China 1750 to 1912 for Teachers

Lesson Plans

Download a word version of the Unit Outline, with lesson plans and assessment details.

Student Content: To access the electronic package, go to the for Students page.

Intention: The unit of work has been designed to cater for a grade 9 class with students at a range of levels of understanding and learning skills. The electronic unit provides students with the opportunity to revisit, review, re-watch, and complete again any activity with which they may need more time.

The nature of the unit means that less able students can focus purely on the first topic of the unit, completing the activities at a slower rate, and developing their inquiry question for a sub-topic within this unit. This will still enable the student to achieve 4 of the 5 learning outcomes for the unit. Their participation in the class Q&A review sessions and discussions will enable them to achieve the 5th learning outcome.

The Q&A sessions and pair work activities are included to provide opportunities for less-able students to learn from their classmates, and to help them retain the knowledge and skills gained from previous lessons.

The self-paced nature of the electronic unit provides extension time and activities for high-achieving students. In developing their inquiry questions and text modes, the teacher can direct both high-achieving and less able students to best meet their needs.

Video, written, and image based texts have been used to give students opportunities to access and use information in a range of modes.

Examples of different text modes have been incorporated into the unit to provide students with models for the development of their own text.

Lesson One: The Qing Dynasty (Qianlong)

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Locate China on a map of the world
  • Describe simple aspects of Chinese society during the reign of Qian Long, using historical terms and concepts

Activities:

    First 50 minutes

  1. Introduce the topic to the class, and then use Google Earth to travel to China. Remove all of the layers, except Labels and Places. Ask a couple of students to draw where they think the borders of the Qing Dynasty in the 1750s to 1800s might have been.
  2. Get students to access the electronic unit and complete the Zhong Guo Google Earth activity on their own computers. Ask students to share their bordered maps with a partner and then compare to the map provided. Discuss the differences.
  3. Watch the video as a class, then students complete the worksheet individually. Students may wish to re-watch the video on their own computers as they complete the worksheet. Quick finishers can continue on by writing ‘Australia’ and ‘Hello’ in characters as well (as per worksheet).
  4. Students complete the quiz questions for the Qing Dynasty in the electronic unit.
  5. Second 50 minutes

  6. Students work through the Qian Long sub-topic in the electronic unit. Circulate and offer assistance, ideas and suggestions for answers.
  7. Students print off their responses, or save them into an electronic file and submit them to the teacher.

Lesson Two: The Qing Dynasty (The Farmers)

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Imagine what life may have been like for different groups of people in China in the 18th Century
  • Identify the perspectives Chinese farmers in the 18th Century may have had about life
  • Connect ideas from two or more sources to explain a relationship between an event or development in Qing China
  • Demonstrate a respect for intellectual property through the appropriate use of in-text referencing

Activities:

  1. Review from last class: Q&A with the class about what they learnt/can remember from last class. Complete the “Fun Facts about the Qing Dynasty quiz” as a class. As a class, note on the board three or four key ideas/elements of the rule of the Qian Long Emperor
  2. Warm Up: Ask students what they know about farmers and farming practice, as well as land ownership, in other continents and countries during the 18th century (including Australia). Note some of the ideas on the board.
  3. Students start working on the Nong Min sub topic. After 5-8 minutes, of reading and writing for the first page, ask students to share their answers in groups of 3 or 4. Then have the groups share with the class.
  4. Students complete the Farmers in Qing China page in the electronic unit. (This may be best completed as a pair activity.)
  5. Review as a class approaches to paraphrasing and connecting ideas. Ask two students to write a sentence each on the board – workshop as a class how to best connect the two sentences together. Review in-text referencing convention.
  6. Students complete ‘The spread of agriculture (and people)’ page in the electronic unit.
  7. Students submit/print their notes page.
  8. As a class, workshop sentences that could be connected and what the connection is. Discuss the relationships between the different ideas.

Lesson Three: The Qing Dynasty (The Ruling Class)

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Describe the Imperial Examination system in China during the 18th Century
  • Imagine what life might have been like for members of Chinese society at the time
  • Demonstrate an ability to reference sources
  • Identify similarities between ideas from Qing China and modern Australia

Activities:

  1. Review from previous classes: Q&A with students about what they learnt/can remember from last the last two lessons. Create a table on the board with the column headings, Social, Political, Economic, Cultural, and note down ideas and information under each of them – this will require prompting from the teacher.
  2. Students work in the electronic unit, looking at the sub-topic of the Mandarins, completing the first three activities. As a class, review the answers and discuss what the students’ impressions are about the Imperial Examinations and how they might have felt about them if they were living in China at the time.
  3. Students watch the ‘Taking the Examination’ video in the electronic unit – how many times do they think they could have gone through this cycle?
  4. Read the information about the wider influence of the examination system. As a class, consider the way this information has been presented – discuss and identify where the author’s own ideas are present, and where the author has used ideas from sources.
  5. Provide students with a brief overview of how a nationwide public service test was used in Australia for many years, and was the easiest way of getting the opportunity to apply for a job in the public service in Tasmania, or nationally. Students complete the activities on the China to Australia – any similiarities? page.
  6. Students complete the Topic Quiz: Qian Long & The Qing Dynasty.

Lesson Four: Trade with the World

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Explain the requirements of the digital text assignment
  • Describe the trading situation in China that existed in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the two sides to the trade problems between Britain and China
  • Identify possible causes for the Opium War

Activities:

  1. Review from previous lessons: Q&A with students about what they learnt/can remember from last the last three lessons. Create a table on the board with the column headings, Social, Political, Economic, Cultural, and note down ideas and information under each of them – this will require prompting from the teacher.
  2. Complete the Topic Quiz: Qian Long & The Qing Dynasty as a class group, discussing the answers as you go.
  3. Introduce the Digital Text assignment: provide students with the outline, answer questions, and highlight important features; give students the assessment rubric and students look at it in pairs, explaining what they think they would need to do to obtain a C for each criteria. Pairs then form groups of four and explain again; Q&A with the class about what they have to do
  4. Students work individually or in pairs to formulate a possible inquiry question for the topic The Qing Dynasty
  5. Students complete the first 2 pages in the electronic topic Trade and share their ideas with a partner after each slide
  6. Students watch the video and take notes on the 3rd slide

Lesson Five: The Opium War

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Describe the trading situation in China that existed in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries
  • Explain the factors that contributed to the Opium War
  • Identify some of the reasons for the British victory in the Opium War
  • Identify some of the direct consequences of the Opium War

Activities:

  1. Review from previous lessons: Q&A with students about what they learnt/can remember from last the last four lessons. Create a table on the board with the column headings, Social, Political, Economic, Cultural, and note down ideas and information under each of them – this will require prompting from the teacher.
  2. Create a new section of the table titled ‘After the Opium War’ and note down ideas about what might have changed for China as a result of this loss
  3. Work through the electronic unit from slide 3 – The Opium Wars
  4. Complete the Topic Quiz: Trade and the Opium Wars.

Lesson Six: Famine and Rebellions

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Explain some of the movements of people and changes to Chinese Society that occurred during the 19th century
  • Sequence events in time order
  • Reference sources appropriately
  • Analyse sources to identify their credibility
  • Make judgements about the relevance and importance of contributing factors to the costs of the northern Chinese famine in the 1870s

Activities:

  1. Review from previous lessons: Q&A with students about what they learnt/can remember from last the last five lessons. Create a table on the board with the column headings, Social, Political, Economic, Cultural, and sub sections ‘Before the Opium War’ and ‘After the Opium War’ and note down ideas and information from the class under each of them
  2. Working individually, or in pairs, students write an inquiry question for the topic Trade and the Opium Wars
  3. Students complete the activities in the topic War and Famine
  4. Complete the Topic Quiz: War and Famine
  5. Working individually, or in pairs, students write an inquiry question for the topic War and Famine

Lesson Seven: The Boxer Rebellion

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Explain two differing perspectives of the Boxer rebellion
  • Explain the causes of the Boxer rebellion
  • Describe the Inquiry Question and format they will use for their digital text assignment

Activities:

  1. Students work through the activities in the electronic topic: The Boxers
  2. Complete the Topic Quiz: The Boxers
  3. Working individually, or in pairs, students write an inquiry question for the topic The Boxer Rebellion
  4. Students select and gain approval for their inquiry question
  5. Students gather relevant materials to use and decide upon and gain approval for their digital text format

Lesson Eight: Creating a digital text

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Interpret, process, analyse and organise information from a range of sources and use it to answer an inquiry question
  • Use historical terms and concepts, evidence identified in sources and references to those sources in developing a digital text

Activities:

  1. Review from previous lessons: Q&A with students about what their inquiry question is, and what format their text will be.
  2. Students work on developing their digital text.

Lesson Nine: Peer Review

Outcomes

    Students wll be able to:
  • Reflect on how well a digital text demonstrates achievement of assessment criteria
  • Provide relevant and effective feedback to peers
  • Receive and reflect on feedback from peers

Activities:

  1. Students will open their digital text and then review three classmates’ texts, completing an assessment rubric for each one. Students will also write at least two recommendations for improvement on the assessment rubric
  2. Students will collect the three rubrics which were completed for their text and then modify and improve their text
  3. Students submit their final draft of their digital text for assessment