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Richard Rosales.
AnonymousGreat idea to use in the computer lab that incorporates reading comprehension, knowledge of current events, note taking, and writing! I went ahead and wrote out a simple form for the kids to use if you want to use it. See attached.
AnonymousPrior to the Los Angeles Dodger's Exposition game in Beijing, the Los Angeles Times wrote an article about Baseball and China's youth. (Reference - March 14, 2008 / Page A1 and continued to Page A 11)
The article highlighted a seed program at Fengtai Elementary School in Beijing orchestrated by the American Baseball League. It's goal is to expose 100,000 elementary school children in five cities to the sport of baseball. The article stresssed the potential economic gain to the group that manages to reach across barriers and grab the attention of Chinese youth who are more often interested in sports that kick or bounce balls, rather than whack them with a bat.
The potential pay-off for this successful infiltration is:
- A projected 10 billion dollar industry
- A marketing plan to attract 16 to 30 year olds willing to purchase shoes, shirts, cell phones or any product their sports stars hawk
The problems with developing a league are outlined as:
- Almost no baseball diamonds
- Many Chinese find baseball complicated; an admission by the Chinese National Coach
- The popular sentiment tends to be with the players in the N.B.A.; that already boasts several Chinese Superstars.
I believe this article would be an excellent "jumping off discussion point" for 5th and 6th graders. It is high interest - and lends itself to research and writing prompts. For example, pose the question to students - how would you popularize baseball in China given the current restraints? Or, what would you do to convince Chinese youth to give Baseball a try? How would you simplify the rules of baseball to explain it to someone your age who has never seen the sport? Why is baseball an exciting sport? This topic really speaks to the potential of persuasive writing activities.
AnonymousLast week I taught a lesson on the world's great rivers and waterways. I focused in on the Yangzi river. We talked about how important waterways are for the people around them. We then focused on pollution (with earth day next week) and talked about what happens when water is polluted which is what happened to the Yangzi. We went one step further and focused on the Yangzi River Dolphin. I read "Almost Gone" page on the dolphin then switched over to the internet and showed the class a webpage detailing how in 2007 after 10 months of searching, scientists where unable to locate a single dolphin. It was a very poignient reminder how fragile our planet is.
AnonymousA 5th/3rd grade exchange
I had 2 5th grade students who have done some research on the Great Wall come in to my class and share what they learned with the 3rd graders. The kids loved it and had lots of questions. Some of the questions the 5th graders didn't know the answers to so they are going to find out and come back on Monday to share again with the class. It was a great exchange!!
AnonymousDon't overlook the story "Yunmi and Halmoni's Trip" found in the 3rd grade Houghton Mifflin Literature Series. This is the story of an American Girl who travels with her grandmother back to Korea to meet her relatives and honor the grave of her deceased grandfather. One of the author's goals as a writer is to help young Americans learn about the history and culture of Korea. Yunmi experiences both the thrill and lonliness of traveling to an unknown country for the first time. My students made immediate connections to Yunmi and how she felt during the trip. It was also an excellent opportunity to introduce cultural understanding and identifying unique traditions in Korea. The story has some on-line activities that can be accessed through Eduplace.com/kids.
Another activity as a result of this story is suggested by the text illustrator:
Think of a country you would like to visit. Then make a list of the reasons you want to go there. Are you interested in learning about the people of that country? Do you want to see their buildings, art and clothing styles? Do you want to find out what they believe, and how they celebrate special events? Do you want to learn how they do things. compared to the way you do them? After making your list, share it with your classmates.
AnonymousAlthough the setting is in Japan, there is a good book for introducing different customs related to eating. The title is How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman. It tells the story of how the narrator's parents met. It's main idea is how her father, an American soldier in Japan met her mother, a young Japanese woman, and how they had to learn each other's customs when they eat dinner with each other's parents. It might be a good introduction to the purpose and importance of being aware of different customs that people have around the world.
AnonymousI remember that one from our previous language arts program! I agree, that is an excellent choice to introduce the culture and I'm glad you reminded me of it. I am doing a literature study for my unit so maybe I can use this one. The best experience for this book is when the Asian parents bring in food and the kids can eat it with chopsticks and sit on the ground. If I do add this, I'd like to let the kids bring in "cultural" items and share during this time. I notice when I let the ELL kids share something from their culture, they will attempt to speak more than they regularly would, and they always go up to share with a smile!
AnonymousI teach 3rd grade and you are right, this is an excellent way to introduce Korean customs and culture. The custom of visiting the gravesite led to an interesting discussion in my class about respecting elders. We related this respect to the respect of the Native Americans to their elders and ancestors and spoke about how we can respect our elders more when they are still alive! We also led into a conversation about Japan and traditions in Japan. Thankfully that was discussed in this class, so I felt comfortable discussing it with my Japanese students. Literature is such a fantastic way to get the kids relating to each other and other cultures. Well, that should go for adults, too! 
AnonymousSince 1980s, many different kinds of plays, movies about the story have been made. But for
Chinese, the one that was produced in 1988 enjoys the most popularity.
Here are some pictures of this play.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.huain.com/images/music/058.jpg&imgrefurl=http://music.huain.com/html/1533.html&h=520&w=400&sz=36&hl=en&start=13&tbnid=U-IC8Fu_v4q0JM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%25E8%25A5%25BF%25E6%25B8%25B8%25E8%25AE%25B0%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den
[Edit by="liliwang on May 1, 10:47:41 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="liliwang on May 1, 10:48:34 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousI am a 6th grade teacher just starting to develop a unit around the memoir written by Ji-Li Jiang called Red Scarf Girl. Does anyone know of an age-appropriate website on the Cultural Revolution that would help me create a literature unit for this book?
AnonymousLike you, I teach 6th grade and I also do not want to promote violence to my students. Animated films may be the route to go.
AnonymousThere is also a beautiful picture book called, Baseball Saved Us, by Ken Mochizuki. It is a story about a young Chinese American boy sent to a relocation camp during WWII. He is looked down upon by American children before he is sent away, then he plays baseball at the camp and gets very good at it. In the end he goes back to his American school, and becomes well-liked because he now has baseball as a common ground with the American students.
AnonymousI'm super excited about the Beijing Olympics. I have allready reserved a day on the master calendar for the upcoming school year for a sixth grade olympics. This way I can also add more information about China during my unit on Greece!
I picked up a realy cool activity book at Education Station called "Journey to Beijing 2008", by teacher created resources. It shows how it aligns to the state standards as well. It has stories, tangrams, art activities, etc.
My uncle works in the sporting goods industry, so I have a lot of Olympics posters to put on my wall.
Since the equestrian events are in Hong Kong rather than Beijing, it's a good opportunity to show the British influence on Hong Kong. The equestrian events are all of British influence. If anyone has any questions about those events, I should be able to answer them. I was a show jumper for a long time. 😀
I also have a picture up on my wall of me stadning on the Great Wall in fron of the olympics sign.
One World, One Dream, Beijing 2008[Edit by="afitzpatrick on Jul 28, 10:43:08 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousOh yes I rember having a tanogram set. I didn't realize that was a chinese idea. I will incorporate that into my art curriculum with origami and tesselation.
AnonymousI used to teach K-4 and the school is in South Carolina. K-4 students participate the Chinese New Year celebration with the local community. It was a big project and focused on China and Chinese holiday. However, students have many opportunities to learn about China (not just holidays/celebrations) and the influence of Chinese culture on other East Asian countries (i.e. Vietnamese New Year) through the preparation for the celebration.
The students decorate the hallway and the gym with their character writing as well as other arts projects (making lanterns, etc.). Through these activities, they learned about the Chinese arts, the symbols in Chinese arts, and symbols in different celebration. The students also learn different chants/rhymes/songs related to Chinese New Year or different seasonal celebrations. They also learned the celebration of Chinese New Year not just in China but also in Chinese communities in USA. They read the story of the origin of Chinese New Year and through the story the teach would be able to introduce many symbolic meanings. Finally the students were able to perform the songs/rhymes at the event and observe the celebration in a smaller scale (in the gym) but with other community members.
It was a project that requires a lot of time, collaboration, and preparation. But the students enjoyed a lot and learned so much. The young learners responded very well to music, visuals, and story telling. Most of all, they could showcase their learning in a real setting.
Considering the scale of this project, individual elementary classes might take one or two elements of this project. For example, explore Chinese fables and have students make illustrations to show their understanding. Students can also role play celebrations, historical events, and culture practice.