Adlai E Stevenson High School

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Course Syllabus
Course Title: Mandarin Chinese 1
Course Number: CHI101/CHI102
Grade Level: 9-10-11-12
Semester Offered: Full year

Course Description:
Mandarin Chinese 1 is an introduction to Chinese language and culture. It is designed for
students who are not heritage/native speakers. In this course, students begin to develop
proficiency in the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. By the end of the
course, students will be able to communicate in Mandarin (the spoken language) and Hanzi (the
written language) in a basic way on topics revolving around their immediate world: Me, My
Family, My Friends, My School, My Daily Life, and My Leisure Time. In addition, students also
examine the uniqueness of Chinese culture, using their own culture and experiences to detect
cultural differences in and outside of the Chinese speaking world.

Prerequisite:
None

Instructor:
Name: Michelle Wei-Cheng (Wei Laoshi)
Office Number: 2434
Telephone number: 847.415.4737
Email address: mcheng@d125.org
Webpage address: http://weilaoshi.weebly.com/

Meeting Time and Room:
Period 2: 9:05 am - 9:55 am Room: 2916
Period 4: 10:55 am - 11:45 pm Room: 2916
Period 6: 12:45 pm - 1:35 pm Room: 2812

Texts/Materials:
No textbooks will be used in this course. Instructor-created and additional supplemental
materials will be posted on Haiku Learning - https://district125.haikulearning.com/. Students are
expected to have their iPads (fully-charged), pencils, and pens of varied colors. A folder or
inch 3-ring-binder just for Chinese is also required.


Student Expectations:
Mandarin Only!
When you walk into this class, you will be entering a world where only Mandarin is spoken. This
not only will be a fun experience but also enable you to understand and speak more Mandarin in
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a shorter period of time. For most of you, this is really the only time you can be immersed in
Mandarin after all. At the beginning you might find it frustrating, but you will be very proud of
yourselves and cant wait to show off you Mandarin sooner than you expect.

How to be successful in this class?
Stay in Mandarin (Keep your cheat-sheet of classroom survival expressions in your
Chinese folder)
Be in class daily, be punctual and to be prepared
Be willing to take risks and dont be afraid to make mistakes or be laughed at
Be kind and respectful to the teacher and others
Be sensitive to others culture
Participate actively and cooperatively in all activities
Review (e.g. 10 minutes on listening/speaking, 10 minutes in writing characters daily)
and reflect frequently
Practice with heritage/native Mandarin-speakers whenever possible

Start of the Class
You must be in your assigned seat and prepare to work as soon as you walk into the classroom.
Daily warm-up activity will either be placed at the desk near the door or displayed on the screen.
You will only have a few minutes to work on it. You will take one as you walk in and write your
name and date on the paper, which will be collected at the end of the week.

During Class
Eating is permitted in class as long as it does not interfere with class activities. Dont forget
to clean up afterwards.
Bathroom/locker/dorm passes are privileges and are not necessary. If you absolutely needs
to use one, you are expected to request politely in Chinese.
Selling for fundraisers need to be pre-approved by the teacher and needs to be done before
the 2
nd
bell or after the class.

Dismissal at the end of class
You will be dismissed by the teacher at the end of the period, not by the bell. Do not pack your
backpack until your teacher indicates that it is time to do so.


Assessment Practices, Procedures, and Processes:
This course will be using Evidence-Based Reporting. Therefore, a students grade truly reflects
his/her learning progress for the objectives of the course (See Chinese 1 Learning Targets). In a
traditional grading system, a students grades on various assignments and assessments are
averaged. Evidence-Based Reporting, however, gives a grade based on the students most
recent demonstration of learning.

Evidence-Based Reporting in Chinese class focuses on the three modes of communication:
Presentational, Interpersonal, and Interpretive. Formative assessments take place at regular
intervals during instruction to check for understanding and mastery of the skills. Throughout the
semester, information about students' skills in each learning target is gathered using the
following scale:

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4 Exceeds Expectations of Mastery of Learning Target
3 Demonstrates Mastery of Learning Target
2 Mastery of Learning Target is In Progress
1 Not Yet Making Progress or Making Minimal Progress toward Learning Target Mastery

Students will have the opportunity to present evidence of their achievement toward each
learning target throughout the semester.

How to track your progress online?
Visit http://tableau.d125.org/auth/ and login with your Gmail credentials to view your progress
projected grade in class.

How to calculate your final grade?
Official progress reports and term grades will no longer reflect letter grades, but provide
feedback as in progress, incomplete, or F (failing to demonstrate progress). In the Infinite
Campus grade book itself, a current projection of the final grade is possible at any time via a
two-step process:

Final Grades Step 1: Determine the grade in each mode of communication
The students final grade for each of the modes will be based on a modal interpretation of their
scoreor simply which score appears most frequently. The first majority score is the score
(4,3,2,1) that appears most often in a given mode. The second majority score is the score that
appears second most frequently in the mode. The combination of these two will be placed on
the double majority matrix below, providing an overall score for that mode. For example, if a
students most frequent score in the Interpersonal Mode is a 4, and the second most frequent
score is a 3, the student would have a 4-3, or a score of 4 overall in Interpersonal Mode. A video
demonstrating how to use the matrix is at http://www.myebrexperience.com/grade-calculation-
with-ebr.html.

4 3 2 1
4-3 2-4 2-3 1-4
4-2 3-2 2-1 1-3
3-4 4-1 3-1 1-2
Example: 3-4 (First Majority Second Majority) = Final score of 4

Final Grades Step Two: Converting the three modes of communication to one course grade
A: A score of 3 or 4 in each of the three modes of communication (Presentational,
Interpersonal, Interpretive) with 4 in Interpersonal; also, if a student scores a 3 in ALL
targets in each mode of communication
B: A score of 3 in all three modes or a score of 2 in any one mode with grades of 3 or 4 in
the remaining modes
C: A score of 2 in more than one mode and no score of 1
D: At least one score of 1
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F: A score of 1 in each of the three modes
Expectations for End of 1
st
Year Mandarin Chinese Students

Exceeds Expectations Meets Expectations Does Not Meet Expectations
ACTFL Proficiency
Level
Novice Mid Strong Novice Mid
Novice Mid Weak or
Novice Low
Grade A/A- B+/B/B-/C+/C C-/D+/D/D-/F

Sequence of Topics
Me (Personal & Public Identification): basic personal info, numbers, age, dorm address, email
address, negations, classroom expressions, four tones, and radicals/base elements.
Essential questions: Who am I? How does what I do define who I am? (How does studying
Chinese change who I am?)

My Family (Families & Communities): he, she, they; family members, professions,
basic descriptors, possessives, measure words, ordinal numbers, and Pinyin (Romanization).
Essential questions: What is a family? Why are families important?

My Friends (Beauty & Aesthetics, Families & Communities): physical features, grade
level, school height and weight body parts, physical features, state verbs & adjectives for body
parts, colors, address, countries, languages, and people.
Essential questions: How are my friends similar or different from me? What is friendship?

My Daily Life (Contemporary Life): daily schedule (date/time), time expressions, daily
routines, afterschool activities, time spent on doing something, priorities, and lifestyle
Essential questions: How does ones daily routine contribute to ones wellbeing?

My School (Contemporary Life): subjects, teachers, classes, class schedule, school
supplies, classroom procedures, likes/dislikes, and classroom objects.
Essential questions: How can a student be successful in school?

My Leisure Time (Contemporary Life): sports, hobbies, comparisons, interests,
weekend activities, making a date, and leisure cultures.
Essential questions: How is leisure time valued and used in the target culture?