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Anonymous.
AnonymousI am reposting a revised challenge that I made on the Net back in '96. How time flies when you're having fun!
=======================Original Post below==========================
Unuseless Inventions
Ed Shorer of El Sereno Middle School, in Los Angeles, writes that his school wants to challenge other schools to "top our 'Unuseless Inventions' (Chindogu, in Japanese)." These are inventions that are "almost" a good idea. This project, an adaptation of a Japanese book by Kenji Kawakami, is a lot of fun for students. See these sites for examples:
http://www.pitt.edu/~ctnst3/chindogu.html
http://website.lineone.net/~sobriety/
Any interested persons are encouraged to contact him about sharing photos and text of inventions online. If all goes well, they will get some of their best Chindogu uploaded to a homepage within a few weeks.
Contact:
Ed. Shorer
[email protected]
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While my original project dealt with inventions without a direct connection to East Asia, simply by going through Kawakami's books with students (there are two), one can find examples that are specific to Japanese culture, and thereby teach about contemporary Japan in a fun and engaging manner.
Comments? Suggestions?
AnonymousI'm not sure if you're looking to fulfill the language arts or social studies curriculum. Our 6th grade have previously used two novels that may work for you. A few years ago, we taught Journey to Topaz. This is a story of a Japanese-American girl and her family and their experiences during WWII. This would fulfill the language arts historical fiction standard.
Another book that was read at my school is Dragon Wings. I myself have not read it, but I believe it takes place in China, part of the social studies content standards.
Sorry I don't have more details to offer about Dragon Wings, but I do like Journey to Topaz. It does a good job of representing a variety of the Japanese-American experiences, although it seems especially dramatic, as many of the experiences from different camps have all been put into the author's story. I like the fact that the main character does retain a good relationship with one of her Caucasian friends, thus showing that not all of the Caucasians of that time were prejudiced and enclined to take advantage of the Japanese-American circumstances (although many did). When I taught the book, I also enjoyed bringing in a guest speaker to speak about his memories of the relocation camps. It made the experience come to life more for my students.
AnonymousI love the idea about using music. I use it too in my 6th and 7th grade class. I will look for the CD Yo Yo... I have a great children's book I purchased at Borders that I read to my students when I teach the Silk Rode. I give them a map of the route and have them add visuals as I read. As i was reading some of the matrial today for our UCLA seminar some of the places mentioned in the children's book were mentioned in our text. They were familar to me because of reading to my classes. Maybe some of the places will actually stick in the mind of my students.
AnonymousWhat a fabulous site! I will definately use this for My China unit. I love the idea of the scrap book. Great pictures...you can't beat good pictures to get students interested in something especially the ELL's. Thanks for the info. I need as much help as I can get teaching this unit.
Karen
AnonymousThe Asia Society Website has so many great links for kids. In fact, they have a link to learn to count Chinese...the best part is that they have a function called Speak it Now so that one can listen to how the words are pronounced. Although they have limited vocabulary (numbers and familial terms), it would be great to get the kids motivated about a unit on China! Another great feature is the link to Visbile Traces, a site in which students design their own gallery exhibition. They can select from an array of topics (i.e. politics, religion, calligraphy, animals, or clothing, or a specific medium of work, such as rubbings, paintings, or maps). Using this site, students can download or print images for their exhibition and then post them in a room to create a gallery space. It's very creative and user-friendly...they kids would love it!
AnonymousDeai: The Lives of Seven Japanese High School Students.
I had the opportunity to take part in a seminar at Loyola Marymount University last year that dealt with teaching about contemporary Japan through the use of large photographs detailing the lives of seven students. These photo essays are wonderful motivational tools, and provide colorful examples of life in Japan, with clear descriptions in both Japanese and English on the back of the photographs.
I just finished a unit with my 8th grade students using them for the LAUSD unit on Expository writing. A brief description of the project follows:
* We had just finished reading “Tears of Autumn,” a story by Yoshio Uchida in our Prentice Hall text, about young woman who is going to Japan for an arranged marriage. Students had already been given some background information on the culture and geography of Japan.
We brainstormed categories that make up culture. Students were guided to come up with topics such as: Family, food, housing, clothing/fashion, education, religion, etc.
Students were put in seven groups, of four to five students each. Each group was assigned a Japanese student, and given the set of photographs that detailed that student’s life.
Students were instructed to look at the picture side of the cards only, and to list things they saw that fit into the above cultural categories.
Students were next told to choose only three categories from above, and to gather information from the pictures and the text that would provide a good picture of that student’s life. They were asked to focus on things that were either different from American culture (e.g., the shape of the bathtub), or simply interesting (e.g., the Japanese McDonalds).
The project culminated with each group going to the front of the class and introducing their Japanese student to the class for five minutes, holding up various photographs that supported their talk.
It was a successful project that engaged the students while teaching them about contemporary Japan. Those interested in the materials can contact:
The Japan Forum
[email protected] (give the subject line: Deai order)
AnonymousRecently, NPR interviewed an evaluator of Wikipedia--I'm sorry I don't recall the name--- and it was her assessment that Wikipedia compared favorably with Encyclopedia Brittanica with only four possible errors per entry (including minor errors) as compared to three errors per entry with Brittanica. I was surprised to hear of so many errors per entry, but apparently this is acceptable.
AnonymousIn an attempt to find out what my 8th grade English students already knew or needed to know about East Asia, I asked them to research and/or elaborate on five facts about China, five facts about Japan, and five facts about Korea. The assignment also included a question asking them to list the titles of all the books they have read or want to read in which an Asian or Asian-American is the main character, and then to give a short description of each, and then to do the same with movie titles. I am currently collating this information for the website I hope to create. The information is invaluable for many reasons. I can determine which book titles to include in my reading program, which websites are useful to my students, what areas about East Asia are lacking, what information is incorrect or insupportable, while trying to promote an open-minded view of all cultures of East Asia. This fits in with the unit on tolerance and the Holocaust covered every year.
AnonymousI was reading the postings about Memoirs of a Geisha but could not figure out how to reply to Clayton's suggestion about the woman who did the study on the geisha. Today I spoke to the professor from Claremont and she also suggested looking into Darby's works ( I think that is correct). I really appreciate that info because I want to look into the historical aspects of the geisha. My interest has been peaked! I would like to know how to reply to a thread and I fear this is not the correc place but wanted to respond.
AnonymousNow that the Chinese New Year is approaching , I was wondering if anyone incorporates any activities into their English or History class. I teach 6th grade and I have a worksheet that discusses it and we talk about it but that's it. Any suggestions?
clay dubeThe Liza Darby works mentioned by Cathy are described and in some cases enhanced by her websites:
AnonymousPromoting critical thinking skills like analysis is so important. My students struggle with this so much. One idea I share is to have students do a compare/contrast venn diagram comparing Japanese feudalism and European feudalism. This type of lesson is very simple to do and yet promotes a key skill of analysis. This type of lesson follows closely to California State Content standard 7.5 and 7.6. If you use the Across the Centuries textbook, you can use pp. 271-274.
AnonymousDoes anyone know of any creative ways of teaching East Asian geography? I always feel I could do better to teach geography in a more hands on & exciting way. Help!
AnonymousIt is amazing how little our students know of geography! Of course, maps change all the time, right? I was thinking of one idea that might be do-able, maybe on Fridays or short days. How about Trivial Pursuits? The Junior game has very worthy questions on geography that might stimulate interest in retaining geographical info. If not Trivial Pursuits, then have kids make up their own type of Trivial Pursuits or Jeopardy Game. The'll learn so much and be challenged at the same time. Nothing like that old American competition to stir things up.
AnonymousI find a good way to lock that geography knowledge in is to tie geographic features to cultural development. For example, an island nation breeds skilled fisherman, tropical cultures respect and fear the hurricane (monsoon), etc.
Re: Asia, try showing the kids elevation maps of China. Maptell (http://www.maptell.com/maps/webmap/world/worldelev.htm) provides a nice, full-color elevation map of anywhere in the world. Or I also like this one of China from AskAsia.org (http://www.askasia.org/images/teachers/media/43.gif)
Then, ask them questions like, "Why do you think the Ancient Chinese settled in the northern plain?" "Why do you think China was isolated from the rest of the world in ancient times?" "Why do you think a number of different cultures developed in China in ancient times?" to get them thinking about how geography affects culture. Plus, when they think of China from now on, it will no longer just be a big red blob on the map, but they will have an appreciation for the rich geographic diversity (mountains, deserts, etc.).
m@x
