THE CHAIRMAN’S BAO

Fluency in Mandarin Through News

The most comprehensive online Chinese news-based graded reader for students.

Some Practical Ideas for Using TCB in Your Classes

Dr. Theresa Munford

St Gregory’s School, Bath

孟蓉仙

Sean McGibney

Co-Founder, The Chairman’s Bao [TCB]

马伟

An introduction…

Founded in January 2015

14 Chinese writers & highly experienced

editing team

Over 41,000 individual users

Over 100 schools & universities

Website & iOS/Android apps

24/7 support

Full platform rebuild coming for 2017/18

academic year, including Teacher

Dashboard

The Brain Science of reading

Mencius 孟子

“A trail through the

mountains, if used,

becomes a path in a

short time”

We are ‘wired’ for language but not for readingWhen we learn to read (in any language)….

We are learning how to link up specialised regions of the brain e.g.:

– Perceptual

– Cognitive

– Linguistic

These specialised regions need to be adapted, processed into

service and practised until they are automatic.

Our job is to help our students make that transition and then to help

them establish the neural pathways to reach ‘automacy’ — i.e.

cognitive efficiency.

ಮೈಸೂರು - ಊಟಿ ರಸ್ತೆಯಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಬಂಡೀಪುರ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯಉದ್ಾಾನ ಕಾಡುಪ್ಾಾಣಿಗಳ ತವರು ಮನತ. ಇದು ರಕ್ಷಿತಅಭಯಾರಣ್ಾ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಸಂಹ, ಹುಲ್ಲ, ಆನತಗಳಂತಹ ಕಾಡುಪ್ಾಾಣಿಗಳ ಸ್ಾನ್ನಿಧ್ಾದಲಿ್ಲ ನ್ನಮಗತ ಅಗತಾ ಎನ್ನಸುವ ಬ್ತಾಕ್ಅಥವಾ ಬಿಡುವನುಿ ಪಡತಯಬಹುದು. ನ್ನಸಗಗದ ಜತೂತತ, ಪ್ಾಾಣಿಗಳ ಜತೂತತ, ಹತಚ್ಚ ಹಸರಿನ ಜತೂತತಗಿನ ವಿಹಾರ ಇಲ್ಲಿನಅದುುತ .ಬದುಕು ಇಲ್ಲಿ 'ವಾಹ' ಎನ್ನಸುತೆದ್ತ.

Meta cognition

• The first 100 are always the hardest to learn

• Repetition, repetition, repetition

• The thrill of seeing Chinese characters all around

Outline of the session

• The pedagogy of literacy teaching

• Embedding the basics

• Expanding vocabulary

• The importance of choice and differentiation

• Teaching writing skills

• Cultural input and exam reforms

• Hands-free lesson planning and homework

Literacy teaching

Read along with me…. 跟我读。。。

• A strategy that has been successful in primary

literacy teaching

• The smart board is, effectively, a ‘big book’

• Getting the flow and rhythm of the language even

if all the words aren’t understood

• Moving beyond ‘forensic’ (‘foraging?’) reading

Embedding the basics

• The ‘too blooming obvious’ words like 都，是，在，也 , 的 etc. etc.

• ‘Stop and tell me what comes next’

• Listening and counting the number of times they

are said

• Highlighting the words on a print out/iPad

• Gap-fill exercises

• Near-native proficiency in numbers

• My TBO list https://quizlet.com/_362b93

… and TBO 2.0 https://quizlet.com/_3gu303

Vocabulary expansion

• Lots of key word repetition in TCB

articles…everything from 面条 to 小行星(asteroid)

• Students can build their own word bank

• ‘Trending’ words, these are often the most

memorable. E.g. 自拍 ‘selfie’

• Pre-U vocabulary and new GCSE topics such

as global issues and the environment

The importance of choice

• An antidote to boring text book texts about gold

fish and little brothers!

• Always surprising and unpredictable about which

ones they choose

• Photos draw them in to the article

• Lots of quirky content to appeal to all sorts of

students

• Differentiation by content — all articles are

levelled from HSK 1 and up

• Differentiation by task — e.g. for those struggling

with basic reading skills, slice up the text and get

them to re-build it

Example of a differentiated lesson

• Whole class — listening for key words

• Guessing gist of the article

• Reading the text together as a whole class

• Paired reading: One version of the text has pinyin

supported text; the readers take turns to try and

read the text without pinyin, swapping every time

they make a mistake, to see who is first to get to

the end

• Others in the class can be doing gap fills or

putting the sliced text back into the correct order

Using The Chairman’s Bao to boost writing skills

• Saving sentences to give the students a ‘bank’ of

model sentences that they can adjust and re-use.

• Students listen to and read an article then create

a PowerPoint as if they were having to present

the ideas in it, paraphrasing one point or idea per

slide

Article about wild elephants in Yunan.

Task — you are a local official, prepare

a PowerPoint to explain how you would

deal with this problem

Ticking all the boxes for thenew exam specifications

• Authentic texts

• Spontaneous speaking

• Cultural context

• Translation

Hands-free lesson planning and homeworks

• Choose an article (or a set number and

summarise/translate)

• Make a newsreader-style recording of an article

• 5 minute ‘starters’ or end of lesson for listening

practice

• Read and then compose 5 questions for their

peers (in English or in Chinese)

• Topic-based learning

What’s New?

Learning Hub released May 2017

Institutional token-based system released June 2017

Full website rebuild before end of June 2017

Speedier interface

Amend word spacing, font size to preference

New system fonts

Live dictionary audio

Improved search and filter functions

Ability to mark lessons as ‘read’

… and much more, but most importantly…..

Comprehension Exercises & Student/Teacher Dashboards

Comprehension Exercises & Student/Teacher Dashboards Students presented with 4-6 questions for each

lesson

Answers automatically graded and fed back into

Teacher Dashboard

Discuss common errors as a class

Students compete against each other

Other feedback such as:

Time spent reading each lesson

Additional lessons studied

Sample Comprehension Exercises

Example One

Fill in the blanks using the verbs given. (5 questions

* x points = x points）

想, 开, 能, 做, 卖

1. 她很 做一些好事。2. 2012年8月，她 了一个馒头店。3. 这些馒头一个不 。4. 一个人一天来这里 要五个。5. 四年里，她 了230万个馒头，给了50万人。

Answers:1-想, 2-开, 3-卖, 4-能, 5-做

Example Two

Organise the sentences using the given words. (3questions * x points = x points）

1. 出生在她们美国2. 中国听不懂话她们3. 水果很她们吃喜欢

Answers:她们在美国出生。她们听不懂中国话。她们很喜欢吃水果。

Loved by Over 100 Institutions Around the Globe:

… and many more!

谢谢你们

THANK YOU

The most comprehensive online Chinese news-based graded reader for students.

Any feedback at all please get in touch… we love to hear from teachers!

Dr. Theresa Munford

St Gregory’s School, Bath

Sean McGibneyCo-Founder, The Chairman’s Bao

Tel: (+44) 7761474642

Email: seanmcgibney@thechairmansbao.com