Asian and Asian American Inclusion in the Classroom

This is my second time I've had the pleasure of taking this seminar and learning more about China, Japan, and Korea. However, though I'm at the same site teaching the demographics and challenges of the students I will be mentoring are different; primarily my students are Latinx or African American. These East Asian countries may seem starkly different from those of my students, but I am hoping to take on the challenge of building more representation and empathy into my classroom. My students also do not have history their freshmen year, so I will not be able to be reliant on their history teacher to supplement about Confucius or China but only from middle school or my own supplemented background.

The first unit I teach is on What does it mean to be an American? through the My Perspectives consumable textbook. There is already a story by Amy Tan included called "Rules of the Game", but the one inch by one inch background on the author and several sentence "background" on the story itself is not sufficient to understanding the motives of the mother and daughter in the story without first understanding the rich culture of China and Confucian ideals/expectations brought over even to first generation Chinese Americans. Because of this, I have prepared a slide show that breaks down Chinese rules of conduct, Confucian ideals, and Chinese vs. Chinese American/American Expectations. I think it is important as a reader to empathize with the experience of being an immigrant, a mother who does not show love in a way that many may associate with, and a daughter who is having identity issues with being Chinese and American. The mother in the story is not "mean" as some of my students last year wanted to categorize her. 

I will also be includng this video to get the perspective of modern Asian Americans dealing with the same struggles their parents, grandparents, friends, etc. have gone through and will continue to go through. I liked that one of the people being interviewed had beautiful multi colored hair and that they shone a light on Bangladesh and how often they are not included or remembered as Asian Americans. I have downloaded the youtube video using this site (https://y2mate.com/) and made cuts for length, and deleted the short section on the fetishization/sexualization of Asians. 

https://youtu.be/9E0_8KPvOt0

Here are examples of questions I will be asking on my pre-reading powerpoint to help push their understanding after taking notes on the powerpoint:

On the bottom of your notes answer these questions and explain fully:

-According to Confucius ideals for Women on Slide 3, what do you think is the most important ideal to Americans, and why? Which is least important, and why?

-What do your parents and/or culture expect of you, and how do they teach you? Do you think those expectations are important? If so, why? If not, why?