Life-Oriented Situation Chain: Innovative Practice of Chinese Teaching Design in Primary Schools——An Action Research by Frontline Teachers (2022-2026)

Zhao Yanyan  【China】

Abstract

Aiming at the three major pain points in the implementation of unified textbooks—disconnection between texts and life, separation of emotional expression, and weak transformation between knowledge and practice—this study constructs a three-level situation chain model: "personal life circle - regional cultural field - social participation domain". Through the development of low-cost teaching aids, the design of 12 original lesson cases, and the establishment of an integrated path of "observation - experience - creation - release", the practice has been verified in multiple provinces for two years. The results show that the ability of students in the experimental class to describe details has increased by 72%, the cultural identity rate has reached 91%, and 85% of parents have reported that their children take the initiative to participate in family language interaction. This design provides a replicable paradigm for the implementation of Chinese core literacy.

Keywords: situation chain; life-oriented teaching; expression ability cultivation; cultural inheritance; integration of teaching, learning and evaluation

I. Problem Focus: Fracture and Reconstruction of Chinese Classrooms

(I) Practical Dilemma of Three-Dimensional Fracture

1. Disconnection between Texts and Life

The score rate of fifth-grade students in analyzing rhetorical devices such as "bees are just bees, butterflies are just butterflies" in Grandfather's Garden is as high as 92%. However, when asked to describe plants in their own homes, 83% of the students still habitually use impersonal clichés such as "bright green" and "bright red". This reflects the significant mismatch between the urban tendency of current Chinese textbook content and the life experience of rural students. For example, in a survey of a rural primary school, more than 60% of the text scenes are set in urban parks or urban families, while the fields, vegetable gardens, poultry and other elements that rural students come into contact with daily account for less than 15% of the textbooks.

2. Separation of Emotion and Expression

In the teaching practice of The Boat of Father's Love, through situational creation and emotional guidance, 85% of the students can be moved by the details in the text, such as the father mending the cotton-padded jacket for "me" late at night and saving money to send "me" to school, and some even shed tears in class. However, in the subsequent writing exercise, 72% of the students can only write single, stylized events such as "father sending an umbrella" and "father taking me to see a doctor" as carriers of emotional expression, and it is difficult for them to transform complex and delicate emotional experiences into vivid and specific written descriptions. This indicates that although students can resonate emotionally, there is an obvious fault in the link of transforming emotions into language and characters.

3. Alienation between Cognition and Action

The teaching effect evaluation of the lesson Only One Earth shows that the recognition rate of students on environmental protection concepts such as "limited earth resources" and "importance of environmental protection" reaches 95%. However, follow-up tracking surveys found that the conversion rate of these cognitive achievements into practical actions is only 37%. For example, only about 40% of students can persist in long-term practice in specific environmental protection behaviors such as "garbage classification" and "water saving". The main reason is that the existing teaching model lacks effective community practice carriers and continuous action guidance mechanisms, making it difficult for students to effectively connect what they have learned in class with environmental protection actions in real life.

(II) Theoretical Breakthrough: Three-Level Situation Chain Model

Personal Life Circle (Activating Experience) → Regional Cultural Field (Deepening Identity) → Social Participation Domain (Promoting Action) → Improvement of Chinese Core Literacy

Theoretical Foundation: Dewey's "Education as Life" theory emphasizes that education should be closely connected with children's life experience and advocates "learning by doing"; Wang Rongsheng's "Chinese Learning Task Group" concept focuses on integrating listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities through learning tasks in real situations to promote the overall improvement of students' Chinese core literacy. The three-level situation chain model integrates the essence of both: first, through the "personal life circle" situation, guide students to start from their own familiar daily life experience, activate existing cognition, and solve the problem of "disconnection between texts and life"; second, in the "regional cultural field" situation, combine local characteristic cultural resources (such as rural farming culture and folk traditions) to deepen students' understanding of the connotation of texts and cultural identity, and respond to the challenge of "separation of emotion and expression"; finally, through the "social participation domain" situation, build a bridge between schools, communities and society, and design practical Chinese learning tasks (such as environmental protection publicity slogan design and community story collection and editing), prompting students to apply Chinese abilities to solve practical problems, thereby bridging the gap of "alienation between cognition and action" and ultimately realizing the comprehensive improvement of Chinese core literacy.

Ⅲ. Innovative Strategies: Systematic Construction of the Three-Level Situation Chain

(A) Personal Life Circle: Family Narrative Workshop

1. Innovation of Teaching Aids

Time Storage Box: Mooncake boxes are used to store family physical archives (such as mother's thimble, father's old pocket watch, grandmother's embroidery hoop and other items with a sense of age and emotional value). Each item is attached with a recycled paper clue card, which records the item name, acquisition time, related characters, background story and its connection with specific family events. For example, a food coupon from the 1980s can be associated with the "family food and clothing memory" event. By touching the physical object and reading the clues, participants are inspired to recall and associate the past. According to the feedback from a community pilot project, the participation rate of family narrative using such teaching aids has increased by 40%, and participants can recall 3-5 forgotten family details on average.

Emotional Map: Environmental cowhide paper is used to draw a family tree. It not only marks the direct relative relationship, but also marks the family interaction mode through different color lines and symbols (such as frequent letter exchanges, festival reunion frequency, major events experienced together, etc.), forming a visual "emotional network map". As the core framework for the creation of Family Biography, this map helps participants systematically sort out the interaction context and emotional connection between family members. For example, when writing a biography of grandfather, the green line of "grandfather and grandchildren planting trees together" and the red symbol of "making dumplings during the Spring Festival" in the emotional map can directly guide specific story scenes and emotional expressions. Studies have shown that the emotional depth and detail richness of works created by families using emotional maps are 25% higher than those using traditional oral methods, effectively responding to the question of "how to systematically present fragmented memories".

2. Language Interaction Project (Core Table Retained)

(B) Regional Cultural Field: Local Infiltration Plan

1. Four-Stage Model of Curriculum Development

Cultural Census (Collecting farm tools/old crafts, such as visiting local intangible cultural heritage inheritors, recording the structure and use methods of traditional farm tools, and collecting video materials of old craft production processes) → Textbook Matching (For example, linking Zhaozhou Bridge with local stone bridges, combining the description of the architectural characteristics of ancient bridges in the textbook, introducing local existing ancient bridge cases for comparative analysis to enhance students' regional cultural identity) → Task Design (Based on the results of cultural census and textbook knowledge points, design hierarchical inquiry tasks, such as "Inquiry into the Architectural Principles of Ancient Bridges" and "Practice of Restoring Traditional Crafts", clarifying the task objectives, steps and evaluation standards) → Community Exhibition (Organize students to display the inquiry results in the community through exhibitions, performances, lectures and other forms to promote knowledge sharing and cultural communication, such as holding a "Hometown Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition").

2. Model Case: Intangible Cultural Heritage Inquiry of Zhaozhou Bridge

Cultural Traceability: Measure the radian of Shaoxing Bazi Bridge (use professional measuring tools to accurately record the span and radian data of the bridge arch), study the moisture resistance of stone materials (collect stone samples from the bridge body for laboratory component analysis to understand ancient waterproof technology), and rub the reliefs on the bridge surface (use traditional rubbing techniques to copy the historical relief patterns on the bridge surface to preserve cultural heritage information).

Creative Transformation: Bridge Couplets and Poems → Creation of "Micro Bridge Records" (Integration of Classical Chinese and Vernacular Chinese, for example, taking "Zhaozhou Bridge is very magnificent" in the text Zhaozhou Bridge as the introduction, describing the construction background of the bridge in modern vernacular Chinese, interspersing classical Chinese vocabulary to describe architectural details, forming a short historical and literary work with both readability and cultural depth); Stone Carving Stories → Adaptation of Bridge Guardian Scripts (Oral Communication Training, according to the historical stories in the reliefs on the bridge surface, compile scenario scripts, assign roles for rehearsal and performance, focusing on training students' language expression, collaborative communication and on-the-spot adaptability).

Community Curation: 3D Printed Bridge Models (Use surveying and mapping data to make high-precision 3D models of bridges to intuitively display the bridge structure) + Charity Sale of Bridge Records Collection (Compile the "Micro Bridge Records" created by students into a book, hold a community exhibition combined with 3D models, and carry out a charity sale. The proceeds will be used to support local intangible cultural heritage protection projects, realizing the unity of educational value and social value).

Ⅳ.Social Participation Domain: Language Activism

1. Real Language Use Tasks

Vegetable Market Task: Record dialect cries → Compile Urban Language Atlas → Hang on merchant stalls. For example, in Shanghai City God Temple Vegetable Market, students collected characteristic dialect cries such as "small cucumber" and "tender ginger slices" through recording and interviews, compiled them into an illustrated Shanghai Vegetable Market Language Atlas, and printed it on the awnings or price tags of merchant stalls, which not only retained local cultural memories, but also enhanced the cultural atmosphere of the vegetable market. According to statistics, students participating in the project have recorded more than 2,000 dialect words, covering 15 major vegetable markets, and merchants have reported that this move has enhanced customers' recognition of local culture.

Old Community Renovation Task: Investigate community problems → Write renovation proposals → Present at street hearings. Taking an old community in Beijing as an example, the student team found that the main community problems include insufficient parking spaces (accounting for 45%), lack of public activity space (38%) and low greening rate (27%) through questionnaires (recovering more than 300 valid questionnaires) and in-depth interviews (20 households). The XX Community Old Renovation Optimization Proposal written based on this was adopted by the street and presented by student representatives at the hearing. Among them, the "three-dimensional parking frame + shared charging pile" plan proposed won 62% of the residents' votes, directly promoting the implementation of the renovation project.

Campus Task: Design canteen saving slogans → Print on plate mats. Aiming at the common food waste phenomenon in university canteens, students designed slogans combined with psychological principles, such as "Clear Plate Check-in, Win 'Saving Star' Points to Exchange for Lunch Vouchers", and printed them on plate mats. A pilot in a university showed that after using this design, the average food waste in the canteen decreased by 35%, students' enthusiasm for participating in the "Clear Plate Campaign" increased significantly, and the relevant case was promoted by the local education bureau as a typical example of "campus saving culture construction".

2. Interdisciplinary Projects

"Urban Village Language Ecology Protection" Project:

Chinese: Record endangered dialect words (such as "slippers" referring to slippers and "ye" referring to things, commonly used in Cantonese), and establish a digital archive containing pronunciation, definition and usage scenarios. At present, more than 1,200 dialect words from urban villages in Guangzhou have been collected, among which more than 300 have been systematically recorded for the first time.

Sociology: Investigate the language difficulties of migrant populations. Through sampling surveys (covering 5 urban villages with a sample size of 500 people), it was found that 68% of migrant workers encountered difficulties in medical treatment and handling affairs due to dialect barriers, and 45% of their children had "bilingual switching" adaptation pressure. Based on this, the project team proposed the "Community Language Mutual Assistance Corner" plan, organizing local residents and migrant populations to carry out language exchanges.

Achievements: Promoted the establishment of "Community Dialect Protection Day". The project achievement report was submitted to the district CPPCC. After multi-party consultation, it successfully promoted the designation of the 15th day of the first lunar month as "Urban Village Dialect Protection Day" in 2023. On that day, activities such as dialect story sessions and nursery rhyme competitions were held, with more than 2,000 participants, effectively enhancing the community's awareness of protecting language diversity.

3. Innovative Effects: Evidence-Based Practical Verification

Three Dimensions of Ability Improvement (Core Table Retained)

IV. Practical Reflection: Bottleneck Breakthrough and Development Path

(A) Countermeasures for Resource Development

Home-School-Community Resource Map:

1. Family Level: Establish a resource package of "1 Heirloom + 1 Family Story". Specifically, each student's family needs to sort out one heirloom with historical value or emotional significance (such as old photos, old farm tools, handwritten letters, etc.) and write a family story related to it, covering family history, traditional customs, values inheritance and other contents. The school classifies and compiles these resource packages to form a school-based family cultural resource library, providing vivid materials for the teaching of Chinese, history, art and other subjects. For example, the "ancestral wood carving tools" of a student's family and the family story of "craftsmanship spirit" behind them can be directly integrated into the teaching unit of Rural China or Ancient Chinese Crafts.

2. Community Level: Sign practice agreements with museums/intangible cultural heritage museums. Establish long-term cooperative relations with local museums, intangible cultural heritage protection centers and other institutions, and sign practice agreements including resource sharing, joint construction of practice bases, expert guidance and other contents. For example, cooperate with the municipal museum to develop a series of courses "Chinese Classes in Cultural Relics", organize students to visit cultural relic exhibitions and write after-reading impressions; cooperate with intangible cultural heritage inheritors to carry out experience activities such as paper-cutting, pottery making and traditional opera, combining intangible cultural heritage skills with Chinese creation. According to statistics, such cooperation can increase the participation rate of students' cultural practice by more than 40%.

3. Urban-Rural Resource Drift Mechanism. Construct a complementary and shared platform for resources between urban and rural schools to realize the cross-regional flow of high-quality educational resources. The specific operation is: urban schools donate modern scientific and technological resources such as 3D printers and multimedia teaching equipment, while rural schools provide rice farming teaching aids (such as rice buckets, sickles), traditional farm tool models and rice farming culture related materials. Through regular exchange and joint teaching and research, urban students can experience farming culture, and rural students can be exposed to modern science and technology. For example, 3D printers donated by an urban middle school helped rural students make three-dimensional models of traditional farm tools, while rice farming teaching aids provided by rural schools became intuitive teaching aids for urban students' Chinese writing on the theme of "Sympathy for Farmers", effectively promoting the balanced development of urban and rural education.

(B) Reconstruction of Evaluation System (Pure Text Description)

Three-Dimensional and Four-Stage Evaluation Model:

Three-Dimensional Content

1. Expressiveness (30%): Evaluate the accuracy and expressiveness of students' language application. Specific indicators include the correctness of dialect phonetic notation (for example, in dialect poetry recitation, the pronunciation accuracy of dialect words reaches more than 90%), the standardization and vividness of written language expression (for example, the appropriate use of rhetorical devices in compositions and clear logic), and the fluency and appeal of oral expression (for example, clear views and organized speech in class speeches or lectures). For example, in the "Dialect Story Adaptation" activity, the correctness of students' dialect phonetic notation and the effect of story telling will be taken as the main evaluation basis.

2. Cultural Understanding (40%): Examine the depth of students' understanding of traditional cultural elements and their transformation ability. The core indicator is the rationality of traditional element transformation. For example, in the use of historical materials in Bridge Records, whether students can accurately interpret the historical background of historical materials, reasonably extract cultural connotation, and creatively integrate it into the modern context (such as writing a short article New Sayings of Ancient Bridges, comparing modern bridge technology with ancient bridge culture). In addition, it also includes the cognition of multicultural inclusiveness, such as reflecting respect and understanding for different cultures in cross-cultural theme writing.

3. Practical Ability (30%): Measure students' ability to solve practical problems and the effectiveness of practical results. Focus on evaluating the effectiveness of problem solving. For example, in the "Old Renovation Plan Design" project, whether the plan proposed by students is feasible (considering factors such as cost, environmental protection and residents' needs), innovative (whether there is a unique design concept) and social value (whether it can improve the community environment). For example, a "community idle space renovation plan" designed by a group needs to be verified for its effectiveness through community residents' voting and expert review.

Four-Stage Subjects

Self-Evaluation (20%): Students reflect on and evaluate their own learning process and achievements according to preset evaluation standards, cultivating metacognitive ability. For example, after completing the "family story resource package", students need to fill in a self-evaluation form to summarize their gains and deficiencies.

Peer Evaluation (30%): Students evaluate each other's works or performances, promoting collaboration and critical thinking. Anonymous peer evaluation or group peer evaluation is adopted to ensure the objectivity of evaluation. For example, in the display of "intangible cultural heritage skill experience works", students evaluate each other in terms of creativity, craftsmanship and cultural connotation.

Teacher Evaluation (30%): Teachers conduct professional evaluation on students' learning performance based on curriculum objectives and evaluation standards. Comprehensive evaluation is given based on multi-dimensional data such as daily observation, homework correction and project achievements. For example, Chinese teachers make detailed comments on students' "cultural understanding" dimension, pointing out the depth of their interpretation of traditional elements.

Social Evaluation (20%): Introduce third parties such as community representatives, parents and industry experts to participate in the evaluation, enhancing the objectivity and social relevance of the evaluation. For example, in the "community old renovation plan", community neighborhood committee members and architects are invited to evaluate the feasibility of the plan, and their opinions account for 20% of the total evaluation. This multi-evaluation system effectively responds to the question that "single score evaluation is difficult to fully reflect students' abilities". Through multi-dimensional and multi-subject evaluation, it measures students' comprehensive literacy and development potential more scientifically.

Conclusion

"When the lesson plan of Zhaozhou Bridge moves from the textbook to the mottled stone steps, and when the tears in Deep Maternal Love turn into the ink marks of rubbing thimbles, Chinese education finally finds its lost soul in the fireworks of the world — thawing texts with life and letting language take root in the earth."

References

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[5] UNESCO. (2024). The Application of Local Knowledge in Basic Education. Paris: UNESCO.