geography

As we discussed today, it can be hard for teachers to incorporate more on East Asia into their curriculum because they have so much to cover already in order to meet state standards. Because of this and the fact that there aren't any 9th grade CA social science standards, I think that my World Geography class will be the best place for me to incorporate a great deal of information on East Asia. For each region we study, the students learn about physical geography (landforms, climates, etc.) and cultural geography (gov't, culture, religion, lifestyles, history, economics, human-environment interaction, etc.). I usually begin this class with a discussion of what culture is. I first ask students what their culture is as Southern California teenagers and then ask them what they think the culture is for a teenager from a place like Boston. It helps them understand that culture can defined by country and region, and that history, physical features, climate, religion, etc. all play a huge role in culture. After today's lessons on geography, I want to show the map overlays of the different East Asian countries and ask them to think about the similarities they may have with teenagers in East Asia that live by the water, along similar latitudes, etc. They may find that they have just as many or more things in common with a teenager from East Asia as they have with a teenager from Boston. Any connections that we can make between our culture, lifestyles, economies, etc., the more likely it is that our students will be engaged in what they are learning.

Chinese culture, history, and geography are integrated parts of Chinese language teaching and learning. However, how to make learning geography fun and engaging can be challenging. I learned that using superimposed maps can be very helpful in leading students to compare and contrast. Moreover, the superimposed maps can help students build up connections between their prior knowledge and the new materials.

A very important point that Clay shared in the presentation was that the geographic of a country matters. The landform, climate, and population effect the culture, economics, and lifestyle of a country. Because of the geographic distinctions, the Japanese culture differs than Chinese culture. And the Chinese culture is different than the Korean culture. The example that Clay had us stand on newspaper reminds me about the subways in Beijing during peak hours. The passengers have to squeeze in and out.

I will borrow the idea of the map overlaps and incorporate it into my instructions. For my students (9-12th grade), the cities like Shenzhen, Lanzhou, or Zhaoqing may not make sense to them. However, using this kind of map and having them compare and contrast the U.S. and China’s geographic features would be one way to motivate them. Thanks to Clay for the idea and all the online articles about East Asia. Great resource. I would say, these online websites would save me a lot of prep time.
edited by vding on 8/2/2011

The geography intro reminds me of the importance of location in shaping the cultures of civilizations. For example, the fact China has so many neighbors and bordering the ocean on the other side influenced the priorities of the dynastic rulers. The concerns were the nomads in the north and northwest. It’s also interesting looking at how different countries name the geography. It reflects their biases and competing territorial claims. Studying different versions of maps will be a good lesson to get students thinking about point of view and historiography.

I was one of the students asked to stand on the newspaper to demonstrate a dense population. I was very conscious that I had to stand quietly could not turn about or even raise my arms. Overwhelmingly, my encounters with people of Japanese decent have been that they are soft spoken and very polite. The crowded newspaper demonstration made it clear to me how imperative it would be for everyone to be patient and consider the good of the group. Geography does matter. While our country land mass is large in contrast to Japan we share many of the same challenges with aging populations and lack of jobs for the shrinking workforce