Know about any simple reading to supplement textbooks?

xiaophil

May 11, 2013, 11:14 AM posted in I Have a Question

Hi everyone,

I teach Chinese at a high school in America. I'm looking for supplemental reading for our textbook, specifically some literature and/or cultural material. I'm hoping for dual language that includes pinyin. Most high shool students are very low level, so it would have to be quite simple, and I hope it doesn't appear to childish, but I could live with that. So it's kind of a challenge to find appropriate material as you might imagine.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

小Phil

Keth

May 11, 2013, 12:54 PM

Hi Phil

I have published some interactive resources here:-

http://zigzageducation.co.uk/synopses/3210-Mandarin-Chinese-Assessments.asp

called “Assessments for Learning”. In 2 books. These are for use with an Interactive White board. These are in both character and Pinyin. Look first at “Conversations”. You can also use them as starters or in the Plenary session.

You could also post on MANDARIN-CHINESE-TEACHING@JISCMAIL.AC.UK <MANDARIN-CHINESE-TEACHING@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>;This is group of Chinese Teachers in England that regularly share teaching resources .

Try http://www.creativechinese.com/

Also you might find this useful

http://www.curriki.org/

xiaophil

Hey, thank you. Mother's day here, so I'm not checking them out now, but I sure will!

toianw

May 12, 2013, 05:07 AM

Hi Phil,

Good to 'see' you again.

Chinese publishers have recently started producing this kind of thing. Here's two that I know that start at a low level and might be worth investigating:

1. Chinese Breeze (汉语风) by Peking University Press (see here). I've not seen any of these, so not sure of the content (looks like stories). The easiest level starts at 300 words

2. 实用汉语分级阅读丛书 (not sure if it has an English name) by Beijing Lnaguage and Culture University Press (see here)

Lowest level (甲级读书) says 500 words. I've had a flick through a few of these. They mostly seem to be written from the perspective of foreigners and their experiences living/studying in China. Quite a lot of stuff on cultural differences etc, and not at all childish.

Hope it helps...

xiaophil

Nice to see you in the cyber world too. I'll give 'em a look. Thanks!

toianw

May 12, 2013, 05:38 AM

For literature:

Graded Chinese Reader 1 (the easiest of a series of three) - Simplified modern(ish) Chinese novels (see here).

I really enjoyed reading this book, but don't know if the level is suitable for your students.

For (traditional) cultural stories:

Tales and Traditions: Readings in Chinese Literature Series (see here)

frankg105

May 13, 2013, 02:08 PM

Hey Phil,

I have just what you need. If you have an email I can send a lot of texts to you when I find all the PDFs and Programs on my old computer. I will probably forget this site and be inactive thats why.

xiaophil

If you see this, my email is phil.g.beckwith@gmail.com. Thanks!