Mission, Vision, Competencies, Standards, and Benchmarks

Benchmarks: Mandarin Chinese
Lower School Mandarin Chinese
By close of Introductory Mandarin Chinese (Grade 6) the student will work to master:
Communication
‣ Practicing phrases that include greetings, name, age, nationality, school, family,
location, months, days of week, fruits, foods and meals.
‣ Listening to native speakers.
‣ Practicing speaking, using pinyin order.
‣ Reading and recognizing words, phrases, and sentences in pinyin and characters.
‣ Practicing writing from traditional and some simplified Chinese characters.
Culture
‣ Learning about the traditions of Festivals and celebrations such as Moon Festival,
Thanksgiving, Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival.
‣ Taking part in activities such as Chinese knotting, practicing calligraphy and
pictographs, using chop sticks, hearing Chinese traditional musical instruments,
learning about and seeing examples of Chinese sports.
‣ Seeing artifacts and study values such as the Great Wall of China, four treasures of
study, four inventions of ancient China.
Comparisons
‣ Hearing about numbers in the context of un/lucky.
‣ Comparing United States holidays and Chinese New Year.
‣ Comparing family systems.
Communities:
‣ Practicing conversations with neighbors.
‣ Participatv in a Church Christmas celebration.
‣ Enacting aspects of the Chinese New Year.
Upper School Mandarin Chinese
Chinese I:
Students study Chinese I A in grade seven and Chinese I B in grade eight or study Chinese
I as a one-year course in high school. Students in Chinese I work to master:
Communication
‣ Grade 7 level I A includes greeting, name, age, nationality, school, family, location,
months and days of week.
‣ Grade 8 level I B includes classroom objects, fruits, colors, food and meals, currency,
“Do you know him?” making a phone call, telling time.
Culture
‣ Recognizing the tradition and facets of Chinese Moon Festival, U.S. Thanksgiving,
Chinese New Year, Chinese Dragon Boat Festival.
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