Grade 7: Acquiring Information

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

obtain information from age-appropriate Chinese-language resources to complete authentic tasks
convey acquired information in oral, visual, and simple written forms

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Acquiring Information in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Students at this level continue to seek information by using common Chinese expressions and question patterns. They should be encouraged to access simple information in Chinese using a variety of available resources (e.g., community, family, print material, electronic media).

Have students view place mats and menus from a Chinese restaurant to learn the names of dishes and utensils. Students could use this information to role-play ordering meals in restaurants.
Record simple phone messages and play them for the class. Ask students to determine who called, who they called for, and what time they called. Students take turns conveying the messages to one another verbally.
Show the class weather charts from a Chinese newspaper and play videos of the day's weather forecast. Ask students to identify and list weather-related words such as sunny and rainy. Form groups of four and ask them to prepare weather reports and weather charts. Each group then presents a TV weather report using its weather chart, providing drawings or symbols as visual aids. Presentations could be recorded on video.
Suggest that students search for Chinese-related news groups on the Internet by accessing Chinese web sites. Have them note as much information as they can from one source and present it to the class.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Students at this level are often able to engage in simple oral or written activities using information they have acquired, although they may also need to rely on visual representations (e.g., sketches, posters). Assessment should focus on students' abilities to use their language strategies to obtain the information they need.

When students role-play restaurant scenes or summarize information in telephone messages, look for evidence that they are able to:
- recognize key information
- recall and use familiar vocabulary and patterns
- use the context to anticipate the meaning of what people say
- take risks to make predictions or inferences about what they hear
- use words and patterns they know to make predictions about the meaning of new language
Work with students to develop criteria for assessing their weather charts. For example, to what extent is the information:
- detailed and complete
- accurate
- understandable
- presented using appropriate language patterns
As students work with a greater variety of Chinese-language information sources, look for evidence that they are increasingly able to:
- ask appropriate questions to find the information or details they need
- focus on key words, phrases, and ideas
- make logical inferences based on language they recognize
- persevere to make meaning out of language that seems very difficult at first
- replicate some of the patterns they encounter

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

Print Material

Concise English-Chinese/Chinese-English Dictionary (Oxford)
Long is a Dragon

Video

The Dragon's Tongue Series

Multimedia

Chinese Mandarin Resource Book - Volumes 1, 2, and 3
Zhongguotong

Last Modified: March 24, 1999

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