Master Basic English from America-China Cultural Difference

Unite Preface:
The unit is designed for the 10th-grade students in SCUD vocational high school in Fuzhou, China. Students in the 10th grade
have strong English education foundation, so it won’t be hard for them to accept new English knowledge. Moreover, as the first unit
for their high school English class, cultural topics will motivate their passion and interesting toward English study.
In this unit, students will learn basic English words and conversations from different American and Chinese cultural background
introducing and comparing. Through group discussion, hardcopy materials, and some videos, students will understand American
cultural in a further way. In the meanwhile, they will share their understanding of cultural difference, the effects, and design scene
plays which reflect their harvest in the class.
Hopefully, through to scope of cultural difference, the students will master some basic English communication skills, improve
their creative reflection abilities, broaden their horizon and self-confidence.

Objectives
1.Students should master the words and sentences that taught in class, and can come up with their own sentences which
reflect cultural differences;
2.Students can conclude some aspects of cultural difference between China and Academic, and restate it;
3. Basing on the research and study on cultural difference between two countries, students should conclude the culture
difference between their currently surrounding and their hometowns;
4. Students should understand how the environment can shape individuals, and how their personalities are influenced by their
surroundings? What should they do if they want to improve it
5.Students should further know more about American cultural and broaden their horizon, which empowers them to explore more
culture difference globally.
Compelling questions
What kind of cultural difference between American and Chinese you can find?
What're your takeaways about those differences?
How do you think the cultural environment would affect people’s action, ideal, and behavior?

PBI plan:
Since the English class is once a week, this unit will be divided into four classes and last a month. Each class has 45 students
and lasts 90minnuts.
The first class, as the very first class in the very first semester, will be an introducing and ice break class. Firstly, students will
be informed about the objectives and plans of this semester, which give students a blueprint of the class and evoke their interest.
Then students will introduce themselves in ice break activities and freely talk about their English study experience, tips, and concerns.
After all ice break activities, students will watch two videos that briefly introduce American culture. Those activities and videos are
both preparations for the following three classes. Before the end of time, students will get their assignments that require them to do
some online research about American culture especial on aspects of family life, high school campus life, and festivals. The research
will assist their group discussion and study in next class.
At the beginning of the second class, volunteer students will try to summarize some reflections one the American cultural
introduction videos that they watched last week, which plays as a bridge reviewing last class and leading to the new class. After an
introduction of the class, students will begin their five-member group discussion. During the group work time, students are supposed
to share their thoughts and the most interesting finding from their American cultural research. Each group is required to conclude
their group research results, and, most importantly, they should conclude some at least 5 key words from their finding and teach the
whole class meaning of the words. Then students from other groups should come up with some sentences that contain the key words
and also somehow reflect American cultural. In the third part of the class, students should express their takeaways about the English
study in class and the new understanding of American. Before the end of class, students will watch a new video that reveals the
cultural difference between Chines and American cultural. They weekly assignment will be online research on the topic of cultural
different between China and American.
In the third class, firstly students will summarize some typical American cultural and review the keys words they learn from last
class. Students’ takeaways from cultural difference research last week will be a beginning of the new class. After the takeaways
section, students will cooperate with their former group partners to design scene plays imitating various scenarios which reflect on
China-America cultural differences or cultural shocks. At the same they are also responsible to conclude some key words from their
scenarios and teach them to the whole class. Before the end of the class, students will watch a video whose topic is about how the
surrounding will shape people. Lastly, students will assign to some research or interview about their hometown cultural and currently
surround cultural. They are also encouraged to think about how their personality are shaped by their surroundings.
The last class in this unit will encourage students to use the knowledge they learn so far to explore on themselves. At the
beginning of the fourth class, I will firstly lead students to review and enhance the keywords and some sentences they learn from the
last three classes. Then students will be informed about the class agenda—group work and individual work. In the group work section,
with their group partners, students will discuss the common points they concluded about their current surroundings, as well as how
they are influenced by the environment. Each group should write down a paragraph to reflect their discussion. After the discussion,
the whole class will share the paragraphs together. In the sharing section, the class will not only analyze the grammar but also the
content, which prepares students the unit quiz. Students can use the rest time to prepare their unit quiz in the next class. The unit
quiz in the next class requires each student to address a short speech in which students should introduce their hometown culture,
compare the cultural differences between their hometown and their currently surrounding, and analyze how their personality are
influenced by those surroundings.

Implementation
 Class process Class activities Materials & Assignment
Lesson 1 Ice break self-introduction activity: American cultural part 1:
 Unit objectives and plan Students firstly do self-introduce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoG97ge66tA
introduction(10min) themselves to the classmate next to
 Ice break self-introduction activity them. Then students introduce their American cultural part 2:
(65 min) classmates one by one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjZJfzBFtuQ
 Watching American cultural videos At the end of this activity,
(10 mins) students are free to give the first Assignment: Online research about American

 Explanation& Assignment (5mins) impression about their classmates. culture especial on aspects of family life, high
school campus life, and festivals.

Lesson 2 Group activity: Culture Shock USA! Asian Students in America:

 Volunteers’ takeaways about their Students exchange their ideas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4_xM4bSIzk
American cultural research (10 and finding from their research and Assignment:
mins) conclude at least five words that Online research about cultural different between
 Class activity: discuss their represent their discussions China and American.
research results & conclude some
key words (15mins)
 sentence and words study (45mins)
 Watching videos about China-
American cultural difference (7
mins)
 Explanation& Assignment (5mins)

Lesson 3 Group activity: scene plays tools and script;

 Students review and summarize the students will cooperate with their Health Behavior: How the Environment Impacts Us
knowledge they learned from last former group partners to design - Lisa Kazbour
class. (10mins) scene plays imitating various https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Z_th8pWGM
 Class activity: scene plays & words scenarios which reflect on China- Assignment:
teaching. (65mins) America cultural differences or Do some research or interview about their
 Watching videos about cultural cultural shocks. They will also hometown cultural and currently surround cultural.
effect on individuals. (7 mins) conclude some key words from their They should also explore how their personality are
  Explanation& Assignment (5mins)
Lesson 4
 Review: Key words and sentences
students learned from the last two
classes. (15mins)
 Group work (35 mins)
 Sharing section (35 min)
 Explanation& Assignment (5mins)
 Individual working time(If possible)
Assessment
scenarios and teach them to the shaped by their surroundings.
whole class.
Group activity: Grammar links:
In this group work, students will The Purdue OWL
conclude the common points they https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/5/
find from their current surroundings. Grammarly
At the same time, each group https://app.grammarly.com
should write down a paragraph to
reflect their discussion. Assignment:
Prepare and practice for unit quiz
Paragraph sharing section:
the whole class analyze the
grammar as well as the content
together.
Individual work time:
Students prepare their unit quiz in
the next class.
 In this unit, all students are required to participate in group activities in order to exam their study
preparation and results. The teacher can also exam if they fully prepare their research by observing
discussions. Participate section in the rubric exam students’ engagement in the class and group work. The group
cooperation, communication and scene plays have a larger points proportion since these parts will reveal
students’ self-study and group study results. For example, some students may too shy to express to many
personal opinions even though they do a great job on researching, in this way, group cooperation can exam their
work. Moreover, students are supposed to communicate in English. The communication section will exclusively
exam students’ English skills.

Rubric for lesson 2 & 4

Total: Professional (5 points) Satisfactory(3 points) Acceptable (1 points)
Participation (20%)
Communication (30%)
Group cooperation(30%)
Leadership (20%)

Rubric for lesson3

Total: Professional (5 points) Satisfactory(3 points) Acceptable (1 points)
Participation(20%)
scene plays (50%)
group cooperation(30%)