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AnonymousDidn’t realize how Early Chinese Literature supported the view of period philosophers. Like the quote from "Peach Blossom Spring" that said, "People were coming and going and working in the fields. Both the men and the women tufted children alike were cheerful and contented", or this quote from “Autumn Floods” saying, “Amid heaven and earth, I am as a little pebble or tiny tree on big mountain”, to me these show the Taoist beliefs of equality of all, natural order and the minimalist lifestyle. I thought this was a very slick way to reinforce cultural values.
AnonymousI did not realize this either. How early Chinese philosophies was supported by the literature at the time. I teach the anciet Chinese philosophies so it would be great to have examples in ancient literature that shows this. Anyone have any ideas?
AnonymousI had a lesson idea for using the poems by Du Fu. I was thinking having students break into groups and identify the feelings toward war in each poem. I would then provide a second literature example from another war (WW1, WW2) students would then complete Venn-diagrams comparing similarities of feelings towards war. Class could then discuss commonalities and “explain the lasting impact of war on people as justification for the formation of the United Nations” in a 1 page essay.
AnonymousFrom the morning session I created a mini lesson for the story of Autumn Floods.
Step One: Predict and respond to the title. What might this story be about?
Step Two: Create a T-Chart for vocabulary
Essential I Unknown
Yellow River I Evocative
Step Three: 3 different reading strategies for decoding, meaning, understanding
Step Four: Kagan group discussion
Step Five: Use of Chinese traditional painting to create a visual to the story. Use evidence from the reading (essential words) to support a written summary of Autumn Floods.
AnonymousI've taught about some of the philosophies of China in my world history classes, but have never used literature to do it. I was fascinated this morning to see how the poetry / readings reflected ideas of the various philosophers. The readings were short enough to be easily managed by my students and would give them a better perspective on the philosophies. I think this year I will give the students some of the poems and have them tell which philosophy they support. I think that would be a great way to check their understanding of the philosophy that uses the CCSS objectives.
AnonymousThis lesson plan is based on "Autumn" by Chuang Tzu. "Autumn" is a story about the Earl of the Yellow River and how he is taught words of wisdom by the ocean. The ocean teaches him that even though it is a large body of water it cannot boast of its greatness because it is conscious of its own insignificance. The ocean says that a truly great man ignores self, has no concern for reputation, or possessions.
Students will read and discuss the text in groups. Next, students will analyze the Asian nature paintings(the paintings we saw on our tour on Monday) and discuss how the story of the view of man's insignificance is portrayed in the artwork. Afterwards, students will discuss what they perceive as the American teenagers view of self. This would lead into the discussion of obsession of self, selfies, posts, blogs, and consumerism. Students will then write a paragraph on where they stand with the discussion of the two cultures and where one should be to be happy. After they have wrote their ideas they will do thumbnail sketches of how they perceive themselves in nature.
edited by mnakaya on 8/5/2015
edited by mnakaya on 8/5/2015
Anonymous"You can't tell a frog about the sea because he is stuck in his little space. You can't tell a summer insect about ice because it is stuck in its season. You can't tell a scholar of distorted views about the way because he is bound by his doctrine."
I am the frog, the insect and the scholar! This passage is powerful and I feel like it represents me a few days ago! This seminar is helping me leave "the well" and enter into a world of thought that I have never heard about. How funny that here I am in my 30s and I am just learning about this. I am intrigued by the powerful messages of the Eastern philosophies that we have heard about through literature and art this week.
AnonymousI was quite taken back to hear about Confucius and his ideas were being misinterpreted. Leaders of the country were only interested in the lower class obeying the upper class. That part wasn’t the shocking part. The part that was shocking was the upper class being responsible and teaching the lower class. Being of Asian descent, I was always taught to obey my elders without question. I wonder if Confucius’ ideas have been twisted through years to the point of complete obedience and not dual responsibility. The readings led to me see different perspectives Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism and how sometimes things can be interpreted differently by different people.
AnonymousI am usually not a big fan of poetry. It is not my favorite unit to teach. However, I enjoyed reading the Du Fu and Li Bai poems. Reading the poems and discussion them with the group was valuable because we were able to hear other people's interpretations of the various poetry pieces. As we read the poem, we didn't look at them as war specific. The feeling of sadness and loneliness can be applied to any war. "I Stand Alone" gave us the perspective of the soldier and the burden of a man leading his men to a battle. "Midnight Song of Wu" gave us the perspective of the wife at home and the emotions that she may battle: sadness, anger, hope, solitude. This rarely happens. As a history teacher, I can have students compare this poems to poems written during other wars in a Venn Diagram or T-chart. As an English teacher, I can have students write their own poems. As a science teacher, i can have students study the geographical regions.
edited by malvarenga on 8/5/2015
AnonymousMy favorite reading, is the Peach Blosson Spring, because paradise is free of conflict, people are self sufficient, and everyone is happy, content with what they have. This reading, I believe will be great for my 7th graders, who complaint about not having the latest technology. I will jave ro shorten it, and simply some of the language, so they can understand it better.
AnonymousI love the moment, particularly as a student and teacher of literature, when I feel wholly aligned to something new to me as if apiece of work has entered my life at the exact time in which it should have in my life. The piece Autumn Leaves created a sense of calming understanding at a time when I've been feeling the exact opposite (balance!). I meditatively focused on my breath as I read letting my mind go wherever it needed to go. I'd never read Taoist literature before an aside from the Benjamin Hoff book I own, but never read I knew nothing (and now know very little) about Taoism. In session today I had a vision of myself sitting in a circle with students I haven't met yet reading this work and just talking about it. I mulled over this fledgling vision throughout the day and now that I'm home and am somewhat removed from the zen-like mental space I found myself in today I'm thinking more realistically about how I can use this text in my class. I am very interested in figuring out how to incorporate experts of notable spiritual and philosophical writings from different cultures into my class. When I spoke about the essay Peach Blossoms this morning I alluded Emerson's Self-Reliance (1841) and in retrospect I did this because mulling around in my subconscious from reading Autumn Leaves I was recollecting the American Transcendentalists, particularly Thoreau in relation to Autumn Leaves. Unfortunately, the 11th grade English teacher at my small school teaches this period of American literature. The idea I keep revisiting throughout the seminar so far (because I applied with this particular goal in mind) is to create cultural awareness and universal understanding in my students with the materials I choose to teach the big ideas or major concepts I already teach (i.e. power and language; economic and racial inequality in a democratic society; consequences of industrialized food production: labor, health, and the environment ; gender representations in media; media literacy; literary criticism (Feminist, Marxist, and Historical); and identity. I want to integrate works of art and literature I'm learning about in the seminar into my existing curriculum to infuse the Asian perspective into the conversation to create cultural awareness and sensitivity. I want pieces that my students can identify with because of a shared perspective or experience or idea. The piece Autumn Leaves has encouraged me to introduce these kinds of writings to my students to broaden their understandings about enlightenment ideals and spiritual musings. I thought about all the work the 10th grade team and I have done in the past to bring ecological, global, consumer awareness to the students and about how much more enriched these concepts would be if I just took even one day to meditatively contemplate Taoist literature with my students so that I could share as a teacher the experience I had as a student. Thank you.
AnonymousI enjoyed this morning's groupings and discussions on the literature. The poems about war and the peach Blossoms are the ones that stand out the most. Using the Gifted Icons of Complexity we can use the war poems and the icon of Multiple Perspective to have students see the effects of war through the eyes of youth, and civilians. In the classroom we can take any story and use this technique. Another is the layer of "how would you react if you were in that situation." Even if we selectively use portions of the poem we can do this. In 4th grade, we could bring in these poems in Social Studies when we are talking about the Native Americans of California and their forced conversion during the mission era. What would they have written about?
In Peach Blossoms, we see the cautionary tale of not heeding a warning. We can bring in parallels like the greed of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, the boy who cried wolf. Apart from the traditional illustrations that they could make for this short story, they could create an alternate ending, use digital media to create a movie of the story, create a brochure of the location, and have additional descriptors about what that secret location looked like.
AnonymousIn addition to 7/8th grade social studies I also teach the AVID elective class and often read from different types of sources. However, I rarely dissect or analyze poetry. With a focus on a Common Core Standards for College & Career Readiness, I plan to use the five different poems and have the students read, recite, and analyze the text and be able to identify the explicit themes but also have them draw inferences from them as well. At the beginning of the lesson I would probably want to provide them with some historical background to the time period of the works and their respective authors. This would all be done in small groupings of 3-5 students; after small group discussions I would then want to bring the entire class into a discussion which might be done in a Socratic Seminar-type setting.
AnonymousI teach Medieval China. Period of Disunion (Buddhism) through to the Ming Dynasty (Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, and Confucius). I teach Buddhism and Confucianism. I use an activity that gives a little background for the "philosophers" and quotes. After students read about the philosopher, they are to arrange various quotes and state which philosopher wrote or said the quotes. As preparation and to have a little fun, students fill in an outline of the philosopher to include information about him. Students now have the drawing with information and they are to figure out who said what. I also include Daoism.
Not quite sure how I would incorporate the poems, but I will venture to say my students would love the war poems. I believe the poems are simple enough for students to engage in. Again, the visual would be great. This would be a great connection/break for students when learning the Disunion and about the wars of the various dynasties. Understanding the perspective of the protagonists would go a long way for students to understand that history is also made by the common man, not just the heroes.
AnonymousThe morning section was very useful. It is great to know about ancient Chinese philosophies other than Confucius. The perspective from the class is new to me. My understanding of them was still based on what my teacher taught me in middle school and high school.
In elementary school, those short sentences from Confucius and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" should be very easy for students to learn. Depending on students' level, I will use the original Chinese sentences with or without English references. For example, Confucius said, "三人行，必有我师焉” (Three people walking, there must be one teacher for me.) Being modest is one of the core Confucius's ideas of people's relationship. There will always be something good from other people that we can learn. The characters are easy, but the culture and way of thinking behind it is meaningful.