Module 4 - How do I love thee assignment

Annotation

        My content area is teaching Chinese writing and speaking to non-native Chinese speaking students. Based on my teaching experience, students have found it difficult to recognize Chinese characters as they are different than phonetic letters, and it is even more challenging for the students to remember the correct order and rules that govern written Chinese characters. Thus, developing a strategy to help students remember the rules when they are writing becomes crucial.

        In writing Chinese characters, the rules in general follow a specific order: left to right; up to down; start from outside, but finish inside first, then complete the outside; the dot (a Chinese character stroke) should be the last step. The Chinese character writing process can be analogized as building a house backwards: instead of from the bottom, this funny house will be built from the top; instead of completing from the outside first, this funny house will start from the outside, then go to inside before finishing up the outside; the person stands on the top to have a view once the house finishes is analogized that the little dot should be the last step. Thus, below is the poem that applies this analogy to my teaching content.

Poem:

To write Chinese characters

Is like to build a funny house

Just remember—

They both need to follow rules

And they are—

From left to right

From up to down

Start from the outside, but finish the inside first

Before complete the outside

Oh, you want to have a view?

Sure! Please stand on the top of the building~

What do you see?

To put a little dot as the last step to complete

Great job! Builders and writers!

Xin Wang