Welcome to 8th grade Mandarin class,  we will have a fun-filled, well-paced learning experience throughout the whole school year, 我们一起学中文！

• GOAL of 8th grade Mandarin class

     Our goal is that by the end of middle school,  8th grade students will be ready on the path of Intermediate level, according to ACTFL guidelines.

• Classroom Routines

    Review Homework

    Chinese customs (Culture corner)

    Reinforcement Activity

    New Lesson  

    Review of Lesson

    Assign Homework  

    Makes mistakes = takes risks:  While I want students to be accurate, I emphasize that the goal is   to successfully communicate in real world.  Mistakes are a part of the process!

• Grading in detail

During this school year, we have to examine 5 academic elements in language ability and give standardized reports back to parents/ guardians. They are:

Speaking/ Listening/ Writing/ Reading/ Intercultural communication & Learning Habit

• Speaking (presentational/ interpersonal)

Speaking tasks include formal and informal speaking practices such as role-plays, topic discussions, picture talk, gallery walk, paired work to brainstorm ideas , interviews and presentations.

• Listening (interpretive )

Formative work in listening comprehension (or oral interactions) is a vital component in developing students’ language skills.

• Reading (interpretive)

Tasks for reading include a variety and range of texts, chosen by the teacher as appropriate for the students’ level (textbook passages, magazine and newspaper articles, short stories, receipts, brochures, ads).

• Writing (presentational)

Tasks for writing include letter writing, advertisements, essays, creative writing, presentations, etc.

• Intercultural communication 

This is interesting aspect of our curriculum for this year that we’ve had it for last year, we will start introducing Culture elements into instructions  as a way to provide students with understanding of Chinese culture and appreciation of different cultures.

This year, we apply standards-based  grading systems to show students progress (Meeting / Progressing/ Beginning on 5 elements listed below). Students will have formative and summative exams/projects periodically and they will be introduced to grading rubrics to understand their progress at the beginning and the end of each exam. 

There will be  one other criteria for learning attitude, which is : Learning habit which will be graded as “Constant/ Often/ Sometimes” as we focus on class behaviors and homework completion.

8th Grade Standards

Reading: Identifies the general topic, basic information and details from a variety of text types by using previously learned material, cognates and inferences. Can provide evidence to support conclusions.

Listening/Viewing: Identifies the general topic, basic information and details from a variety of live, audio or video samples. Can provide evidence to support conclusions.

 Writing : Produces spoken/written information, with accuracy, using a variety of words, phrases, and simple sentences with connecting ideas, details and elaboration.

Speaking: Communicates with accuracy in spontaneous spoken/written language. Generates and sustains a conversation by applying grade level content and vocabulary.

Intercultural Communication: Identifies typical products and practices related to familiar everyday life in the target culture. Makes comparisons between their own culture(s) and the target culture(s) to demonstrate an understanding of perspectives. 

Efforts and participation are the keys to success in this class. Being an active participant means speaking in Mandarin every day, being respectful of classmates and teachers,  and taking part in all activities to reach  a purposeful learning goal. 

• Homework policy

Students will have Mandarin homework almost at the end of each session,  except for LPS “No Homework Dates.” You should spend 20 minutes per day on Mandarin homework as a routine. Homework will be posted to the Google Classroom  as well as written in teaching slides.

1) Any work turned in with machine-translated sentences/ phrases will be returned and asked to redo it.

2) Parents/ guardians will receive notification in  emails of your child's frequent Late/missed homework.

 Detailed  information of Quiz, projects and language proficiency test and Academic Honesty policy in Syllabus

In the plan of 3-year language class, We aim on covering 17 units, which are listed below.

• Contents of course for 6th /  7th / 8th grades

Far Eastern Youth Chinese textbook     

Book Level 1: 

Unit 1: Learning PinYing and Chinese Characters 拼音和汉字

Unit 2: Chinese People 中国人

Unit 3: Chinese Names 中国名字

Unit 4: Students of Chinese 中文学生

Unit 5: My Family 我的家

Unit6: My younger brother 我的弟弟

Unit 7: Animals 动物

Unit 8: My birthday 我的生日

Unit 9:  Speaking Chinese 说中文

Unit 10: Chinese breakfast 中国早饭

Unit 11:  Fruit 水果

Book Level 2:

Unit1:    My school 我的学校

Unit2： Go to school by bus 坐校车上学

Unit3:    A Day of Mine 我的一天 

Unit4： Today's Weather 今天的天气

Unit5:   Activities 活动 （Not yet covered in year 2023-2024）

Unit 6: 4 treasures 文房四宝

Unit 7:  Souvenir market 小商品市场

Unit8: Buying clothes 买衣服

Unit9:   Chinese Food 中国菜

Unit10： Chinese restaurant 中国饭馆