bringing the students in

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  • July 24, 2008 at 7:54 am #5350
    Rob_Hugo@PortNW
    Keymaster

    late last night i had entered some challanges about getting all students a little bit excited towards beginging a lesson about china. one of the graceful arts that china has given the world and that our youth finds of great interest is the chinese character. this could easly lead into a 6th grades chinese history lesson. from education of the priviliged to the symbols and labeling of the dynasties. i think it might take a little web work, but rewarding.

    July 25, 2008 at 3:23 am #31974
    Anonymous
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    Getting students excited about our lessons is always a challenge. However China's history is so rich with art, literature, war, etc. that many contemporary forms of entertainment use much of it. For example, there are the movies like Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Also there is TV shows/cartoons like Avatar the Last Air Bender.

    I have often found that if I can connect the students' daily lives and desired forms of entertainment (not to mention primary form of education :~ )- TV, video games, magazines, Internet- then their excitement levels will increase.

    July 27, 2008 at 3:03 am #31975
    Anonymous
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    Wow, that is the age old question in education. How do you motivate your students? I think Jason gave you the best response to that question. It it so important to allow the student to connect to the lesson through his or her own experiences.

    This is off topic of Asian Studies, but I think that this theme is universal. During the summer, I have my students reading a book by a Latina writer named Sandra Cisneros. The book is called The House on Mango St.. It is basically a series of vignettes that deal with a young girl growing into womanhood.

    I make my students write a series of their own vignettes through journal topics and then they have to illustrate them and create their own books. The journal topics relate to the vignettes from the book. My students really enjoy the project and it brings the novel more to life for them because they can relate to some of the things that the protagonist is dealing with.

    I am assuming that you could have your students get excited about some of the things that they are studying if you can create a way to relate it to thier own experiences.

    July 28, 2008 at 2:55 am #31976
    Anonymous
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    Since tagging seems to be so popular, I try to relate that to calligraphy. I let them express themselves in a more positive way on paper. We also talk about how important respect is, and how it does not show respect to vandalize the school or someone elses property. The other thing I do to bring them in is before we start china, I show them a powerpoint of some of my personal pictures of China. It seems to create a more personal interest and sparks their curiosity and gets the questions flowing. once they see that i have been there. They want to know everything. they also get really involved if you teach them a few phrases. My partner said that after they had left nmy room, they greeted for by saying, "nei hao'. It really is fun to see them use what they learn. Another day I taught them how to use chopticks. At lunch that day, they were eating their chicken wings with the chopsticks. (You can get a couple class sets at any asian grocery store for a few dollars. Cherrios are an inexpensive thing to let them practice with. They are also large enough for the students to be abole to pick up with out getting frustrated.)

    July 29, 2008 at 2:57 am #31977
    Anonymous
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    Those are great ideas to get students interested in the cultures you are studying! I really want to have them try using chopsticks...

    I have also done some little projects with calligraphy, but the tie in to tagging is great. There are websites that will show kids how to write their names in Japanese or Chinese (and I am sure others). There are some that will show them different scripts, too, which is challenging but fun for them.

    I also purchased a few cheap set of calligraphy books and brush sets for kids to try out. I get them from my Scholastic Book Orders, but I know they have them at Borders and other book stores, too. A colleague of mine went a step further and asked the PTA to purchase nice brush and ink sets for her kids to practice with. You can have them practice for fun first, then have them create posters of different information using the calligraphy as their titles.

    July 29, 2008 at 4:09 am #31978
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Just for fun...here are a couple websites I found that go along with what we've been talking about...

    http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/virtual/shodo/index.html

    Japanese Calligraphy- Shodo: This website tells about what Shodo is, then lets you try it out in "Virtual Shodo". The virtual part is kind of cheesy, but the site is really neat, and there are other links and fun activities about Japan for kids!

    http://www.askasia.org/features/VISIBLE_TRACES/games/languagegame.html
    Chinese Language Puzzle- shows early Chinese pictographs and allows students to play a little matching game to show similarities between Chinese, Hittite, Sumerian, and Egyptian pictographs.

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