Chinese Dynasties Project
Scenario: You are part of a team of television journalists transported back
in time to a famous Chinese dynasty. You have been asked to produce a
“newsmagazine” show (like 60 Minutes or Dateline) about this dynasty.
You will create an episode of your show ready to be presented in the
present day. Each team will be assigned one Chinese dynasty to research
and develop a news-style presentation to the class. The dynasties that will
be covered are:
 Sui
 Tang
 Song
 Yuan
 Ming
Procedure:
Each team of journalists will consist of 3 - 5 members
(depending on class size/teacher discretion). The team will “produce” a
newsmagazine show about their Chinese dynasty. Each team member will
be responsible for creating one segment of the news show, lasting 4-6
minutes.
Requirements:
 An introduction previewing each of your team’s stories.
 Each newscast must have a technological visual aid in it.
 Each team must select a team leader, whose responsibility will be to act
as a link between the group and the teacher. They will be asked to
report the team’s progress.
 Prior to project presentations, each group will be required to turn in an
outline of their presentations. Each segment will be outlined in a wellformed paragraphs or an outline breaking down of what is in each
segment.
 Each group will create a worksheet, with at least 5 questions, that will be
given to the class as a study reference on your dynasty. All questions
must be answered in your newscast!
 When given the opportunity to work on the project in-class, the group
must be productive. If at any time a team is not being productive, it can
have points taken off at the teacher’s discretion. If one member of a
team is unproductive but the rest of the team is following directions,
then the unproductive student will have points taken off.
Segment Information
History: How was this dynasty started? What were some of the important
events that unfolded during this time? How did this dynasty come to an
end? These questions should be answered in this segment.
Innovation: This segment is about an invention or idea that has created
during the dynasty that changed China (and the world) forever. The
reporter should talk about the invention, describe what it is, how it came to
be (and if known, who invented it), and about its impact on history.
Culture: The segment should talk about a cultural achievement from
China at this time. Areas that can be used include art, literature, theatre,
dance, fashion, food, martial arts, and religion, although these are not the
only topics available.
Profile: This segment is a “mini-biography” on a famous political,
military, or cultural figure of the dynasty. You should talk about his or her
life and what he or she did for China.
Interview: This is the last segment where one journalist interviews one of
his or her teammates, who will be pretending to be a figure from the
dynasty. The figure can be a famous ruler, an inventor, a cultural figure, or
the subject of the profile story. It must relate to one of the other segments.