kirchara

We 'circled' the character 去 because both kids would sometimes mispronounce this character. And they both mispronounce it exactly the same way. They probably took one look at the pinyin qù and kept on wanting to pronounce it "u" like in chū (出). Thankfully other than 去, so far pinyin has not confused them.

( Whiteboard writing )

Q: 你去过PLACE吗？
A1: 我去过. Or
A2: 我没去过.

( 你去过PLACE吗 questions )

Q: 你去不去PLACE/ACTIVITY?
A1: 去. Or
A2: 不去.

- 你去不去游泳? etc.

Other than circling, I read two BetterChinese books* and have them read only the character 去 whenever it appears while I read the rest of the sentence. (I covered the pinyin qù with washi tape so they won't mispronounce it.) I wanted to glue the sound and the character together in their brain.

* 18. 我的家 and 29. 我去上学

Focus on Character Introspective:

- This time I did 'circling' individually with them. On the plus side, they focused more; on the flip side, the energy (and silliness) was not there.

- The questions were rapid fire so their answers were mostly rapid fire too. It was great to see them showing instantaneous, mostly-accurate comprehension during this session.

- I didn't let them write qù in their Chinese homework because I didn't want to reinforce their mispronunciation. I just quietly wrote qù in both their homework before turning it in to their teacher ;-)

For playgroup #2's show-and-tell, Brooks shared "这是我的画儿。我画了一只小兔子。" (This is my drawing. I've drawn a little bunny.)

1. Start with the sentence "弟弟画了一只小兔子." ( Read more... )

Circling Introspective:

- Circling is a hit when it's the two of them together. Before this session, I did 'circling' individually with them with the character 去, but the energy (and silliness) was not there.

- The more outlandish/non-sensical my questions are, the more eager River was to answer "是!" and "对!"

I asked: "弟弟吃了一只小羊吗？"
River: "是!"
Brooks: *pretends to eat his drawing of a sheep*

- When there are two sentences being circled, I need to start with a comprehension check on the first sentence.
I assumed they've acquired the "这是___" sentence structure from circling #1, so I skipped circling it. In actuality, they still need a lot more input of "这是___" sentences.

[ PDF file on how circling works ]

Six-year-old's Handwriting		Eleven-year-old's Handwriting
What works for Brooks:	What doesn't work for Brooks:	What works for River:	What doesn't work for River:
- Tracing characters on paper with finger	- Tracing characters on paper with pencil	- Tracing characters on paper with finger AND pencil	-
- Writing small AND big characters	- Writing complicated characters in a small space	- Writing small characters	-
- Free-writing with a pencil/pen/marker	- Free-writing with an inkbrush not preferred	- Free-writing with an inkbrush	- Free-writing with pencil doesn't work as well as with inkbrush
- Providing a beautiful model to copy	-	Somewhat works: - Providing a beautiful model to copy	-
- Pointing out the ratio of the character components	-	- Pointing out the ratio of the character components	-
- Pointing out radicals and character components	-	- Pointing out radicals and character components	-

Six-year-old's Composition/Writing Skills		Eleven-year-old's Composition/Writing Skills
What works for Brooks:	What doesn't work for Brooks:	What works for River:	What doesn't work for River:
- Telling me what he wants to say, and I write it down for him	-	- Telling me what he wants to say, and I write it down for him	-
- Substituting pinyin for characters that he doesn't know	-	-	-
- Changing the words in sentences from books and songs to fit his life story	-	- Reading Chinese books and singing songs	-
-	-	- Coming up with fantastical/outlandish sentences and questions	-
- Circling	- He seems to need more input before coming up with his own questions.	- Asking him to come up with his own questions at the end of a TPRS Circling session	-

CIRCLING* -- DONE 6/8/19

~~Make a gray mouse out of play doh/clay~~ Draw a mouse on the whiteboard. Have the (computing) mouse ready.

1. Start with the sentence "这是哥哥的鼠标 (shǔ biāo)." ( Read more... )

2. At random, ask these questions:
- YES question: "这是哥哥的鼠标吗?"

- NO question:
"这是哥哥的老鼠吗?"
"这是弟弟的鼠标吗?"

- OR question: "这是哥哥还是弟弟的鼠标?"

- 5Wh + H question:
"这是谁的鼠标?"
"这是什么?"

- etc. following their interest and attention span

I used these index cards at random to prompt myself: ( Read more... )

Circling Introspective:

- They are (thankfully) easily amused. They would sometimes intentionally give the wrong answer, pick up my shoe and say, "这是妈妈的老鼠," etc.

- River said he did not hear every single thing that I said because he got distracted, but he did understand everything he did hear. And that's the main goal of circling/TPRS**: comprehensible input.

- When I asked Brooks, "英文怎么说," he answered "big brother's computer mouse" instead of "This is big brother's computer mouse." Either he hasn't acquired that "这是" = "This is," or he usually doesn't translate Mandarin into English in his head.

* Here's a pdf from Terry Waltz's website that tells you how circling works.

** TPRS = Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
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Entries tagged with circling

Focus on the Character 去 🔍 (to) go

Circling #2 🏡♥ Playgroup Follow-up

Chinese Handwriting & Composition 🖋 What Works and Doesn't Work

Circling #1 🏡♥ Playgroup Follow-up

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