are quite different. I am so happy to see all the differences. And they are really interested in practicing calligraphy and still want to learn more after the training. Since the mural is done now, the students feel really proud of themselves and they are admired and envied by their peers. Teachers, school and the community all feel proud of them too.

Festivals are the important part of the culture. Spring Festival is the most important festival in China and there are a lot of customs that helps the students learn more about the Chinese and Chinese culture. There are three sections about the project. Before the Spring Festival, students learn why the Chinese people celebrate the Spring Festival and how the Chinese people celebrate it.

My capstone project is called “Get to know China” with the purpose of attracting more students to sign up for Mandarin in the high school, developing a curriculum that can be passed down, promoting better cultural understanding between the US and China, and building a sister school partnership.

  February 2022 

For this project, students wrote and illustrated their own non-fiction children’s picture book about history, religion, culture, and lifestyles of a country of your their choice in the Middle East. The books were then read all around the school to younger grade levels and students of those classes were also taught how to introduce themselves and greet in Arabic. The books were finally displayed in the school library.

Project title: Romeo & Juliet meets Layla and Majnun. As a project we will create a short shadow puppet video where students will act out parts of Romeo and Juliet and Layla and Majnun as thought to showcase both cultures. We were also joined with a visual artist from the Flock Theater (theater artists) and Alicia Cobb (visual artist) to help students bring it to life and work on the artwork with the students. The play was recorded and showcased on the morning announcements.