Unit: DINING IN A CHINESE RESTAURANT
Grades 9-12 (High School)
Main
Objectives
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order food and drinks at a Chinese restaurant
comment on foods and drinks to their liking or dislike
identify the components of 10 Chinese characters
read and write 10 Chinese characters in context
Targeted
Students
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Students in Chinese 1: Grades 9-12 students (non-Heritage). In the high
school setting, any 9-12th graders may take Chinese 1.
Oral proficiency at novice-mid
No previous expose to Chinese characters.
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Time
Suggested
10 classes of 80-minute block periods (can be modified for 50-minute classes)
50-minute classes: One day = 2 class periods. Please add your own bell-ringer and
add additional homework assignments to solidify content.
Can-Do
Statements
based on
National
Standards
Communication:
 Ask and respond to simple questions in a Chinese restaurant context
 Ask and respond likes and dislikes using adjective phrases.
 write about their opinion on Chinese dishes/beverage using learned phrases
and memorized expressions.
Cultures:
 Chinese dining manners
 Use of chopsticks
 Identify some Chinese regional foods
Comparisons:
 Comparisons between Chinese and Western dining cultures
Connection:
 Dietary habits of people around the globe
Community:
 Advertise local restaurants
Character
Skills
Students can...
 connect the target characters when hearing their sound
 connect the target characters and words to their meaning
 recognize the target characters and words with help from visuals
 identify the target characters and words in visual of the context
 write the target characters
Summative
Assessment
Assessment 1: Write a blog describing your dining experience in a local restaurant
Assessment 2: Poster advertising project
Grammatical
Features
1. 好 + 動詞 as a describer
2. # + 量詞 + noun
3. 幾 / 多少 + 量詞
4. Suggestive statement with use of 吧
Vocabulary
Set
New speaking words (using pinyin)
飯館，酸辣湯，餃子，菜單，酸，辣 ，味精，麵，白米飯，豆腐，紅茶，綠茶
Measure words: 位，杯，瓶，碗，盤，雙，家
Characters for recognition and writing
好，吃，喝，茶，菜，飯，餓，我，渴，湯
Day 1
Objectives:
 Students can use the ”hǎo+Verb” phrase to express one’s opinion about
foods, drinks, and activities.

Students can develop an awareness of radical "口" in 吃 and 喝.
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Students can develop an awareness of the pictographic structure of 好
combined by 女 and 子.
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Students can connect 吃 and 喝 with help from visuals.
Students can recognize cultural practices associated with dining in a Chinese
restaurant.
Activity 1
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Set the stage. Use the PPT (day1 act1 culture). Watch two short video clips:
the first one shows a traditional Chinese family eating New Year’s Eve dinner
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd0-oKRnwVw); the second one shows a
group of friends ordering Chinese food in a Chinese restaurant.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RKhp71XF-s). The discussion will be in
English. The discussion is crucial as it sets the stage for the Unit.
Following prompts on the KWL handout (day01 act1 KWL), students in groups
of 3 discuss what they see in the video and brainstorm what they know
regarding eating in a Chinese restaurant. (KWL= What do you Know? What
do you Want to know? What have you Learned? (The “L” portion of the
handout can be completed at middle portion of this unit for comprehension
check.)
Students share their results from the discussion with their classmates.
Activity 2
 Teacher summarizes in comprehensible Chinese and supplements cultural
elements linked to the topic. (Please prepare real items or photographs of:
chopsticks, tea, teapots, Chinese dishes.)
Activity 3
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Show the video clip add 好 ： http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASMx2VnOClk.
Point out the pictorgraphs of 女 and 子. The combination of the two
pictographs forms the character 好.
Review learned vocabulary: hǎo, chī, hē, kàn, tīng, wán'r
Use TPR method in combination with PPT (day01 act3 hǎo+verb) to introduce
the ”hǎo+Verb” grammatical point. The teacher will show pictures and
students tell the class their opinions. For example, the students say “hǎochī,
bù hǎochī” when the picture of ice cream is shown.
Extend the opinion from “hǎo+verb” to “hěn hǎo+verb” or bù hǎochī to hěn bù
hǎochī. Teacher can print out PPT slides and solicit students’ opinion about
objects. Divide students into groups of 4 and give them pictures of various
objects. Students share their opinions about things and write their opinions in
Pinyin. For example, lánqiú hěn hǎowán.
Activity 4
 Show the video clip of the meaning part (radical) 口 for 吃.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYyAwtBPMDk&feature=relmfu
 Give each students two characters 吃，喝. The radical 口 is color coded in
both characters to draw students’ attention.
 Students are shown PPT slides (day01 act4 food and drink) to match

characters 吃，喝.
Teacher shows each picture in the PPT and solicits students to say "chī" or
"hē", holding up the correct character at the same time. For example, for the
first picture of noodles, students respond: 吃面, and hold up the character 吃.
Assignment: Worksheet emphasis on character Recognition (day01 Homework
Character recognition.)
Day 2
Objectives:
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Students can develop an awareness of radical “艹 ” in 菜，茶
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Students can read 菜 and 茶 in context
Students can use measure words in short phrases
Students can use chopsticks
Activity 1
Introduce 菜，茶. Teacher will deliberately ask students to see the shared component
of 菜 and 茶 and explain the radical of “艹 ” . Ask students 中國菜好吃嗎？中國茶好
喝嗎？
Activity 2
 Paired speaking activity. Information gap (day02 act2 information gap).
 Review the country names, 美國，墨西哥，中國，日本 ，德國，義大利
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Practice asking and responding: 你星期一吃什麼菜？我星期一吃日本菜。
Students ask each other what type of cuisines they eat on certain days of the
week. Students will see the character 吃 and 菜.
Teacher selects several students to report what they find out about their
partners’ meal plans.
Activity 3
 Use the PPT in (day02 act3 measure words) to introduce new measure words

位，杯，瓶，碗，盤，雙，家. (Students have already learned the MW 個
and understand the function of measure word in previous lessons.)
Students will express a phrase (# + MW + noun) orally based on each slide.
For example, for the first slide, students respond: 有六位老師。 No need to
speak in complete sentence; that will be asked on Day 4.
Activity 4
 Play ‘Around the world’ to practice phrases (# + MW + noun)
 Preparation-Teacher must create variety of images on items with specific
measure words. Teachers can use the PPT from Activity 3 or visuals from
Flickr. For example: 2 bowls of rice, 1 cup of soda, 1 glass of water, etc.
 Setting the students - students should be seated in a clearly defined
classroom or rows.
 Step 1: Ask 2 students to stand up and teacher shows one picture. The first
student to complete the targeted phrase correctly moves on. The slowerpaced student sits down.
 Step 2: The winner of the pair moves to the next student and the pair
receives another challenge from the teacher. Same concept - the winner
moves on and the loser sits down.
 Step 3: Once teacher has circulated the entire student body. The student
that has moved to most seats from his/her original seat is the ultimate winner
of "Around the World".
Activity 5
Students will count M&Ms using the measure word 個. Students then will use
chopsticks to pick up M&Ms and do a relay.
Homework: Character Recognition Worksheet (day02 Homework character
recognition)
Day 3
Objectives:

Students can develop an awareness of radical " 飠(shí-food)" in 飯，餓.
Students can develop an awareness of radical "氵(shuǐ-water)" in 渴，湯
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Students can connect 飯，餓，我，渴，湯 in context.
Students can express which meal to have according to part of day
Students can understand some of what people are saying in an
announcement related to the unit theme.
Activity 1
 Teacher introduces the meaning of “飯，餓，我” in context using uses TPR
method in combination with character cards. Lead the students to see the 飠
(shí-food)" in 飯，餓. Point out the similar element 我 in 餓.
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Ask students to see the shared radical 氵(shuǐ-water)" in 渴，湯
Teacher can also use the oral phrases to introduce speaking vocabulary in
addition to character elaboration (Day03 Act 1 new oral phrases).
Activity 2
 The class will be divided into 2 groups to play “Who is Louder.” Use (day03
act2 charades-Dashengjiao)
 Practice: The targeted characters will be projected on the board one at a time,
and the students will say the word out loud. Whichever team can say it louder
win a point for their team.
 Competition
o Using the same ppt, they all stand up to participate in a word recognition
competition. The targeted characters will be projected on the board one
at a time. Whoever can say the character correctly raises his/her hand. If
o
o
s/he says the character out loud correctly, s/he gets to sit down.
If s/he says the character correctly and uses it in a grammatically correct
sentence gets to choose a teammate to sit down with him/her.
Whichever team has the least students standing at end of the game (the
duration of the game has been pre-set) wins.
Activity 3
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Listening practice. Teacher will only play the audio for Youtube video 康寶濃

湯: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6LYWPPoJ8&feature=related
Use the guided worksheet (Day03 Act 3 YoutubeWorksheet_TangHaoHaoHe)
Students circle the character they hear in the video.
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Activity 4
 Each student will be given 3 flashcards with one character on each card. They
will go around the classroom to ask their classmates to state the meaning and
pronunciation of each character.
 Then students are asked to make a word or sentence with the character.
Activity 5
 An interpretive task. Read Chinese restaurant signs.
 Teacher will use the handout (Day03 Act 5 Which are Chinese restaurants)
and give students 3 minutes to write on paper.
 Then, teacher will project handout and analyze explicitly Chinese character vs
other Asian “character” for focus on character structure. Teacher may also
elaborate on radicals which associate with restaurant theme.
Homework: Character Recognition Worksheet 3 (Day03 Homework Character
recognition)
Day 4
Objectives:
 Students are aware of Chinese character structures
 Students can arrange Chinese character parts into a whole character

Students can use measure words: 位，杯，瓶，碗，盤，雙，家 in context
Activity 1
 Divide students in pairs.
 Make the cutout from the sheets in (day04 act1 radical cards). The radical
components are in red, the rest of the components in dark blue.
 Provide each pair a set of the cutout of components. Students will play with
the cards and match them to form characters.
Activity 2
 To further enhance their character recognition abilities, they will participate an
activity that is a variation of charades.
 Divide the class in two teams or three teams. Each team sends a
representative to the front of the class facing their teammates.
 The targeted Chinese characters are projected on the board one at a time.
Everyone in the team will act out the meaning for their representatives to
guess. Whoever guesses it right and says it correctly wins a point for his/her
team.
Activity 3
 To help students to use these characters in context, they will play a Taboo
like activity.
 Project the target characters one at a time on the board. Instead of acting out
the Chinese characters projected on board, they provide clues orally for their
teammates to guess. For example, if the character is, the teammates can
describe 你很餓，你想做什麼？ Or 你早上，中午，晚上都要做的事. This is
to build strong circumlocution skills.
Activity 4
 Review the measure words introduced in Day 2, activity3.
 The teacher will use the ppt (Day 4 Act 4 measure words) to reinforce
measure word and have student use them in context. Students are asked to
speak in full sentences.
 The class will play Travel Around the World to further cement these words
described earlier in Day 2.
Activity 5
 Teacher will use ppt (day04 act5 when to eat) to practice at what times they
eat which meal.
 Distribute the list questions (day05 act5 ask questions) and g through each
question to make sure that students understand them.
 Divide students in pairs. Each student chooses 6 questions randomly from
the list to interview his/her partner.
 Once they complete the interview, select several students to report what they
find out about their partners.
 Teacher ask them write the information they gather as homework.
Assessment: Complete an Exit Slip (day04 exit slip).
Homework: Write 6 sentences based on the information you gathered in the last
class activity today.
Day 5
Objectives
Review of Days 1-4 objectives
Activity 1
 Fly-swatter (finger swatter) activity - character recognition and Odd-Man-Out
activity. To play fly-swatter, teacher writes random words or characters. In
pairs, students will hear the said word/character and see who can point to the
character/word first.
 To play Odd-Man-Out, teacher will show using PPT series of characters
(day05 act1 odd man out). Students will say which one does not fit and why.
Activity 2
 Practice listening and word recognition. Use the PPT (day05 act2 aural to
recognition).
 When showing a slide, the teacher says something. If the displayed
character/word is same what the teacher says, students recite the
character/word. If displayed is different than audio, stay quiet.
 After group practice, the teacher can ask a couple of students to the
announcers.
Activity 3
 Review the new speaking words and recognizing characters.
 Give each student a worksheet (day05 act3 find who agree).
 Go through the questions with students first.
 Once the winner appears, Teacher selects some of the questions to solicit
students’ responses.
Activity 4
 Read Unit Text dialogue (day05 act4 dialogue audio)
 Teacher plays recording of text. Ask them what food items they have heard.
 Distribute handout (day05 act4 dialogue text). Teacher plays the recording
again and asks students to circle any food items they can find in the dialogue
script.
 The whole class recites the dialogue in unison first. Teacher makes sure that
they understand the dialogue.
 Divide students in pairs and each pair practices the dialogue.
 Provide each pair the questions (day05 act4 dialogue questions). Students
work in pair to answer the questions orally.
 Learning check: Teacher selects students to present their replies.
Quiz Over Days 1-4 (day05 quiz)
Homework: Assessment 1 (due Day 7)
Write a blog describing your dining experience in a local restaurant. See rubric for
details. (day05 blog assignment handout and rubric)
Day 6
Objectives
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
Review the radicals, 氵食女口艹.
Students can identify and gesture with whole body the 5 different strokes in
Chinese character writing. The sequence: 点，横，竖，撇，捺

Students can write the following characters in correct stroke order: 好，吃，
菜，飯
Activity 1
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Review the radicals and their meanings: 氵食女口艹.
Divide students in pairs. Provide the worksheet (day06 act1 radical exercise).
Check the correctness as a whole class.
Activity 2
 The teacher demonstrates how to write the basic strokes of Chinese
characters. (Day06 Act 1 character writing-好吃菜饭 worksheet 1)

Cloud writing of the characters 好，吃，菜，飯 and then students write it on
dry-erase board
Activity 3
Students write on dry-erase board with two different colored markers. Each student is
only allowed to write one stroke at a time. Teacher will see if students can write the
characters 好，吃，菜，飯 in the correct order.
Blog assignment
Give students some time in this class to work on the blog assignment and provide
assistance if they have questions or need help.
Homework
Character writing: practice character writing, write phrases by combining two
characters and create sentences (Day06 Homework character writing-好吃菜饭
worksheet 2) .
Day 7
Objectives:
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Students can write characters in correct stroke order: 喝，茶，湯
Students can recognize stroke types and stroke orders.
Students can recognize learned characters, words and phrases in this unit
Students can use the new words and sentence patterns to complete a
communicative task
Activity 1
 Review the four characters learned the day before: Students share in small
groups (three or four according to seating chart) what they have made up for
the phrases in the homework.
 Each group chooses the best sentence they hear in the group and they take
turns to shares with the whole group what they have chosen.
Quiz: Dictation 好，吃，菜，飯
Activity 2:
Teacher models writing of the new words: 喝，茶，湯; for guided practice, see
character worksheet #3 (Day07 Act 2 character writing-喝湯茶 worksheet 3).
Activity 3:
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
Review questions for the Information Gap activity: 他喜歡吃什麼菜？他喜歡喝
湯嗎？他喜歡哪國菜？他喜歡喝什麼茶？
Divide students in pairs. In each pair, one student receives the worksheet for
Student A, and one for Student B. The task is to complete the information in
their worksheets by asking information from each other (Day07 Act 3
information gap).
Activity 4: 五子棋 (five-in-a-row GO game)
 Divide students in two teams. One team uses X and the other team uses O.
 Arrange two teams stand in two straight lines. The first student of each team
competes with each other.
 Project the GO game (day07 act4 GO game)
 Decide which team goes first. Then, the contestant chooses a cell. To win
the cell, he/she must read aloud the word/character/phrase in the cell and say
the English meaning. If both correct, place a X or O depending on which
team. Teacher may also ask students to use the words/phrases in context.
(To make the game harder, students are required to use the
characters/words/phrases in context).
 The team first connect a line (either vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line) wins.
For example:
X
X
X
X
X
(There is an online version of this game. See (day07 act4 gomoku.swf). To learn
how to set up new game, see (day07 act4 set up online GO game).
Homework:
Assign the homework in (Day07 Homework character writing-喝汤茶 worksheet 4).
Day 8
Objectives
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

Students can write the characters in correct stroke order: 餓，渴，我
Students can recognize stroke types and stroke orders.
Students can comprehend a journal entry in pinyin and the 10 target
characters.
Activity 1
 Review the three characters learned the day before: Students share in small
groups (three or four according to seating chart) what they have made up for
the phrases in the homework.
 Each group chooses the best sentence they hear in the group and they take
turns to shares with the whole group what they have chosen.
Quiz Dictation 喝，茶，湯
Activity 2
Teacher models writing of the new characters: 餓，渴，我; for guided practice, see
worksheet (Day08 Act 2 character writing-饿我渴 worksheet 5).
Activity 3 字中找趣
Use the PPT to enhance student’s character recognition (Day08 Act 3
GuessCharacter_recognition).
Activity 4 Reading activity
 Divide students in groups of 3 or 4. Students in a group work together to read
the passage (Day08 Act 4 Reading Comprehension Activity). Help each other
understand the meaning, and answer the true/false questions.
 Teacher checks the correctness of the T/F questions.
(Extended Reading: Students will go to website to identify words they can recognize
in blogs or websites. (http://tw.yahoo.com go to 生活，找美食). Or, teacher can
choose a more controlled and simple approach to reading by using restaurant ads
from local newspapers.)
Homework:
 Give students rubric for advertising poster project. (Day10 Poster Handout
Rubric) For the advertising poster project, research a local restaurant and
decide on two or three dishes you like. One beverage that is good. Prepare
pictures and bring materials for working on poster in class.

Day 9
Complete the worksheet (Day08 Homework character writing-饿我渴
worksheet 6)
Objectives
 Students work on the summative project: advertising poster
 Students can read 10 Chinese characters
Activity 1
Review the three words learned the day before: Students share in small groups (three
or four according to seating chart) what they have made up for the character
combinations in the homework. Each group chooses the best sentence they hear in
the group and they take turns to shares with the whole group what they have chosen.
Quiz Dictation on 餓，渴，我
Activity 2
 Review target characters and learned phrases: tic-tac-toe game.
 Divide students in pairs. Each pair first designs a tic-tac-toe. They can use
target characters, pinyin or pictures. See an example (day09 act 2 tic-tac-toe)
 Teacher collects the tic-tac-toe games from each group and redistribute to
different groups.
 In order to place an X or O, one must say the character/word/picture correctly.
Activity 3 Overall review
 Divide students in groups of 3 to review the following items
 Radicals: grass, mouth, water, food, woman.
 Characters (single word): to eat, to drink, tea, dish/cuisine, thirsty, soup,
cooked rice, hungry, I, good.
 Phrases: using the ten characters you’ve learned, combine them into
meaningful phrases
 Name of Chinese dishes: write in pinyin with correct tones.
(answers for each category).

Radicals: 口，艹，氵，食，女

Characters (single word): 吃,喝,茶,菜,渴,湯,飯,餓,我,好


Phrases: using 好吃，好喝，吃飯，吃菜，喝湯，喝茶
Name of Chinese dishes: jiǎozi ,mǐfàn ,suānlàtāng ,mápódòufu ,miàn)
Activity 4
 Use Bingo Game to practice short exchanges.
 The whole class brainstorms together 16 yes/no questions related to the
theme of this unit, such as Nǐ xǐhuan hē chá ma?, Nǐ xǐhuan chī Zhōngguócài
ma? Nǐ è le ma?
 Distribute a bingo game form to students. They write the questions in boxes
randomly and also add a blank for name and answer. (day09 act4 bingo
game interview).
 Students go ground the classroom to interview other students. When they get
a reply ‘yes’, they can write the interviewee’s name, and put an X. If the reply
is ‘no,’ they interview next person.
 The winner is the one who first connects a line.
Homework
Complete homework assignments 1-3 before the Unit Test
Day09 Homework 1 Writing sheet -ten characters for food unit
Day09 Homework 2 Fill in the space of a specific stroke
Day09 Homework 3 VocabWritingSheet_StrippedofRadicals
Day 10
Assessment Presentation (200 minutes) (a sample: Day10 Poster Sample)
Each student will present 1-2 minutes.
Unit Test (60 minutes): The test includes Part 1 and Part 2. Let students complete
Part 1 first and collect the tests, then give them Part 2 (writing) to students. (Day10
Unit Exam Part-1; Day10 Unit Exam Part-2)