Contents

Anglo European School Mandarin Excellence Programme Delivery Model ……………………………………… 4

Special events and features 6

Recruitment 7

Resources for the MEP language taster lesson (PowerPoint). 14

Resources for the MEP language taster lesson (Starter activity) 18

Schemes of Work & Resources 30

Easy Steps to Chinese Scheme of Work for Year 7 MEP (Anglo European School) 30

Classroom Tally Sheets 71

Classroom Language Matching Sheet 72

Adding resources, files, folders and links 84

MEP Group Folders 85

Year 7 Chinese New Year Week – Example information poster for Form Rooms 89

Year 7 Chinese New Year Week – CNY booklet 90

Year 7 Chinese New Year week – Quiz 101

Year 7 Chinese New Year week – Quiz (Answers) 102

MEP Enrichment Week – Chinatown Restaurant Vocabulary 112

Monitoring Progress 114

Mandarin Excellence Programme Year 7 Mock Writing Test. 135

Writing Test Mark Scheme 139

Anglo European School: Mandarin Excellence Programme Delivery Model (2016-2017)

Delivery of taught and non-taught teaching hours

In terms of extracurricular activities, the majority of students chose to attend an additional language and culture lunchtime club once a week, which while not compulsory, gave them further insight and experience of Chinese culture. We ran a visit to the Southbank Centre for their ‘Changing China’ festival in December, as well as an MEP Enrichment Week in May, where students taught Mandarin lessons at a local Primary School, worked with the rock band Transition to compose their own songs in Mandarin, completed language tasks and ordered their lunch in Chinatown London, and took part in a Chinese History and Film workshop with James Trapp. Some of our students were invited to present in Mandarin at the House of Lords in January and a group of students performed a Mandarin song and won an award at our annual school Eistedfodd concert. We also hosted students from a Chinese Primary School for a two week visit.

Delivery strategy

We chose to use Easy Steps to Chinese 1 Textbooks and Workbooks as our main resource, supplemented by Easy Steps to Chinese 2 and Jinbu 1. In addition, we used a self-made vocabulary and exercise booklet alongside the Easy Steps books. I chose to use Easy Steps for the following reasons:

5. We already used this textbook with Year 9 lunchtime students and so I had lots of resources already

I tried to ensure that all four skills were taught in every lesson through a combination of self-made resources, online resources, exercises in the textbooks/workbooks, as well as supplementary resources such as GoChinese and the MEP student projects. McGraw-Hill’s Chinese Pronunciation book was particularly helpful for intensive pronunciation and tones practice. Pronunciation Games (Mark Hancock) also proved to be an invaluable resource and I developed my own ‘Pronunciation Journey Map’ to aid students with speaking practice. Students often used animated characters and mini whiteboards to aid writing practice, as well as character stroke practice sheets. Activities such as Card Chain, Battleships, Random Numbers, Spot the Odd One Out, Matching exercises, Whiteboard Challenge, James Bond, Pyramid sentences, Popcorn sentences, Spot the character mistake, etc. all proved to be popular activities.

Pupil selection and retention

3. June 2016: We wrote to all Headteachers to ask them whether they would recommend the student for the programme on the basis of the level of independent study required, whether they have shown any interest in other languages/cultures, and how they thought they would cope with a visit to China in Year 8/Year 9. We did not ask for an academic reference/prediction of SATS results.

4. June 2016: On the basis of the taster lesson, Headteacher comment and assessment, we then selected 30 students and wrote to parents to ask them to complete a reply slip if they still wished their child to join the MEP. We made the level of commitment very clear in our letter to parents.

Special events and features

• December: Took all of the MEP class to the Changing China Festival held at the Southbank Centre. Four of our students were also asked to share their experiences learning Chinese and introduce themselves in Chinese

• January: In celebration of Chinese New Year, all students in Year 7 took part in a week of Chinese themed activities during their lessons. These activities included making dumplings in technology, doing tai ch’i in PE, creating stain glass window cuttings in Art, learning about traditional Chinese instruments in Music, acting Mulan in Drama, taking part in a murder mystery involving the 12 zodiac animals in Maths, making and launching rockets in Science and studying Confucius and Daoism in RS. The MEP students also did calligraphy during the week

• March: 8 students performed in Chinese at Eistedfodd, Anglo European School’s annual international concert

• May: MEP Enrichment Week - students taught Mandarin lessons at a local Primary School, worked with the rock band Transition to compose their own songs in Mandarin, completed language tasks and ordered their lunch in Chinatown London, and took part in a Chinese History and Film workshop with James Trapp

Recruitment

Example letter to parents introducing the programme and inviting them to apply (May 2016)

Learning Chinese is an exciting, challenging and hugely rewarding experience. China is one of the world’s oldest and richest cultures, with over 5000 years of history and the world’s longest continuous writing system. China is also the most populous nation in the world and Chinese is spoken by one fifth of the world’s population – Mandarin Chinese is spoken not only in the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, but also by Chinese communities in other Asian countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Mongolia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. In today’s global society, speaking Mandarin and having an understanding of Chinese culture is hugely important and with the thriving Chinese economy, its importance is only set to increase.

The Department for Education’s Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) will be delivered by University College, London’s Institute Of Education Confucius Institute in partnership with the British Council. The purpose of the programme is to deliver a minimum of 5,000 speakers of Mandarin on their way to a high level of fluency by 2020.

Curriculum Offer:

Students will learn Chinese as a single language option in Year 7. This means students will have sufficient time and focus to build the foundation they need to make real progress in the language and would also have the advantage that they can continue with the rest of their curriculum as normal. This group would have:-

• 1 week Chinese summer school

Year 8/9:

Only 30 students can be selected to take part in this programme. If you would like your child to be considered, please complete the initial expression of interest below and return to the school by [date].

Those interested will be invited to a parent meeting prior to the Induction Day to introduce the programme in greater depth. During this period, we will contact your current Headteacher to seek a reference on your child to ensure they feel they will be able to cope with the level of independent study required and the intensity of the immersion courses.

Example letter to Headteachers asking them for a reference (March 2017)

Dear Headteacher

Re: Mandarin Excellence Programme

Yours sincerely…

Example letter to parents inviting their child to attend a taster morning (April 2017)

Dear Parents

We are delighted by the positive response of parents towards the programme for September. As you are aware, we are only able to offer places to 30 students. We would therefore like to invite your child to a taster morning of Chinese language learning and cultural activities to engage their interest and allow the Subject Leader for Chinese, [name of teacher], to make some more detailed assessments and conduct a Mandarin aptitude test. We are also in the process of contacting your current Headteacher to seek a reference on your child to ensure they feel they will be able to cope with the level of independent study required and the intensity of the immersion courses. 

10:45-11:00 - Break with squash and biscuits provided. Some students from our current MEP Year 7 class will also join to talk to students during the break.

11:00-12:00 - Session 2. Students will be split into groups for either a language taster lesson, or carousel of cultural activities, such as Tai Ch’i and Calligraphy.

Yours sincerely…

Mandarin Taster Day & Aptitude Test Timetable: Morning Session

Resources for the MEP language taster lesson (PowerPoint).

Resources for the MEP language taster lesson (Starter activity)

Mandarin Aptitude Test

Part 1

How many of the colours we have learnt can you remember? Write the pinyin and English from the selection in the boxes next to each character. The first one is done as an example for you. [2 marks for each question]

Pinyin: __________ English: _________

Pinyin: __________ English: _________

2. Child _____

3. Field _____

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Part 5

Example MEP offer letter (May 2017)

If you accept this offer, your child will be part of the [Form Group 7C] and will study Mandarin Chinese for four hours a week on timetable for the next five years until the end of Year 11. They will sit a GCSE in Mandarin Chinese and may also obtain other internationally recognised qualifications, such as HSK, China’s language proficiency test. As part of the programme, your child will also attend summer immersion courses most summers, either in the UK or in China, as well as enrichment days in school and cultural trips to London. All of these visits and enrichment opportunities will be heavily subsidised by the DfE and Hanban (a public institution affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education) and any cost incurred will be minimal. It is our aim that by the end of the five years, your child will be on track towards a very high level of fluency in Mandarin Chinese.

Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world and is therefore one of the most important languages for the UK’s future. By taking part in the Mandarin Excellence Programme, your child will be getting a head start in life by mastering this vital skill at an early stage. However, consideration must be given to the five year commitment required as well as the expectation that your child will attend the summer immersion courses and complete between two to four hours of Mandarin homework a week.

Example European Languages offer letter (May 2017)

Dear Parent

Schemes of Work & Resources

Easy Steps to Chinese Scheme of Work for Year 7 MEP (Anglo European School)

Jinbu Scheme of Work for Year 7 MEP (Dartford Grammar School)

Electronic copies of these sample Schemes of Work for the Mandarin Excellence Programme can also be found here:

Student Projects

https://mandarinexcellence.edublogs.org/mep-resources/year-8/ (Year 8 Student Projects)

Teacher’s Notes for Student Projects

Background to the Student MEP Projects

The projects have been designed with flexibility in mind. Whilst we have offered suggestions in terms of how long each project will take and the order they would be best used in, ultimately you know best what will work with your students. If you feel that a task within a project needs altering, or removing, you are perfectly entitled to do so, to fit your requirements. Obviously, when thinking about time expectations to complete each project, this is dependent on the other work you are also asking your students to complete outside of the classroom, which is different for each teacher. So, for example, a project might take one class 2 weeks to complete, and another class 3 weeks to complete.

Some teachers have structured use of the projects in such a way that their entire class is working on one or two specific projects for a set amount of time. After completion, time is incorporated into the taught hours to review the projects, share what they have learnt and consolidate any new language. Other teachers may choose to not review the work, and rely on students to check the answers via the links provided on the project; it is up to you.

We have given estimated timings for each task within the project in the teacher’s notes, as well as an overall estimated time. We have NOT included them in the projects to be handed to students, as we felt it would place undue pressure. Should you find that your students are taking significantly longer/ shorter amounts of time, please do let us know so that we can adjust the notes.

Order and Grade of the Projects

Suggested Order of Projects (Year 7)

Project Name	Series Type/ content	Difficulty
Learning Chinese through Technology	ICT	1
Please Vote for Me	Film	1
The First Emperor & the Terracotta Army	History	1
The Great Wall	History	1
Ode to Chinese	Songs	2
The Land that is China	Geography	2
Chinese Diary (1)	Personal	2
Manhua	Personal/ Culture	2
Lost Cowboy	Songs	2
Martial Arts- Kung Fu	Culture	2-3
The People and Languages of China	Geography	3
Chinese Literature	Culture	3
Daddy, Where are we Going?	Film/ Culture/ Geography	3
Shopping, Chinese Style	Culture/ Geography	3

Suggested Order of Projects (Year 8)

Classroom Language Sheets

非常好！ fēicháng hǎo! Excellent!

请坐 qǐng zuò Please sit

请举手 qǐng jǔshǒu Put up your hand

我说，你们听 wǒ shuō, nǐmen tīng Listen to me say it

好了吗？ hǎo le ma? Are you ready?

好了/还没好 hǎo le / hái méi hǎo Ready / Not yet

我不知道 wǒ bù zhīdào I don’t know

对不起，我忘了 duìbùqǐ, wǒ wàng le… Sorry, I forgot…

Classroom Tally Sheets

Classroom Language Matching Sheet

我忘了...

Extension/consolidation ideas & self-access resources

• Spend 15 minutes a week completing reading exercises on GoChinese

• Set my phone to Chinese and try to text my friends in Chinese

• Make a list of the characters I often write incorrectly and practise writing these until I have learnt how to write them from memory

• Write rainbow characters to help me remember how to write complicated characters

• Record myself reading vocabulary lists on my phone and then listen to the words and see if I can remember what they mean

• Spend 15 minutes a week completing listening exercises on GoChinese

To improve my speaking, I can…

• Record myself reading new vocabulary and then listen to the pronunciation on pleco and see if I can hear the difference

Edmodo – Joining Instructions

2. Fill out the registration form and select the “Sign Up” button to complete the sign up process.

3. The first time you log in you will need to set up your own group. You may never use that working group, or you can use it for your own personal use. Edmodo will not allow you to complete the sign up process without creating a group.

Joining the Mandarin Excellence Programme Edmodo Group

If the Group does not appear on the left side of the homepage, click the ‘Notifications’ button on the toolbar and you should be able to choose the option to join the group.

3. Click on the group (Mandarin Excellence Programme) to reveal the posts.

Adding a new post / starting a conversation and replying to a previous post

Adding resources, files, folders and links

To add a resource (Word Document, Image, Video) you can either:

1. Attach the resource in a new post. Please state clearly what the resource is e.g. Y7 scheme of work / Y8 activity / Y7 lesson plan etc. This will help us to save the resources in an appropriate place for future access (see MEP Group Folders below).

MEP Group Folders

• Year 7

  • Curriculum / Scheme of Work

• • Lesson Plans

  • Resources & Activities

Using the resources in the folders

Useful Online/app based Teaching Resources (as recommended by the MEP Expert Panel)

The following resources are recommendations made by teachers on the Expert Panel formed by the Department for Education.

General teaching resources

Particular recommendations

Cultural activities & Extra Curricular ideas

Year 7 Chinese New Year Week – Example letter to parents

Chinese New Year falls on January 28^th this year and it will be the Year of the Rooster. In celebration of the Chinese New Year, Year 7 will be doing a range of Chinese related activities in their lessons during the week beginning Monday 23^rd January; including making dumplings in Technology, stain glass window paper-cutting in Art, exploring traditional Chinese music and playing an authentic Erhu in Music, and learning about the story of Mulan in Drama. In addition, the canteen will serve a Chinese-themed meal on Wednesday 25^th January. Your child will be given an introduction lesson on the Chinese New Year during their Tutor Period on Thursday 26^th January, where they will also be given a booklet with information about the Chinese New Year.

We hope that your child will enjoy exploring a different culture during this week, which forms an integral part of our distinctive international curriculum.

Year 7 Chinese New Year Week – Example information poster for Form Rooms

Here are a few things you can look forward to in your lessons this week…

English: Exploring Chinese newspapers & poetry

French: Exploring the Chinese New Year in French

PE: Table tennis competition (boys); Tai ch’i lesson (girls)

Music: Exploring traditional Chinese music using the pentatonic scale; opportunity to play an authentic erhu

On Wednesday 25^th January, there will also be a special Chinese New Year meal in the canteen!!

English: Exploring Chinese poetry

Mathematics: Chinese New Year Maths Challenge; Mathematical murder mystery involving the 12 Chinese animals; Tangrams

PE: Table tennis competition (boys); Tai ch’i lesson (girls)

Technology: Dumpling making

Drama: Exploring the story of Mulan and women’s rights in Chinese society at that time

… and much, much more!!

What are the characteristics of these different animals?

___________________________________________________________

Chinese New Year is the main Chinese festival of the year and is not a religious event. There are many traditions and stories linked with it.

The date of Chinese New Year changes from year to year. It corresponds to the new moon (black moon) in either late January or February. Traditionally, celebrations last for fifteen days, ending on the date of the full moon. In China the public holiday lasts for seven days.

Chinese New Year Customs

Families put lights up outside their homes and doors and windows are often newly painted in red. On New Year’s Eve, decorations called ‘Hui Chun’ made of red and gold paper are hung down the doors to bring good luck. They have messages wishing happiness, prosperity and long life.

Red is a lucky colour and is supposed to frighten off the monster Nian who is thought to come on New Year’s Eve. The colour gold represents wealth.

The Lion Dance

As the lion moves from place to place he looks for green vegetables such as lettuces which are hung above the doors of houses. Hidden in the leaves is a red packet of money. The lion eats the lettuce and packet, then scatters lettuce leaves to symbolise a fresh start for the New Year and the spreading of good luck.

The Lantern Festival

The celebrations end on the fifteenth day with ‘The Festival of Lanterns’. Everywhere is decorated with lanterns of different sizes and in the streets there is music and dancing.

Chinese people think of dragons as helpful, friendly creatures. They are linked to good luck, long life and wisdom - nothing like the fierce, fire-breathing Western dragons.

Chinese Dragons are associated with storm clouds and life-giving rain. They have special powers so they can fly in the air, swim in the sea and walk on land. The Dragon has features of other animals such as the horns of a stag, the scales of a fish and the footpads of a tiger.

3. When is Chinese New Year celebrated? _______________________________________________________

4. How many people celebrate Chinese New Year worldwide? _______________________________________________________

7. What colour should you wear for New Year’s celebrations? _______________________________________________________

8. According to Chinese custom, on New Year’s Day, you shouldn’t…

_______________________________________________________

11. Why do street celebrations often include a lion dance?

_______________________________________________________

13. What happens on the 15^th day of the New Year? What is the celebration called?

_______________________________________________________

15. What characteristics do dragons have in China?

Chinese New Year Greetings & Songs  ♫ ♪

1. In Chinese, __________ sounds like "getting higher year by year". In Chinese people's mind, the higher you are, the more prosperous your business is.

2. __________ are the most popular and abundant fruit during the Chinese New Year. They represent luck or good fortune.

Make a Chinese New Year card

Sample:

Year 7 Chinese New Year week – Quiz

2. How many nations border China?

1. 15 B. 5 C. 10 D. 14

5) How many different Chinese ethnic groups are recognised in China?

A. 50 B. 35 C. 56 D. 14

8) How many animals are there in the Chinese zodiac?

A. 10 B. 11 C. 12 D. 14

11) What is the name of the current Chinese President?

A. Hu Jintao B. Deng Xiaoping C. Xi Jinping D. Mao Zedong

Year 7 Chinese New Year week – Quiz (Answers)

How many nations border China?

D. 14

5) How many different Chinese ethnic groups are recognised in China?

C. 56

C. 12

9) What is the animal for the coming Chinese New Year?

C. Xi Jinping

Year 7 Chinese New Year week – Script for ‘Nian’ play written and performed by MEP class

Scene 2

， 。 ， 。 ， 。 。 。

， 。 、。 ， 。 、 。 。

One year, an old man came to the village. He was very clever and brave. He told the villagers not to be afraid of the monster because he could defeat it. He taught them to hang up lots of lanterns and set off firecrackers. The whole village was noisy and bright.

， ， 。 ， ， 。 ， 、 ， ， “ ”。

The villagers came back to their homes. When they found that the monster had run away, they were really excited. They wore new clothes and made delicious food to celebrate. From that day on, at this time of year, people celebrate in the same way, by hanging up lanterns and setting off firecrackers. They call the day “guonian.”

MEP Enrichment Week - Student Timetable

MEP Enrichment Week – Lesson plan for local Primary School

• Think carefully about what resources you will need and make sure they are ready before the class comes in

• Plan a starter/lead-in activity when students first come in to the classroom (e.g. you could put some questions about the One Child Policy on the projector and ask them to discuss in pairs/put up the 6 colours and ask them to guess what each colour represents/play the Transition song and ask them where they think it is filmed and why/ask them to look at the example origami and see if they can work out how they were made…)

MEP Enrichment Week – Chinatown Quiz

• Look at the signs for Gerrard Street – ‘street’ 中文怎么写？___________________________________________________________

• Look on the shop/restaurant doors – can you find the characters for ‘open’? Write them here: ___________________________________________________________

• 这是什么？_______________________________________

Joy Luck Restaurant

• ‘點心’英文什么意思？_____________ Can you write the simplified characters and pinyin? ___________________________________________________________

• Can you guess what 小菜 means in English? ___________________________________________________________

• What is the character on the ‘Year of the Rooster’ posters? What does it mean? ___________________________________________________________

• Why are there waving cats in the shop window? ___________________________________________________________

• 一盒樱桃多少钱？___________________________________________________________

INTERVIEW (CHALLENGE!!)…

MEP Enrichment Week – Chinatown Restaurant Vocabulary

nǐ hǎo ， qǐng gěi wǒ mén cài dān

你 好， 请 给 我 们 菜 单。

wǒ men xiǎng yào

我 们 想 要 ……

qǐng bāng wǒ jiā shuǐ

请 帮 我 加 水。

qǐng duō gěi wǒ men （how many）shuāng kuài zǐ

请 多 给 我 们（how many） 双 筷 子。

qǐng gěi wǒ men zhǐ jīn

请 给 我 们 纸 巾。

qǐng wèn ，wèi shēng jiān zài nǎ lǐ?

请 问， 卫 生 间 在 哪 里？

Monitoring Progress

Student Tracker & Level 1-9 Descriptors

Record of results:

Reflection on assessments:

虽然做老师很累，但是我觉得很有意思。(Although it’s tiring being a teacher, I think it is very interesting)

除了。。。以外，也。。。(chúle… yǐwài…yě) Apart from... also...

我觉得看电影不但好玩，而且也可以让我放松。(I think watching films is not only fun, but can also help me relax)

先。。然后。。。 (xiān… ránhòu…) First, then...

我觉得看电视比看书好玩。(I think watching TV is more fun than reading books)

跟/和。。。一样 (yīyàng) Comparison

打网球又有意思又好玩。(Playing tennis is both interesting and fun)

一边。。。一边。。。 (yībiān) While... at the same time...

我对电影很有兴趣。(I am really interested in films)

得 (de) To comment on an action

Connectives

和 = and (used for nouns with the same verb) 我喜欢网球和足球。

要 (yào) = will

我明年打算上大学 (I plan to go to university next year)

前年 (qián nián) = the year before last

后年 (hòu nián) = the year after next

明天 = tomorrow

前天 = the day before yesterday

上个月 (shàng gè yuè) = last month

下个月 (xià gè yuè) = next month

每个星期 = every week

很少 (hěn shǎo) = rarely

Speaking prompts

General question phrases

_____ = this photo was taken in…

，。。。 = on the photo, is…

。。。 = In the future I plan to…

， ， = There are ads & disads, e.g.

Picture based speaking task

。。。 = First of all, I’d like to introduce…

， = Sorry, please can you say it again

对不起，我不懂（dǒng） = Sorry, I don’t understan

Mandarin Excellence Programme Year 7 Mock Speaking Test

Look at the picture below about Jane’s family

Speaking Test Mark Scheme

Section 1

To be marked out of 6

• 10 marks for language

To be marked out of 4

• 4 marks for impression

Speaking Test Mark Sheet

Mandarin Excellence Programme Year 7 Mock Writing Test.

Look at the picture and write 3 sentences which are related to it.

[15 marks]

Question 3

• what pets you have

• what you like doing in the evenings.

Writing Test Mark Scheme

• 6 marks for communication (2 marks per sentence)

• 4 marks for accuracy of characters and structures

A candidate writing 2 short sentences can only gain a maximum of 4 for accuracy of characters and structures.

A candidate writing 2 sentences, one of which is longer and includes a connective, can be marked as if they had written 3 sentences.

• 10 marks for characters and structure

Writing Test Mark Sheet