Reading is the daily life of Juncheng children. But how to guide the children to read those classical Chinese texts that are "jerky and difficult to understand" for them?

The fourth and fifth grades are the upper grades of the Juncheng American-style elementary school, which means that the Chinese reading requirements for students have reached a new level. Chinese classical poems and ancient Chinese are the essence of our country's five thousand years of splendid culture, and they still have incomparable beauty and rhythm today. We hope to cultivate children's true "Chinese heritage" and cultural self-confidence by providing them with an environment of classical poetry and ancient Chinese immersion in the classroom.

In order to enrich children's historical knowledge, feel the fantasy and charm of myths, and stimulate children to explore and think about ancient civilizations, the entire book reading of the myth series is included in the Chinese reading class of the fourth grade of Juncheng International Bilingual School. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", one of the three great ancient Chinese books, is another fantasy journey of the fourth grade students following "Chinese Mythology" and "Greek Mythology".

"Shan Hai Jing" is an important ancient book of the Pre-Qin Dynasty, and is the oldest geography book rich in myths and legends. The book has 18 volumes, including 5 volumes of "Shan Jing", 8 volumes of "Hai Jing" and 5 volumes of "Great Wilderness Jing". The content is all-encompassing, mainly describing ancient geography, animals, plants, minerals, mythology, witchcraft, religion, etc., but also includes ancient history, medicine, folk customs, ethnicity, etc. In addition, "Shan Hai Jing" also recorded some strange events in the form of running accounts.

Juncheng International Bilingual School SIBS

What is the "Shan Hai Jing" in the eyes of children? #君诚大语文 Teaching fourth grade children to learn classical Chinese

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"Mountain and Water" Journey in "Shan Hai Jing"

Compared with other mythological books, the "traveling through mountains and rivers" in "Shan Hai Jing" is particularly "hard and dangerous", because the biggest obstacle encountered by children who are new to "Shan Hai Jing" is classical Chinese. Classical Chinese is not unfamiliar in the study of the Chinese version, but it is the first attempt to independently read an ancient pre-Qin book recorded in Classical Chinese.

How to help children clear the obstacles to reading, mobilize the enthusiasm of reading, and promote the occurrence of in-depth reading? At this time, the guidance strategy designed by the teacher from multiple angles is very important. After sorting out the various mountains and rivers, exotic animals and rare birds, religious history, and fantasy myths in the "Shan Hai Jing", this time reading "tips" appeared one by one.

Vision and demonstration—make "Shan Hai Jing" "live"

"Poetry is an invisible painting, and a painting is a tangible poem." This line of poem fully embodies the fusion between language and vision. Vision and presentation are visual languages. Juncheng's reading course needs to ensure a balance between the two, to provide students with more opportunities for vision, presentation and expression, and to further visualize their thinking.

In the exciting stage, selecting intuitive, interesting, and easy-to-understand commentary videos on the various chapters of the "Shan Hai Jing" on the Internet can indeed effectively stimulate their desire to explore and curiosity about the content of the book. In addition, the teacher selects some chapters to guide the classical Chinese reading strategies and oriented questions in the guided reading class, and it seems that reading classical Chinese is not so far away.

In reading, we found that the mysterious people, strange beasts and gods in the "Shan Hai Jing" can always firmly grasp the children's interest.

"It's like a yellow sac, red like a pill fire, six-legged four-winged, unrecognizable, it is knowledge of singing and dancing, and it is really only the emperor." This one has six legs and four wings, and the whole body is bright red and has no face. What does Dijiang, who has no ears, but is also known as the "God of Song and Dance", looks like? There are also horse-shaped human faces, tiger-patterned bird wings, the magical tricks of the gods and beasts that specialize in the care of the garden for the Emperor of Heaven, and the red horns with human faces and fish bodies that have healing effects.

Through reading, thinking, and imagining, the strange beasts, fish, birds, humans and gods come to life in the children's pens. The children also consciously combined text and pictures, choosing the chapters they like and the series of strange animals they like to make comics.

Explore the geography from ancient times to the present

If you wanted to introduce the "Shan Hai Jing" to everyone, what would you introduce?

G4B student Song Haoming said: "I want to introduce the geography of the entire mountain and sea, and let them know the landforms and properties of the ancient times."

The concept of "mountains and seas" in the book encompasses China, which is dotted with famous mountains and the vast world beyond the four seas. What are the topography and landforms recorded in the book that are amazing and amazing? Let's read and hand-paint this mountain and sea map!

In the process of exploring the topography and landforms, the students found that the names of mountains and waters that can be seen everywhere in the "Shan Hai Jing" can often be corroborated with modern place names. "South of the West Sea, on the shore of quicksand, after Chishui, before Heishui, there is a big mountain called Kunlun Hill." In the Western Mountain Classic, we came to Kunlun Mountain, the birthplace of Yanhuang descendants.

When we read Bai Juyi’s "Song of Everlasting Sorrow": "Wish to be a lovebird in the sky, and a branch in the earth", do you know that the earliest prototype of this lovebird, a symbol of love since ancient times, comes from the "Shan Hai Jing" What about a bird with a savage wing name?

In this way, from Kunlun Mountains, to Huashan Mountains, to the Yellow River, the Bohai Sea... to the lovebirds in literary works, the wonderful presentation in the reading class does not stop at the content of the book, but extends from it to the status of reality and history. A broader world of value, literary world, traditional culture, etc.

Shan Hai Jing "Through Notes"

The biggest feature of myths is that they have "magical imagination." Sometimes we not only need to feel the magic of ancient people's imagination, but also to give play to our imagination. If you travel through that fantasy world, what kind of Gonzo will happen? If you can bring all kinds of weird and supernatural beasts, insects, fish, birds and beasts into modern society, what strange stories will happen to them? Let's take a trip through the "Shan Hai Jing"!

As a result, the children’s brains opened up, such as "Strange Qingqiu Mountain", "Shanhaijing" Cafe, "Chaos" Crossing Notes, "Menghuishanhaijing", "Oops, it has come to the world".. ..."Reading breaks thousands of books, writing as if there is a god", rooting reading in the fertile soil of writing can infinitely stimulate the creativity of children and allow the continuous flow of writing.

Get the most authentic reading experience

From the reluctance at the beginning to the unfinished meaning behind, the exploration process of "Shan Hai Jing" has brought us one after another wonderful and magical.

Its weirdness, its strangeness, and its unconstrained nature all make us so fascinated, because it is the inheritance of ancient culture, and it also allows us to gain the most authentic reading experience.

▲Bilingual classes in the elementary school are now open for enrollment, starting in September 2021

Author's Notes: "Shan Hai Jing" is an encyclopedia of ancient Chinese culture. Before reading, the teacher needs to do a lot of research in the early stage, and unearth those materials that can be familiar and interesting to the children and rich in inquiry value.

The guide class of Juncheng Reading Course is not only to excite, inspire, assist, share, and summarize, but the more important task of the teacher is to discover and expand. A book can extend to the vast world, open up the connection between the past and the present, break the limitations of thinking, and take children to see the changes in time and space in our life with a connected perspective. This is also the concept-driven teaching advocated by the IB curriculum.

The famous educator Yu Yi once said: “If our children don’t even have a “Chinese heart”, who do we work hard for and whom do we work for?” As a child’s mother tongue, how to bring Chinese language lessons out of the Chinese flavor is ours Chinese teachers need to think hard.

—Juncheng fourth grade Chinese teacher

IB PYP Project Coordinator Jiang Li