Dr Liu May, Lim Chin Nam

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Abstract

There are more than 75% Chinese people in Singapore. However, some heritage students learn Chinese as a second language, or as a Mother-Tongue Language as well as a subject matter. This makes the Chinese education in Singapore unique and worthy of attention. The picture books are generally emphasized in primary schools. Therefore, this paper introduces the school-based Chinese curriculum of the picture books, and its practice in the classroom situation. Based on the principle of backward design, we focus on:

1. how to find out the "big idea" from the picture books;
2. how to set "enduring-understanding";
3. how to make the "essential questions";
4. how to state what knowledge and skills students should learn.

In this article we also show you how to collect the learning evidence, and demo the learning activities. We provide you three lesson plans, and the videos of classroom activities as well as the learning outcomes and teachers' reflections. It can be useful for your school-based Chinese curriculum and for modelling of teaching picture books in primary school.

Keyword(s) : picture books, Understanding by Design, classroom activities, school-based Chinese curriculum