Candy Cheng

Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda

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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda

Target level of students
The tasks are designed for Primary Three students. The academic levels of most of the students
are average and some are above average. After watching the movie with English subtitles,
students are given three tasks on two generic skills - writing and speaking.

Details of the film

The title of the firm is Kung fu Panda which was started to produce in 2004 and was released
in 2008. Directors of the film are Mark Osborne and John Stevenson and the language of the
film is English.

Story of the film

Po, a panda who is a kung fu fanatic, lives with his father who opens a noodle restaurant.
Although his father wants Po to take over his restaurant, Po wants to try something else. One
day, Po accidently becomes the Dragon Warrior who is supposed to be very powerful and able
to defeat Tai Lung who will escape from the prison. The Furious Five who are the students of
Shifu and including Shifu does not believe he can be the Dragon Warrior. However, Po does
not give up and later is trained by Shifu in the mountains which makes him become stronger
and stronger and finally defeats Tai Lung.

Rationale of choosing the film

The movies are popular among primary students as it is an animated movie. The characters are
so popular in Hong Kong even when children go to McDonald to buy a package, they can have
a toy of one of those characters. The film is easy to understand as there is a strong separation of
good and bad characters and each character has their own characteristics. There is also a moral
message that we can tell students through the film is that we should not judge others by their
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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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outlooks, just like judging Po cannot be the Dragon Warrior because he is a fat, clumsy panda.

Teaching steps
After watching the movie the previous lesson, students have to do the writing task. In order to
warm up and help students to review the story, teacher first writes a short summary of the
movie which includes opening, events happened in the story and the closing, and then teacher
cuts those paragraphs into 5 or 6 stripes. Four students will be in a group to work out the order
of the story. After this activity, students will be clearer of the story and at the same time
vocabularies and phrases are provided for them to work on the coming writing task. After
disturbing the worksheets (Appendix 1) to students, teacher will analyze the letter with
students; help them brainstorm what they should write in the reply letter. Take the question of
what the Dragon Warrior looks like as an example, teacher can tell students that they can write
about the height of the Dragon Warrior, the clothing that he wears and whether he is fat or thin,
etc. As this writing task is in the context of letter, teacher should also remind students the
proper format of a letter.

After getting familiar on how to describe a character, students will be asked to think about the
character that they like most, they do not like most, the part of the story that they like most and
the reasons. They have to draw pictures and write a few sentences about it (Appendix 2), then
have a short presentation of five minutes in front of the class. Students presentations will take
place during the last 15 minutes of one weeks English lessons.

The last task is a writing task in which students have to use their own imagination and decide
their own stories of Po (the panda). This can be quite challenging as students have to think of
the sentences by themselves. Therefore, before students start the writing task, teacher can first
show a sample of a new story, explain how the story is organized by using first second
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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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third and finally and also the pictures of original characters, new characters, original places
and new places.

Assessment
For the writing task 1, students will be assessed according to an analytic scoring rubric
(Appendix 4). There will be four domain score and three perspectives content, organization
and language of students writing of the reply letter will be assessed.

For the writing task 2, again an analytic scoring rubric (Appendix 6) will be used to assess
students writing of their own story. However, there will only two focus content and language
because students are only required to write a few sentences on their new story, therefore, how
students organize the passage will not be assessed. But students creativity in designing their
own story of Kung fu Panda will be taken into account as they need to use their imagination
during the design of the new story.

For the speaking task 1, after finishing the worksheet, students have to represent in front of the
class, sharing the character that they like most, they do not like most, the part of the story that
they like most and the reasons. Students will receive a self-assessment sheet (Appendix 5) and
assess themselves according to their performance during the presentation. Four main areas will
be assessed. The first one is voice, including appropriate volume, fluency, pronunciation and
intonation. The second one is whether students themselves have eye-contact with the audience,
or just look at their own worksheets during the presentations and whether they have good
timing and able to present all their ideas in five minutes. The third one is language, whether
they are aware that they have made a lot of grammatical mistakes and whether they are able to
self-correct their own mistakes. For the last one, the content of the presentation, whether
students think they have provided relevant ideas will be assessed.
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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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Appendix 1: Writing task 1

Name: _____________________ (

Marks: _________________
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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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Class: P. 3 ______

Date: __________________

A. Now, you are Tigress (One of the Furious Five). One of your friend, Bunny who
lives far away from you wrote a letter to you. Here is the letter. Read it carefully.

10th April, 09
Dear Tigress,
How are you? I miss you very much. Sorry for not writing
to you for so long. Hows your kung fu training?
I have heard from others that someone was chosen to be the
Dragon Warrior by Master Oogway in last weeks tournament.
Is it true? Can you tell me more about the Dragon Warrior?
I also heard that Tai Lung had escaped from prison. I am so
worried about you. Do you think the Dragon Warrior is able to
defeat Tai Lung and protect the Valley? No matter what, I am
confident in you, your kung fu is the best!!
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Love,
Bunny
Help Tigress to reply Bunnys letter in about 60 words. The following questions may
help you.

1. Is it true that someone was chosen to be the Dragon Warrior by Master

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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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Oogway in last weeks tournament?

2. What is the name of the Dragon Warrior?
3. How does he look like?
4. What is he doing now?

5. Do you think the Dragon Warrior is able to defeat Tai Lung and protect the
Valley?

__________________________
____________________________ ,
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________
Appendix 2: Speaking task 1
Name: _____________________ (
Class: P. 3 ______

Date: __________________
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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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A. Write down your favorite character and draw his picture in the box. Then

My sharing of the movie.

The character that I like most is _______________________________

because______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

The character that I do not like most is______________________________

because______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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The part of the story that I like best is

_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

Appendix 3: Writing task 2

Name: _____________________ (
Class: P. 3 ______

Marks: _________________
Date: __________________
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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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B. Now, you are the director of the movie Kung fu Panda. Design a different story for Po.
Then draw pictures in four boxes to show the original characters, new characters, original
places and new places.

My own story of Kung fu Panda

New name of my story: ___________________________________________
My own story is about ___________________________________________________ .
First, ______________________________________________________________________
Second,____________________________________________________________________
Third,________________________________________________________
Finally,_______________________________________________________
Original characters:

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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New characters that I

create:

___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________

Original places:
_________________________________
_________________________________
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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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_________________________________
_________________________________

New places that I create:

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

Appendix 4: Analytic Scoring Rubric for writing task 1 (replying letter)

Domain
score
4

Content
-

Have a rich content

Able to answer all the
questions required with
sufficient details and
examples
-

Organization
Format of the letter, including date, receiver and senders name is all
correct.
Have a clear and
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Language
No grammatical errors.
Complex and simple
sentences are used.
Uses a rich and a
variety of vocabularies.

Candy Cheng
Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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Have a sufficient content Able to answer all the

questions required with
reasonable details and
examples
-

Format of the letter, including date, receiver

and senders name is correct
with
little
mistakes.
Have
appropriate
greeting and ending.
Each section is generally
linked.

A few grammatical
errors.
Simple sentences are
used.
Uses
simple
vocabularies
but
sufficient.

Some of the ideas are given.

Able to answer some of the questions required
with limited details.
-

Some mistakes for the format of the letter,

Mistakes are found in greeting or ending.
Paragraphs are not linked logically.

Some
grammatical
errors.
Simple sentences with
minor errors.
Uses
limited
vocabularies.

Limited ideas are given. Not able to answer the

questions.
-

Format of the letter is all wrong.

Have no greeting or ending.
Paragraphs are poorly
linked.
-

A lot of grammatical
errors.
There
is
an
inappropriate use of
simple sentences.
Uses
repetitive
vocabularies.

appropriate greeting and

ending.
Each section is linked
tightly, well-organized.

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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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Appendix 5: Self- assessment worksheet for speaking task 1

Self- assessment worksheet
Name: _____________________ (
Class: P. 3 ______

Date: __________________

My sharing of the movie.

During the presentation
Voice

(colour the

number of stars)

I can speak loudly.

I can speak clearly and fluently.

I have correct pronunciations.

I read with intonation.

Communication strategies
I have good eye-contact with my
classmates.

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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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I have good timing.

Language
I dont have
mistakes.

much

grammatical

I am able to self-correct
grammatical mistakes

my

Content
I provide relevant information and
ideas to support my views.

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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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Appendix 6: Analytic Scoring Rubric for writing task 2 (design own story)
Domain
Content
Language
score
4
- Have a rich and creative - No grammatical errors.
content
- Complex and simple
- Sufficient sentences are
sentences are used.
used to elaborate the - Uses a rich and a
new story.
variety of vocabularies.
3
- Have a sufficient content - A few grammatical
- sentences are used to
errors.
elaborate the new story.
- Simple sentences are
used.
- Uses
simple
vocabularies
but
sufficient.
2
- Some of the ideas of the - Some
grammatical
new story are given.
errors.
- Simple sentences with
minor errors.
- Uses
limited
vocabularies.
1
- Limited ideas are given. - A lot of grammatical
- Not enough elaborations.
errors.
- There
is
an
inappropriate use of
simple sentences.
- Uses
repetitive
vocabularies.

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Teaching Materials on Kung Fu Panda
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