Session 4 - Pre-1800 Korea, 3/11

[Anonymous]

I was amazed that within such a limited time (12 minutes) and only three sentences, there are so many poems in varieties of inspiration could be made with this simple form of Korean poetry.
I will definitely try this activities in my classroom.

[Anonymous]

There was so much information presented today with Korea to 1800 lecture. I personally believe my 6th grade students will be most interested in writing poetry, especially since the Sijo is very short. Another element learned today that I can implement in my classroom is "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly". Students already have an idea of good, bad, and ugly, but to go into detail of Korean Kings who fit the description of each characteristic will give them a greater sense of how good, bad, and ugly can be used to describe a persons (leader) character when in a position of power. I would also challenge my students to analyze our current world leader (President Trump) and the characteristics he has shown that my reflect one of the three kings (good, bad, or ugly).

[Anonymous]

Very interesting lecture and Professor Jung Kim's enthusiasm is infectious. I found most interesting the earliest phases of civilization particularly the similarity between "Rock Tombs" (Dolems?) throughout the world. It was interesting to see how at base-level human cultures have similar burial rituals. Continually, the similarity in use of tools and creation myths!

[Anonymous]

Arachnophobia (Inspired by current political events)

Within the halls of power sits a spider on his webbed throne.
He glowers o're his domain, spinning truths o' rag and old bone.
The maid sees him there, and sweeps him away with her straw halberd.

When discussing East Asia during my World History class, I can introduce this and other forms of poetry, along with some of the Chinese philosophy to enrich the class. It would probably work best as an introduction to western imperialism.
edited by cgao on 7/13/2017

[Anonymous]

Before Saturday's lectures, I only know about the cultural diffusion that took place of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Chinese contributions spreading from China to Korea to Japan. The reading of "the Good, Bad, and Ugly" provides a good introductory background on the political makeup of the unification of Korea. The lecturer shared good teaching strategies of storytelling and humor. I wonder why in the readings and in the news as well today of a big deal of flowering descriptions of the birth of a leader. Does it have to do with the Mandate of Heaven? Anyways, if I have a chance to reteach 7th grade world history again about the spread of Buddhism, I would do it differently after Saturday's lectures and reading materials.

[Anonymous]

As much as I learned much during the lectures, I appreciated the time to learn from other teachers as well on how they are implementing the readings and information into their plans. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I was a little surprised to find out that that the Mongols were influential to both European and Asian cultures. Mongols are usually depicted as very violent in films and their advances in medicine, astronomy, science and engineering are never highlighted. It reminded me of the original People’s of the Americas specially the Maya and the Aztec who are also depicted as violent and their ways of knowing are not often times central stories in films. This could be an opportunity to explore this topic with students, who writes history? how is history distributed in our society? and the need to be critical at all times.

[Anonymous]

Wow! Writing the Sijo was a great experience! It was very difficult and fun at the same time. Unfortunately I do not teach a topic where a Sijo will fit into the content. I do, however, teach a unit where we study corridos, mexican folk songs, which are very structured themselves. Maybe compare Sijos, Sonnets, and Corridos?

[Anonymous]

As a teacher of Mexican American Studies I agree with G. Cameron Hurst III, like America, Korea has a "history that has been used to serve the needs of the politics and nationalism, rather than to stand as impartial record of the past." Like Korea, US historians needed heroes to justify the actions necessary to fulfill its version of Manifest Destiny. And like America, Korean unification history will not "go quietly into the dark." Do not misinterpret my words, all countries practice the above stated formula. take China for example, in their desire to say they play a major part in Koreas' history:"[font='Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]some later Chinese records indicate Gija, an uncle of the last King of Shang dynasty, migrated to Gojoseon around the twelfth century [/font]B.C.E. Korean scholars generally reject the claim due to contradictory written and archaeological evidence." (Encyclopedia Britannica) This is why it is called HIS story. lol
edited by cavina on 3/16/2017

[Anonymous]

I am glad that I teach 7th grade history and I am going to definitely do this with my students. We can look at the different styles of East Asian poetry (Sijo, Tanka, Haiku) and compare the format. I also will make the students draw and image to represent the poem. I love the artwork that can come out of such creative thought by the students.

[Anonymous]

I had a wonderful time hearing the different lectures at our Saturday session. I'm interested in the creation myth and thinking about how to apply that to my classroom. I also really enjoyed having to come up with a Sijo poem. I am not usually up for poem writing or really anything like that but I was able to think about something and truly put my heart and soul into it.

My Sijo Poem


My strength comes from within but is shown outwardly,
My sweat and my tears, have been shown through every struggle.
I break apart so easily for just a moment, but nothing can make me subside because I am strong.
edited by gbenn on 3/23/2017

[Anonymous]

I like what you had to say here. History is so one sided and tends to focus on actions but not the reasons for those actions.

[Anonymous]

Oh, oops I wrote about the Sijos in the other forum too, but I think that sijos would be an awesome way to interact with science ideas. It was a very powerful experience and I think my students would really enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

While we were writing out own shijos in class, I was thinking about how to use this activity in my classroom. As an English teacher, I have my students write different forms of poetry, but I have never tried the shijo. I think some of my EL students will struggle with the part of the shijo where they have to write a "curveball" line, so I think it would be best to write the poem based on a story that we read in class. I could ask students to summarize short stories using the shijo format. From there, they can start writing shijos about their own lives, like we did in class.

[Anonymous]

As mentioned by many of my colleagues, the Sijo poem was an impactful part of the seminar as it is a practical way to incorporate Korean content into any class. I teach Latin American Studies and often use poems written by Chicanos to highlight struggles and a search for identity. Showing students Korean Sijo poems could be an enriching comparative lesson in which students make parallels to other ethnic groups that use poems for similar purposes. It would also be great to have students in both my World History and Latin American Studies students write their own poems to highlight their own themes while also explaining the Korean origins of this written art form.

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