How do you decipher which students you should present the program to?

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

We have the challenge of bringing East Asia into the classroom, but how and who should we expose to all this information?

For me is kind of convenient having the Chinese Culture Club because I have a set of students attending the club once a week to learn different things.

The phenomenon I have been experiencing is that I get new students each year. For some reason I usually get seniors, they are more into traveling and also they like to have the letter of recommendation that I write for their senior portfolio. But this also means that they graduate and I have to start from the beginning again.

But even without the club, I like to inject Chinese topics into my classes. Whenever appropriate, a lesson would include vocabulary in Spanish (that they need to know in English as well) that is related to places in China, Chinese food, Chinese famous places etc.

For example I play with the verbs with sentences like:

Yo estoy en Beijing
Tu comes dumplins con palitos chinos
Nosotros caminamos por la muralla china
En china es la una de la tarde (whe we are at 10 am LA time)
Ellos leen frases de Confucio

Spanish speakers are more advanced and they have been given topics to present in Spanish related to China (geography, culture, foods + tasting, music, history, philosophy, etc)

We all have to face the challenge of managing time and selecting the class or the students that would benefit from the “accommodated” lessons

[Anonymous]

I think the way you have creatively exposed the Chinese Culture to the students have given them some opportunity to explore the culture, particularly utilizing a language class to bring light into things that are Chinese. I applaud you!

Because I teach elementary grades, I bring Asian awareness via "cultural experiences" - by this, I use food or cultural relics to bring Asia/Other Cultures into the classroom. For example, I recently brought in Korean traditional rice cake called "Dduk". We used our five senses to explore this food and wrote a personal narrative about our exploration. Some of the best writings I've received was via cultural experience. It's amazing how students respond to culture when they can use all the senses -- food always works, at least in my case. And other kids have brought in foods/cultural relics from their culture. It's hard to believe that it all started as a small desire to bring my culture into the classroom!

[Anonymous]

My student population in the high school is largely Korean and Hispanic/Latino.
I found that one of the best ways to hook them on any new topic is to introduce it with food.
In my case, an exchange of food from Hispanic/Latino countries and from Korea or other Asian countries.

(Of course this is done on occasion such as once or twice per year.)

I make it part of an assignment where students discuss , write, and give a PowerPoint
presentation about their favorite food (cultural - not McDonald's).

Students create a menu and contribute to the cost of ordering the food.

Then, as they discuss their favorite cultural dishes, they always talk about their culture and
why that dish is an important part of it.

From that assignment, I relate historical information about Asia or another country using the text, the Internet and other supplemental resources for the remainder of the semester.

Cheryl Watson

[Anonymous]

This is easy. I am a Special Day Class teacher who teaches all sixth grade core subjects. History in sixth grade is called Ancient World Civilizations, and much of spring is devoted to exploring the geography and early settlement of China. That is when I will integrate my knowledge and resources gained into my curriculum.

[Anonymous]

I teach Ancient Civilizations to 6th and 7th graders. When it is time to study Ancient China, I ask my Oriental students to bring music, objects, art, calendars, and literature if they have any at home to show and tell to the entire class; of course their English is limited, still we get a good grasp of what they are offering us. Last year, I had an interesting session with one of my students who beautifully performed a native dance using his native dress as he danced Chinese folk music. Just this presentation by itself promoted more interest in the rest of the class who insisted that we should go to China Town for our next field trip.

[Anonymous]

hi everyone,
I have ideas on how to present our students some materials on the Silk Road.[Edit by="xvayas on Jan 26, 5:29:48 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Expose this information to everyone that you teach, and shake them all up ! Let everyone that you can reach get exposed to this wonderful cultural difference and expand their horizons. Of course, there will be negativity, because it is new information, but isn't it a good tool to get people out of their rut. As a suggestion; So many of my Middle Schoolers are eating machines. They are always hungry. At this age, it is amazing how picky they are about their food. I would first introduce Chinese Orange Chicken to them, because they will all enjoy it, and I would certainly make sure that I would not tell them that it is Chinese Food. In more words than one, a key to a student's heart is through their stomach. I sponsored a dinner at a theatrical rehearsal for some Middle School Students, and I brought all Chinese Food from Panda Express. It was a complete success, and there was not a noodle left over. When in doubt, try food !

[Anonymous]

All of you have such creative ways of presenting Asia and its culture! In 10th grade World History, our standards include Imperialism in China and SE Asia, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and how China became communist. I have been able to do many interesting projects and lessons for WWII, but not so much for the other topics. I hope to find some through this workshop and from the rest of you to jazz up my topics!

[Anonymous]

I'm really excited about this course because I'm teaching the AP World History class at our school and in this class less than 30% of the course needs to be about Europe. Already, my students have discussed East Asian history from ~2,000 BC until the 1400's. I can't wait to include a lot of the interesting information that has been shared with us!

Since I'm still a new teacher, I've only made it to the Cold War, including the Korean War and the Communist question in the East once. When I do my Imperialism Unit I prefer to focus on Africa and India since most of my students can ethnically identify with those parts of the world more. The information that is being shared with me though makes me want to change things up, or shorten another unit of study so I can explore in more depth how East Asia has been effected throughout history.

[Anonymous]

IF you are interested in incorporating MORE in your AP World course, Please contact me. I had the same dilemma a few years ago when I began teaching the AP World. Many of my students were of Korean background and I was disappointed in the lack of material our text (Spodek) presented on Korea . I attended a seminar at the Korean Cultural Center on Wilshire and was able to get many materials for the course. Since then I have written a DBQ on the Kingdom of Silla, which I would be very happy to share with you. My school email is [email protected]

[Anonymous]

I love incorporating history and English and look forward to working with you to make our lesson plans rock. Hey.......maybe we can do something together with our East Asia curriculum that I am stressing over.

[Author]

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