MYP Project based on ‘Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress’

Posted on January 17, 2012 by ISTA

In the months January to May, the Chinese International School’s Drama and French Department embarked on an MYP Interdisciplinary Project of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. This concluded with a Production and Language/Culture tour of London and Paris.

The Project’s success lay in the close collaboration between the two departments, and was supported on a number of levels by the English, Humanities, Art and Chinese Departments.

The curriculum focus of the project was embedded in the Year 10 Drama and French courses in semester two which saw students study the themes of the Cultural Revolution through the eyes and imaginations of the characters of Dai Sijie’s novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.  

 The co-curricular aspect of the project was two tiered:

1)    The lecture series delivered to Year 10 across a number of rotation periods, which drew on CIS staff members’ experience, knowledge and eye-witness accounts of the Cultural Revolution.

2)    The MYP Production of an adapted version of Dai Sijie’s novel which was opened to all students studying the MYP Course at CIS.

The extra-curricular outcome of the MYP Interdisciplinary Project was a Production and Language/Culture tour of London and Paris. This outcome of the project was opened to all students studying Year 10 French and all students involved in the MYP Production of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.

 Throughout the Project there were a number of highlights that come to mind.  Although performing the work of students to appreciative London and Parisian audiences was certainly something special, and attending engaging workshops on Commedia del Arte, Musicals and mime were unique experiences, there happened to be one moment that was all encompassing, the moment when one of the students on tour oversaw a man reading an article when waiting for the Eurostar, titled “Mao’s Red Guards burned my family history” (which was in Saturday’s Guardian newspaper). It was one of those moments in teaching that reinforced the importance of how approaching curriculum from a layered perspective creates students that are more engaged with the world which surrounds them.

The article could not have been timed better.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/04/guo-yue-china-childhood-cultural-revolution?INTCMP=SRCH

The MYP Interdisciplinary Production Project was a rewarding experience for all students and teachers involved.

By Mitch Grace, Rachel Jackson and Christèle Joly

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