General Lesson Plans

1. Translation
Student assignment: Look at the first sentence of Laozi Daodejing in both Chinese and English. Retranslate this passage according to your own understanding of the terms.
In class: Discuss various understandings of key terms, including variations according to Daoist or Confucian traditions.

2. Interpreting Terms
Student Assignment: Look up the word dao4 道 in the philosophy part of the Lexicon. Summarize what dao means according to [assign a different scholar for each small group or person].
In class: Have students present their summaries, then compare and contrast as group discussion.

3. Charity Principle
Student assignment: While working through a short translation, consider the following: How do you approach the interpretation of a foreign language text? What do you consider? What presuppositions do you bring to it?
In class: Discuss student answers to the above questions.

4. What is a Definition?
Student assignment: Take a single term that is interpreted in the texts in more than one way and explore why there are differing definitions.
In class: Discuss.
Further: How would a certain term be defined with regard to [yourself, specific member of class, certain celebrity, etc..?]

5. Intercultural Communication
Instructor prepare: Two translations of a single important passage.
Student assignment: Compare two translations of one passage, keying on terms that are translated differently.
In class: Use differences as discussion points.
Student follow-up assignment: Retranslate passage taking discussion into account.

6. Pony [a pony is a preliminary, ungrammatical word-for-word translation]
Instructor prepare: A pony of an important passage, e.g.. Daodejing, Chapter 1.
Student assignment: Working from instructor's pony, translate [given passage] into fluid English.
In class: Discuss differences among translations.
Student paper assignment: Justify word choices, etc.. of translation.

7. Pony II
Instructor prepare: Several (for different students or groups of students) different ponies of a single important passage, e.g.. Daodejing, Chapter 1.
Student assignment: Working from instructor's pony, translate [given passage] into fluid English.
In class: Discuss differences among translations.
Student paper assignment: Justify word choices, etc... of translation.

8. Translator's Background
Instructor prepare: Different translations of one important passage.
Student assignment: Based on the presumptions present in each translation, guess the translators' backgrounds.
Instructor further prepare: Own fabricated translations of a single passage by various well-known personalities. See here for examples. Alternative: Instead of instructor preparing celebrity translations, students each prepare one, from Chinese or from instructor-prepared pony.
In class: Guess celebrity translator identities.

9. Education vs.. Training
Student assignment: Discuss john Dewey's understanding of education. Discuss understanding of education according to the first chapter of Daxue, and keying on the term de 德.

10. Aesthetics
Student Assignment: Compare [one text from Classical Greek and one from Classical Chinese], focusing on their expressions and assumptions regarding aesthetics.

Detailed Lesson Plans

On de 德, Character, by Jessica Sheetz-Nguyen, Oklahoma City Community College, 2003.

Updated 9/03