The story of Mother Meng’s Triple Move

About this Story:

This story is an adaptation of a Chinese idiom that Mengzi’s mom moved three times in order to provide Mengzi with a good learning environment.

Download the story in PDF version here to print for classroom or home use.
Download the narrated iBook here for use on iPad and other electronic devices.
 

Connections (Subject Area):

Science: Parents and offspring often engage in behaviors that help the offspring survive.
Social studies: Identify causes and effects using examples from his/her life or from a current event or history.
Language Arts: Make connections between self, text and the world around them.

Language Functions & Forms:

Goals and big idea:
1.     Students will be able to learn the importance of environment and how environment can affect their behavior and people around them.
2.     Students will also be able to learn how to keep a good learning environment in their classroom.

Language goals:
1.     Students will be able to learn some new words and sentence structures and apply them to the living around them by making their own class rules.

Function:
1.     Students will be able to express and support opinion by telling whether this environment is good or not with their reasons and opinion.
2.     Students will be able to contrast pictures with totally opposite environment by using the sentence form: 這樣的環境好/ 不好, 因為……
3.     Students will be able to learn cause and effect by using the sentence structure：因為…所以… to talk about class rule. For example, 因為我們要好好學習, 所以我們要好好聽老師說話 or 因為我們要一個好的學習環境, 所以我們要保持教室安靜。
4.     Students will be able to learn the sequence by retelling the story again together.

Form:
1.     new vocabulary, like 墳墓, 豬市場, 環境, 乾淨 , 髒…etc
2.     new sentence structure:  因為…所以…  and 這樣的環境好/ 不好, 因為……

Culminating Assessment:

Interpretive Task: Make a list of what students are expected to do and expected not to do in classroom. Have them raise their T or F stick.
Interpersonal Task: Allow each group to think about one group rule and provide why it is important for the learning environment.
Presentational Task: After they make their own class rule with characters on and drawing, they will make a short presentation in front of everyone about how this rule can keep our learning environment good.