High School Chinese Syllabus Acknowledgement
Chinese 3Free State High School
I have read and understood the content of the syllabus for Chinese 1.
Student______
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Optional:
If the Chinese instructor has questions or additional information to provide me that would help me support my student in this Chinese class, I can be contacted at
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Confucius Institute of the University of Kansas-IDL Chinese Program
High School Chinese 3Syllabus2015-2016
School(s): Free StateHigh School
Instructor: Ms. Zheng, (pronounced as “Jung “) email address: 913-4019811
Facilitator(s): Chang Liu,
Additional Confucius Institute contacts:
Sheree Willis, Executive Director, , 913-897-8612
(policy issues, curriculum and pedagogy)
Kevin Liu, Associate Director, , 913-897-8687
(scheduling, daily operations, liaison with instructors)
Time: Monday through Friday, 13:20pm-14:15pm; Block schedule weeks: M,T,F 13:20pm-14:15pm; W: 12:55pm-14:30pm. Th: no class.
Location:Confucius Institute-(370 E);Free State High School IDL Room
Required Supplies: Each student will need a three-ring notebook, a jump drive (at least 1g), and a notebook for taking notes.
General Course Description: This course is designed for high school students who have completed approximately two years of high school level instruction in Chinese or have already achieved Novice Mid proficiency in Chinese. It is assumed that the students will attend class for approximate 36 weeks, 18 weeks per semester, with approximately five 50 minute class periods per week or the equivalent thereof, to complete one high school credit. The goals of this course are to enable students to achieve mastery of the Kansas World Language Curriculum Guideline Benchmarks for Novice High in Chinese (draft). The course is taught using the communicative approach with additional focus on form (both oral and written) where appropriate. Classroom instruction is conducted in the target language (Mandarin Chinese). The curriculum materials include teacher-developed materials (including appropriately adapted authentic materials) and online materials available on the course Blackboard site(url and login details to be provided.
Standards:This course is based upon the five “C”s (Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities),outlined in theStandards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century (National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project), developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages ( as further elaborated in the Kansas World Languages Standards ( The course content is designed to enable students to master the proficiency criteria outlined in the Kansas World Languages Curriculum Guideline Benchmarks for Novice High in Chinese (draft) ( and some content that reflects the Kansas World Languages Curriculum Guideline Benchmarks for Intermediate Low.
Assessment: For both formative and summative assessment, students will be asked to perform language tasks to demonstrate all three modes of communication: interpersonal, presentational, and interpretive, in both oral and written language. Students will also be asked to perform tasks to demonstrate mastery of form. In addition to teacher-developed assessments, students may also be asked to participate in standardized, externally developed assessments, e.g. STAMP (avant.com). Students will also be required to collect and record evidence of their learning progress in Linguafolio portfolio notebooks (to be reflected in the communication-participation grade).
Examples of Novice HighAssessment tasks:
Novice High Interpersonal Oral: respond to and ask interview questions about personal details (family, pets, academic subjects, likes and dislikes in hobbies, music, sports, and interests), using a variety of sentence structures, questions formats, and connecting phrases.
Novice High Interpretive Oral: Watch a celebrity interview on TV (in Chinese). Answer questions (in English) about the interview.
Novice High Interpretive Written: Examine advertisements from Chinese newspaper or magazine. Answer questions (in English) about the advertisements.
Novice High Presentational Oral: Prepare and deliver a short (2-4 minute) speech about your future career goals, describing the profession and its attractions.
Novice High Presentational Written: write out instructions for preparing your favorite dish.
Grading: Grades will be assigned by the Chinese instructor. The conversion of final grade percentage points to a letter grade will be based upon school policy. Grades will be based on the following weighted categories: 25% in-class communication in Chinese (see below), 25% homework, 20% quizzes and exams, 20% unit projects, and 10% semester final exam and projects.
Attendance(facilitator and instructor): Excused absences will be recorded by the facilitator, in keeping with the home school policy, and reported to the instructor. Students with assignments due on days when the student has an excused absence will be given two days to make up the assignment, unless school policy dictates otherwise.
Participation:The participation grade will include the daily communication grade and Linguafolio portfolio preparation and review. The daily communication grade will use a 5 point system, with points deducted for use of English in class (without permission). The point system will be reviewed and rehearsed in class before implementation.
Homework: Students will be expected to complete homework as assigned, typically at least three days per week, by the deadline specified by the instructor. To complete some of the homework assignments for this course, students will need to access the course website (url to be provided). To get an account on the course website, each student will need to provide a valid email address. Instructions on email addresses will be provided in class. In addition to online exercises, homework will also include written work to be submitted to the facilitator for transmission to the instructor by fax or mail. Late homework: the scores for homework submitted one day late will be reduced by 25% and for two days late by 50%. Homework submitted three days late, without special permission from the instructor, will be scored as zero.
Classroom rules: Students are expected to adhere to the following classroom rules (in addition to school rules):
- Students will treat the instructor and facilitator with courtesy and respect
- Students will treat fellow classmates with courtesy and respect
- Students will refrain from eating, chewing gum, or drinking in the classroom (with the exception of water in clear water bottles when permitted by the school).
- Students will be attentive and actively engaged in learning the course content.
- Students will not use cell phones, mp3 players, or other electronic devices in class, unless given permission by the instructor.
Course Materials: teacher-developed materials, including authentic language materials; homework and supplementary materials on the course website (url to be provided).
Consequences for inappropriate behavior: will follow the relevant school rules and procedures.
Learning Chinese: The U.S. government lists Chinese as a difficult language, estimating that it takes about four times as much instructional time for a native speaker of English to achieve the equivalent proficiency that the student would achieve in a Category I language (e.g. Spanish). The greatest challenge for most English-speaking students of Chinese is the writing system, which requires many hours to master. In this course, students will be encouraged to invest time in learning the Chinese writing system (characters) to give students access to authentic written language materials. Reading (of characters in context),and recognition (of characters in word bank lists), as well as accurate copying of characters with correct stroke direction and order, will be emphasized. Students will also need to memorize some characters. Students will also demonstrate facility with Pinyin, the official standardized system of Romanization for Chinese. The other main challenge for English speakers in learning Chinese is the tone system. The tone of each Chinese syllable is directly linked to the meaning of that syllable. In addition to participating in ear training exercises in class, students are encouraged to listen to the audio materials on Blackboard frequently, to develop better control of Chinese tones.
Instructional Philosophy: The instructional philosophy of the Confucius Institute is based upon the communicative approach to language learning, an approach that is reflected in the Kansas World Language Benchmarks. Instruction will primarily focus on helping students learn to use Chinese language to communicate meaningfully, with appropriate instruction on form as needed. To give students as much opportunity to practice listening and speaking Chinese, classroom instruction will be primarily in Chinese.
Curriculum Themes:
Curriculum Sequence (pacing may vary, depending upon actual student needs and performance). Lesson plans will be adjusted to compensate for differences in school calendars.
Fall Semester
Unit 1: Eating Out and Eating In: Ordering and Preparing Food
Unit 2: On My Way: Going Somewhere
Semester Review and Final assessments
Spring Semester
Unit 3: Your Story and Mine: Telling Stories
Unit 4: Teenage Life in the United States and in China
Semester Review and Final Assessments
updated August 12, 2015