pre-2011 web resources

[Anonymous]

If you're wondering where to buy film or music by Asian artists. YesAsia.com http://us.yesasia.com/en/index.aspx is the site for you. I've used this site to purchase films and Cds from my favorite Hong Kong stars. Their prices are very decent and they have a wide selection of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese films, TV drama and series, music and even anime.

[Anonymous]

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/eastasiasbook.html

The above site: Internet East Asian History Sourcebook by Fordham University is a compilation of primary sources, articles, images, and Internet sites on ancient China. Including sections on cultural origins, religious traditions, and imperial China. This site provides numerous primary sources and documents and may also be used by students as a research tool on China. They have primary documents such as excerpts from Confucius's Analects and a tower inscription of Emperor Qin's Legalist policies. I have used some of Confucius's Analects in my own classroom with my sixth grade students.

[Anonymous]

The following website is a great source for Classical Chinese Literature
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_lit.classics.html

The site has a multitude of Chinese poets and philospohers. It also include a timeline and sections on poetry, relating to Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism. This site was designed for a university-level course, many of the poems are annotated and explained for general understanding. The selection of poetry and writings provides a wonderful set of primary sources for maybe high school students or for teachers who want to learn and read more Chinese Literature.

[Anonymous]

I found a really neat site that would be ideal for students of all levels, but middle and high school students could really benefit from using it. http://teachthechildrenwell.com is a very good overview site, and it includes many links to other East Asian sites. Go to the bottom of the opening page, click on the shell that says "Asia", and then go to wherever you want. There are some great pages on Chinese culture, fashion, language, demographics etc, and there are actual lessons/activity suggestions as well. There is also a lot of information on Japan, Korea, and other related areas. I especially loved the pages on Korean cooking- a good, brief description of the food, a picture, and a detailed set of instructions on how to make it yourself. How great is that? This is a great site if you want to introduce your student to certain elements of Asia, or as a departure point as you begin your Asian unit.

[Anonymous]

Another excellent site that I found and plan to use with my middle school students is http://americantanka.com. Tanka is a revered and highly popular form of Japanese poetry that uses 5 lines, and 31 syllables to try to capture a specific moment in one's life as though taking a photograph. I can attest that kids love fooling around with poetry, provided that the poems are presented to them as a mystery or a puzzle, and they love to write their own once they understand what they are doing. This site offers a clear, logical explanation of the Tanka form, a history of the style, a bibliography (and an opportunity to purchase back issues of American Tanka Journal), and a large selection of examples. While there is not much eye candy or glitz, this site is a great resource for those wishing to do a fun unit on Japanese Tanka poetry.

[Anonymous]

Another very interesting, well laid-out site is http://www.afk.com. or as it is commonly referred to, "Asia for Kids". All of the major Asian nations are represented, and there are games, maps, links to purchase related Asian items, but I especially like the links to the multicultural calendar. I often feel so insulated when I teach in my room, and I am sure that students sometimes feel this way. The calender shows each student what is going on in the world at any specific time- Chinese New Year, Parent'S Day, and the times of all the various festivals. This is an excellent warm-up activity while in the midst of your Asian unit. Have the kids go to the site and find out what is being celebrated in Japan on this day etc...It is a very good way to open student's eyes to the staggering diversity this world offers us. There are very good links for further study of these events, so students could easily do extra credit work based on their initial classroom readings etc. It is worth looking at.

[Anonymous]

As a middle school English teacher, I am especially fond of poetry sites that give students the basic elements of a poetic style quickly, without any distracting eye candy or superficial elements. My hope is to spend a week next year teaching my 7th grade class the art of Tanka and Haiku. An excellent haiku site that I found is http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku This site quickly and coherantly explains exactly what a haiku poem is, where they come from, and how to construct them. There are plenty of examples, and I especially like how there are examples from 16 Japanese masters of the form, from Basho to Kobayashi Issa. In addition to this, there are also newer examples of haiku for the students to look at. This is a great, no-frills site for haiku writing.[Edit by="gjones on Aug 12, 3:01:10 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="gjones on Aug 12, 3:01:58 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Mr. Donn's Pages : http://members.aol.com/donnandlee/SiteIndex.html

This is a great website for any history/social studies teachers. The two creators have pages that give historical background to different areas and eras of history.

There is a specific section called China for Kids, which is then broken up into different aspects of Chinese culture and history. The background information is useful for teachers and students. It's written in simple enough language that students can read it, but there are only cartoon pictures and not a lot of other visuals.

I think the biggest advantage to the website is all the links to other websites. Once you're done reading about a topic, Mr. Donn provides numerous links to other websites with lesson plans, pictures, ideas, etc. He's already done all the work for you. There are some dead links, but for the most part, I think the links are the best part about his website.

Summary:

Positives: written in kid-friendly language, numerous links to lesson plans, ideas, resources
Negatives: some dead links, not many visuals [Edit by="judilee on Nov 17, 6:58:11 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/

This is a great website for History/Social Science teachers. It provides links to different lesson plans and resources. You can search for lesson plans by grade or standard. For middle school, there are sections on China and Japan. For 10th grade, there are sections on imperialism, WWII, and modern China.

Once you click on a grade/standard, it will give you links to lesson plans that have been written by other teachers. There are a couple of dead links. I think there is a thorough screening process because the lessons are well written. It's the not the old school lesson plans--they are interactive, thought-provoking, and encourage higher-level thinking. Whenever I am at a loss to teach a topic, I always check out this website, because more often than not, I can get an idea from it.

[clay dube]

Judi -- thanks for the suggestion. Are there particular lessons on East Asia that you're impressed by?

Here are some modern East Asia materials:
http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/lessons/grades/?u=145

[Anonymous]

Clay,

I liked this lesson: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/06/g912/buddhism.html, which teaches the spread of Buddhism through art. I think the hook activity, playing a game of telephone was clever and engaging.

I also liked this lesson:
http://rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/samurai_resume/. This is a lesson where students must make a samurai resume. It is a more creative and fun way to show what students have learned about samurai than writing an essay, but they are also improving their writing skills.

[Anonymous]

My lesson plan assignment for the seminar is about comparing world mythologies, and incorporating creation myths into language arts studies. The following website is a great resource for Korean Mythology:

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/asia/korean/articles.html

From that start screen if you click on "read more", it will bring you to a page that had information on Korean geography and history and how both related to myths. It also has a section tha includes the context of mythsin Korea and descibes three types of myths: shinhwa (supernatural), cheonseol (stories handed down), and mindam (stories about common people).

Along the left hand side of the screen are Korean dieties and mythological characters by alphabetical order. Clicking on their names brings you to a short description of their place in Korean mythology.

I'd like to use to give myself more background on the context in which Korean myths were created. I'd alos like to use this with my class to choose mythological figures to compare and contrast within Korean mythology and between Korean and other mythologies.

[Edit by="aronan on Dec 11, 2:49:05 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Both
http://www.story-lovers.com/listsjapanesestories.html

and

http://www.spfusa.org/Library/teach.htm

are annotated bibliographies of sorts for Japanese folk tales and teaching references. The first website lists links to stories on amazon, as well as to other websites that retell or animate the stories. It also has readers comments and some story excerpts.

The second website doesn't link to anything else, but it does break the books and videos into categories like activities, culture, language, folktales, and videos. It's also specifically an elementary teacher resource site.

I used this to read some of the stories online, many are public domain, and to look at books about other aspects of Japanese culture.[Edit by="aronan on Dec 3, 4:18:19 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="aronan on Dec 11, 2:49:57 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

In planning my unit on mythology and stories for my elementary class, I was looking for traditional stories that were actually told to children in Japan, and not stories thrown together for an English anthology. When I found this website I was thrilled!

http://www.nis.atr.jp/~ray/stories/

This guy translated 16 children's stories to practice his written translation. He has the cover of the book posted along withthe Japanese script along and the English translation.

I'm going to use this site to print out the stories for my students and give them copies of what it looked like in Japanese.[Edit by="aronan on Dec 11, 2:50:28 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

This website has some kooky things about Japan, but two parts to the website that I love are:

http://www.japanippon.com/fairytales/fairytales.htm

and

http://www.japanippon.com/proverbs.htm

The first is a translation of a few Japanese stories for children. The thing I like about the website is that it includes pictures. The site doesn't say where the story or pictures are from, but I like that it's like an online picture book. I'll use this in my unit to share children's book art. I'd like to have the children compare their visualization of the story with the author's as well.

The second link is a bunch of Japanese proverbs that have the kanji, as well as the pronunciation guide and transalation. I thought introducing a few proverbs would be fun, since my students are just beginning to grasp figurative language. I'd like them to compare the meanings of Japanese proverbs with English idioms and other sayings. I especially like, "Everyone makes mistakes, that's why there's an eraser on every pencil."[Edit by="aronan on Dec 11, 2:51:22 PM"][/Edit]

[Author]

Posts