Website Review

I came across this website, Asiasociety.org and found it to be a helpful resource for teachers. The organization's purpose is "promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. Across the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, the Society provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future." as stated on its website. The website is thorough and includes links to information on policy, business, and Lifestyle. The news thread provides up to date stories and information going on in the Asia world as well as news going on here in California or the US. It truly does connect and strengthen partnerships across all fields.

The education link provided many elementary and secondary lesson plans from a variety of sources and topics that are engaging and easy to implement in the classroom. Some of these topics include: Visible traces (a lesson on Chinese language and writing development), Trade in the Silk Road cities, Building an Empire (understanding China and its geography), and Chinese Inventions for the littler kids. The lesson plans seemed interesting and short although some of them didn't include links to the handouts or resources that were referenced in the lesson plan.
Overall, I found it a fascinating website for students and teachers to utilize for learning and teaching. Hope you find it interesting as well.

In addition to my original website review (Asia Society), I would also like to post about about.com, in particular http://www.childrensbooks.about.com. Although many people in our seminar don't teach elementary students, I thought the list of the top ten children's books about China could be used for fun- with the family perhaps.

I like that they give such a thorough description of each book. Here is an example of 5 of the books (although I could not get the pictures of the front covers of the books to copy/paste):

A New Year's Reunion
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[font=Verdana]A New Year's Reunion[/font] combines the story of one family's festive Chinese New Year celebration with the poignancy of the family's annual reunion. Maomao and her mother eagerly await the return of the little girl's father whose construction job takes him away from home all year except for his annual visit for Chinese New Year. Illustrations rich in color and detail reflect the family's joy in being together and celebrating the Chinese New Year and their sadness at parting. Both the author and illustrator, Yu Li-Qiong and Zhu Cheng-Liang, live in China and the story reflects the reality of many families' lives there. I recommend A New Year's Reunion for ages 4-8 and as a classroom read aloud for older students studying China. (Candlewick Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780763658816)

D is for Dragon Dance
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In his picture book D is for Dragon Dance, author Ying Chang Compestine uses the alphabet to introduce symbols and activities associated with Chinese New Year. Each letter is embedded in a full page illustration or, in the case of "D is for Dragon," a double-page spread, all created by artist Yongsheng Xuan in watercolor, acrylic and latex. In addition to the bits of information that are sprinkled throughout the book, the Author's Note at the book's end includes a section on Tips to Ensure Good Fortune in the New Year, information about the different calligraphic styles used for the Chinese characters that appear in the background of the book's illustrations and a recipe for New Year's Dumpling Delight. I think this book will appeal to a wide range of children, from young children who will enjoy seeing the illustrations for each letter of the alphabet to children ages 7-12, who will enjoy learning more about Chinese New Year. (Holiday House, 2006. ISBN: 9780823418879)

Bringing in the New Year
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[font=Verdana]Bringing in the New Year[/font], written and illustrated by Grace Lin, is a colorful picture book about a little girl and her family's celebration of the Chinese/Lunar New Year. From the endpapers decorated with symbols of the New Year to the foldout of the Dragon on parade, there is a lot of color and life in this children's book. A two-page essay at the end of the book provides information about symbols and traditions related the New Year, including the importance of the lucky dragon. I recommend the book for ages 4-8. (Alfred A. Knopf, An Imprint of Random House Children's Books, 2008. ISBN: 9780375837456)

Happy, Happy Chinese New Year!
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This book by author and illustrator Demi is infused with the joy of the Chinese New Year, both its preparations and celebrations. With simple text and captivating illustrations, Demi provides an overview of the activities in which the Chinese participate before and during Chinese New Year. I would recommend this book for ages 4-8, as well as for older children, teens and adults who enjoy Demi's artwork. (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2003. ISBN: 0375826424)

Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year
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[font=Verdana]Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year[/font] is an infromational book, done in picture book format, about the first Lion Dance of a young boy who lives in Chinatown in New York City. While the focus is on Ernie Wan's preparations for, and enjoyment of, the Lion Dance, authors Kate Waters and Madeline Slovenz-Low include a lot of other information about how Ernie and his family celebrate Chinese New Year. The color photographs by Martha Cooper illustrate many of the holiday activities. I recommend the book for ages 6 to 10. (Scholastic, 1991 (PB), 1990. ISBN: 9780590430470)

Information from http://www.childrensbooks.about.com

I really like this website! It brought back memories of when I was in college minoring in English as a New Language, so that I could be better prepared to go teach English abroad with the Peace Corp. At the time, I don't think this website even existed and I remember browsing through Peace Corp brochures. Although my plans and dreams to volunteer for the organization never came true, maybe when I retire from teaching I will re-visit the plan! Thanks for sharing this website. It obviously is valuable to me personally, but also has a wealth of information to use for teaching.

While looking for resources to use in my curriculum unit, I found several websites connected to "Peach Blossom Spring," the poem written by Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian), describing a fisherman's discovery and loss of Shangri-la.

One of these websites is: http://www.miho.jp/english/landscap/landscap.htm.

Here I found that the museum itself was "conceived as a paradise on earth by its architect, I. M. Pei, whose concept of the museum was based on this Chinese classical poem, Peach Blossom Valley. Upon his first visit to the site on which the museum now stands, he was moved to declare, 'This is Shangri-La.'"

The connections between China and Japan were made clearer by this website in which I learned that a Chinese legend could have such profound impact on a nation that often finds itself at odds with the other. The museum is located in Shigaraki-no-Sato, surrounded by "murmuring mountain streams like the Daido and Tashiro Rivers." Next year, I plan to travel to Asia and if I decide upon Japan then this is definitely a place I plan to visit. In the meantime, my students and I can take virtual trips as we learn more about the insatiable human desire to seek out utopia.
edited by nparmar on 6/23/2012

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} I am a complete teacher nerd, so when assigned a task like this one for the website reviews, I immediately think curriculum; I did some surfing. But as I stated in the beginning of the seminar, I want to help raise my students’ awareness of global nature of their world. Specifically, I want to educate them about the economic impact of countries like China on their futures. So in my perusing, I followed a link to the China Institute in New York (http://www.chinainstitute.org). This China Institute, like ours, encourages cross-cultural understanding by teaching teachers. The site itself has limited resources, and it is unclear what programs are currently available. But I changed the direction of my web search because I remembered I wanted to expose kids to China, to get them thinking about what else is out “there.” The possibilities landed me at http://www.nctasia.org , which includes our seminar. NCTA stands for National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, which Clay talked about during session 1. This website is a gold mine of resources for teachers and students. It provides information and links to exciting events and programs that could change a student’s life by giving him or her an opportunity to experience a different country and culture. I found it especially useful that the information provided was national and regional. The site offers information about study programs for teachers through universities, and it hosts a resources page that would be a good place for anyone to start who is looking for where, how, and when to study about Asia. I liked this website because it didn’t overwhelm me with information. Sometimes there is so much going on that I don’t know where to begin. It also helped to know a bit about the Consortium before exploring the site, but regardless I felt the site was focused. It gave the mission in the headline and a button encourages visitors to explore the top reasons to participate in the Consortium’s offerings. Like all good things, however, the greatest value is found when one uncovers the richness that lies behind each tab or link. There are the opportunities I will point my students to this next school year.