This document summarizes a professional development program for Chinese teachers that incorporated STEM topics into Chinese language lessons. Teachers participated in monthly roundtable meetings where they received training in incorporating mathematics, science, and other subjects into lesson planning. They worked in teams to create thematic units with 10 lessons each. The units included performance-based assessments and followed a template that addressed language functions, grammar, vocabulary, culture and connections to other subjects. An example unit on growing bean sprouts was provided, outlining the unit goals and lessons, which incorporated science concepts about plant growth while practicing Chinese vocabulary and language functions.

1. STEM in the Chinese Classroom
JANICE DOWD
LUCY LEE
NCLC
WASHINGTON, DC
APRIL 13, 2012

2. Presenters
 Janice Dowd
 Montclair
Public Schools
 FLAP Grant Project Coordinator
 Lucy Lee
 Livingston Public School Teacher
 Director of Rutgers Chinese Teachers Roundtable
 NECTFL Teacher of the Year

3. FLAP GRANT
 Montclair Public Schools and Rutgers
University Graduate School of
Education
 Originally a five year grant
 Eventual Goal: Write STEM units for
each grade 2 – 12

4. Chinese Roundtable Meetings
 One Saturday a month
 From 9 – 4
 Created teams of writers based on level
taught
 Provided professional development
 Provided time to work on units

5. Professional Development—First Year
 Thematic Units, Janet Glass, ACTFL 2008
Teacher of the Year
 Mathematics in the Chinese Classroom,
Prof. Dan Battey, Rutgers University
 Science in the Chinese Classroom, Prof.
Eugenia Etkina, Rutgers University
 MOPI Training, Dr. Theresa Jen, University
of Pennsylvania

6. Professional Development—First Year
(cont)
 Understanding by Design, Jennifer Eddy,
Queens College
 Communicative Activities, Rosanne
Zeppieri, West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional
School District

7. Professional Development—Year Two
 Integrated Performance Assessment; Martin
Smith; then Supervisor of Foreign
Languages, Edison, NJ, Public Schools, now
Assistant Superintendent West Windsor-
Plainsboro Regional School District
 Using Science in the Chinese Classroom,
Parts I and II; James Finley and Tara
Bartiromo, Rutgers University

8. Professional Development—Year Two
(cont)
 Making Language Meaningful; Dr. Helena
Curtain; Professor Emeritus University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee

9. Plan of Action
 Provide teachers with information on
learning
 Knowledge of Language Learning
 Knowledge of Science
 Provide time to write units during the
Roundtable

10. Unit Template
 Based on template by Helena Curtain and
Carol Ann Dahlberg
 Consisted of approximately 10 lessons
 Asked science/mathematics “experts” to
review the science in the units
 See handout

11. Template
Unit Plan Inventory for STEM Units
Rutgers University Professional Development
Unit Title: __________________________________
Author(s): __________________________________
Language/Level: ______________________________
Grade Level: _____________________
 Scenario/Unit Overview: (about two
paragraphs—describe the unit)

12. Part I
 What students should know and be
able to do?
 Enduring Understandings: (Big Idea) (Students
will understand that…)
 Essential Questions:
 Targeted Standards: (State, National)
 Outcomes/Objectives/Progress Indicators:
(Students will be able to…)

13. Part II
 How students will demonstrate what
they know and can do: Performance-
based Assessment (IPA)
 Interpersonal Task and Rubric
 Interpretive Task and Rubric
 Presentational Task and Rubric

14. Part III
 Preparing students to demonstrate what they know and can
do (Overview)
 Language Communication
 Language Functions
 Grammatical Structures
 Vocabulary
 Culture Knowledge:
 STEM Connections with Other Subject(s):
 Essential Materials
 Learning Activities, Performances (Formative Assessments)
 Comparisons
 Communities

15. Daily Lesson Plan Format
 Lesson: Title _______________
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
 Instructor (name of the teacher(s) who develop this
lesson) : _______________________
 Stage 1: What will students know and be able to do
at the end of this lesson? (objectives)
 Stage 2: How will you know that students can do
that? (assessment)
 Stage 3: What instructional activities will be used?

16. Lesson Format
 Opening/Activity 1 (Warm up)
 Activity 2
 Activity 3
 Activity 4
 Closing/ Activity 5

17. Sequence of Activities
Activity Interpretive: Interpersonal Presentational
aural visual/ aural/ oral visual/ oral visual/
written written written
Activity #1
Activity #2
Activity #3
Activity #4
Activity #5

18. Final Part
 Materials needed for the lesson

19. Example
 Please turn to your second handout
 This is a fourth grade unit
 We will go over the unit
 Refer to your handout
 Each part is on a slide as well as the handout

20. Scenario/Unit Overview:
As all living things, bean sprouts grow and change as they
progress through their life cycle. Students will set up a
germination experiment to grow bean sprouts from seeds,
observe and measure the growth, and have opportunities to
sample traditional Chinese dishes made with mature bean
sprouts. Bean sprouts are popular ingredients in Chinese
cuisine. For many centuries Chinese physicians have prescribed
bean sprouts to cure different maladies. As students participate
in the experiment, they will identify and use important
vocabulary terms and language functions to be able to explain the
process of planting and nurturing these plants and to express
likes, dislikes, and preferences.

21. Part I:
What students should know and be able to do?
 Enduring Understandings: Students will
understand that…
 All living things need the appropriate nurturing conditions to
grow.
 Bean sprouts are popular in Chinese cuisine and other cuisines
of Asia.
 Essential Questions:
 1. How do plants grow?
 2. Is there more than one way to grow a plant?
 3. How have bean sprouts been used in cooking?

22. Standards
 National Standards: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 5.2
 NJCCCS 7.1 World Languages: All students will be able to
use a world language in addition to English to engage in
meaningful conversation, to understand and interpret
spoken and written language, and to present information,
concepts, and ideas, while also gaining an understanding of
the perspectives of other cultures. Through language study,
they will make connections with other content areas,
compare the language and culture studied with their own,
and participate in home and global communities. (Novice-
mid level)

23. Outcomes/Objectives/Progress Indicators
Students will be able to…
 Identify the parts of a bean sprouts plant
 Describe the steps in the life cycle of a plant including sprouting;
developing roots; growing stems, leaves, and flowers; reproducing; and
dying
 Measure the changes that occur during plant growth and development
depending on different growing conditions
 Enumerate the conditions that plants need to survive and thrive
 Predict which conditions are better for bean sprout planting
 Identify some of the benefits of eating bean sprouts
 Name two Chinese dishes that use bean sprouts

24. Part II
How students will demonstrate what they
know and can do? Performance-based
Assessment
Students take an imaginary tour of a garden in which bean sprouts
are growing. They will be handed a chart and asked to complete a
checklist of questions based on the information in the chart of different
growing conditions. Then they will be given visual samples of plants at
various stages of growth and various growing conditions and with a
partner will match the conditions with the appropriate picture. Finally,
based on what they have learned, students will create a storybook based
on bean sprouts.

25. Interpretive Task
Students work individually and complete a checklist
of questions that is based on a chart of different
growing conditions for bean sprouts. The varying
conditions will be the amount of water and the
amount of sunlight. There will be three conditions
for water: too little, just right, and too much. The
sunlight conditions will be (you mei you tai yang?)
without sunlight, with the proper amount of
sunlight, with too much sunlight.

26. Interpersonal Task
Students will work with a partner to devise a chart
that combines pictures and growing conditions.
Each will receive an envelope with information. One
envelope will have pictures of plants at various stages
of growth (days) under different conditions (water
and sunlight). The other envelope will have the
measurements of different growing conditions and
days of growth. Students will converse with each
other to match the pictures with the measurements.

27. Presentational Task
 Students will be asked to create a storybook based on
the information that they have learned by completing
the chart and by discussing growing conditions with
their partner. All students will be given at least 20
small pictures that they can use (but they may also
draw their own pictures) to complete a storybook on
bean sprouts. Students will share their storybooks
with at least one other student and with one member
of their family.
 If technology in the school permits, students will do a
digital storybook. Students will read their books for
other students to hear.

28. Part III
Preparing students to demonstrate what they know
and can do
 Language Communication: language functions, grammatical
structures, vocabulary, and culture
 Subject Content (Connections):
 Essential Materials
 Learning Activities, Performances (Formative Assessments)
 Comparisons
 Communities

29. Lessons
 Each lesson has an opening activity/warm up
 Each lesson has at least two other activities; most
have three
 Each lesson has a concluding activity
 Total is usually four or five activities in a lesson
 Begin with Lesson 1

30. Activity 1: Opening—Magic Bag
 Teacher will pull out of a magic bag various types of beans. Using the
Natural Sequence Questioning Approach students will use the
vocabulary in context. (Vocabulary: green bean, green bean sprout,
red bean, black bean, white beans, yellow beans, yellow bean sprout,
kidney beans)
 Natural Sequence Questioning: teacher states name as distributing the
beans; teacher asks, “Who has the green bean?” and students point to
object as a student hold us the object; teacher asks a yes/no question
(“Is it a green bean?”) and students reply yes or no; teacher asks an
either/or question, whether an object is a green bean or a yellow bean
and students respond; finally the teacher asks a “what” question (What
is this? What does Lucy have in her hand?) For further information,
see Curtain and Dahlberg, Language and Children: Making the
Match, p. 57-58.

31. Activity 2: Can you find the bean sprouts?
 Teacher will show a power point with pictures of food
and ask if a food has bean sprouts or not. (See
attached power point: salad with bean sprouts,
hamburger, hot dog, pizza with bean sprouts from
California Pizza, chow mein, sandwich with bean
sprouts, ice cream, French fries, fried rice, baozi, soy
bean sprouts as vegetable.)
 Teacher will show the same pictures and ask students
to point to the bean sprouts. If there are no bean
sprouts, the students will say, “Mei you.”
 Students may also do a personal inventory.

32. Sample pictures to teach vocabulary

33. Sample pictures to teach vocabulary

34. Sample pictures to teach vocabulary

35. Sample pictures to teach vocabulary

36. Personal Inventory
姓名 ______________________
你喜欢吃什么？
喜欢 不喜欢

37. Activity 3: Survey
Students will talk with one other student to complete
a survey of each other’s food preferences (see
attached survey). They will ask each other questions
such as “Ni xihuan bu xihuan chi hanbao?” The
other student will answer and check off his/her
partner’s preference. The teacher will conclude this
activity by polling the class to find out what the
class’s favorite food is on this list.

38. Survey
喜欢 不喜欢

39. Activity 4—Concluding Activity:
Categorizing Food
 Using the same pictures (powerpoint) from Activity
2, students will categorize the foods according to the
restaurants they are most commonly served in
(Zhongguo cai or Meiguo cai or both).
 This activity may be completed for homework.
Students will write Zhongguo cai or Meiguo cai next
to the pictures in their surveys.

40. Table of Sequence of Activities
 Look at the table on your handout
 It categorizes an activity as interpretive,
interpersonal, or presentational.
 It also categorizes whether it is oral/aural or
written/visual

41. Materials needed for the lesson
 Props and realia: beans of different colors
and sizes; magic bag
 Interview sheet: What is your favorite food?
 Bean sprout presentation (Power Point)
 LCD projector and laptop

42. Vocabulary
 Review: xihuan bu xihuan ( 喜欢 ), chi,
zhongguo, meiguo, zhongguo cai, meiguocai,
names of food items: hamburger, hot dog,
sandwich, fried rice, Chinese dumplings,
steamed buns
 New: Green bean, green bean sprout, yellow
bean (soy), yellow bean sprout, black bean,
red bean

43. Other Lessons
 Each unit has about 10 lessons
 Each lesson has between four and five
activities
 Warm up/introduction is essential
 Concluding activity is also essential
 The three modes may not be present in each
lesson

44. The Growing Process
 Later lesson
 Demonstrates the growing process
 Review powerpoint

45. Delicious Beans
 Point out the healthy aspects of eating beans
 Provide visual as well as linguistic
information
 Watch powerpoint

46. Questions?