pre-2011 web resources

[Anonymous]

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/

Regarding this website. It looks amazing, but it seems to be down most of the time. I have to go back and do more fair review on the resources listed. Columbia University appears to have done a very thorough and organized job at putting it together.

http://www.afk.com/

This webiste offer a variety of items that can be used as realia in the classroom. It seemed to me as if most of the merchandise was geared for elementary grades. Still there are a few items that I would like to purchase to use in my own lessons as we discuss some of the cultural background of the authors and some Asian countries. I like their choices of videos and some popular novels in Asian languages. This is specially good for English Learners students.

I highly recommend http://www.afk.com

[clay dube]

The University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies is engaged in a long term project to prepare extremely high quality lessons on China's material culture. Thus far, four units have been published to the web:

Women and Art in Early Modern China
Marty Powers

Women and Childbirth Text
Yi-Li Wu

Culture and International Relations in the 18th Century
Richard Strassberg

China and International Law in the 19th Century
Lydia Liu

It would be wonderful to read reviews of each of these lessons. Please take a look at them and share your thoughts on how you might employ them with your students.

The China Mirror

[Anonymous]

I want to briefly talk about a site I came across:

http://www.asiasociety.org

This is a really usefull site. It has a great deal of current events and information as well as a wealth of history.

This site is usefull for teachers and students. However, if the stidents are new to sifting through the web I would suggest some direction within this site, as it is quite large and novices might beccome lost in it.

Overall, a great site.

David Dandridge

[Anonymous]

If you are looking to teach about the Silk Road, http://www.silkroad.org is a great place to start. it includes basic information about the "Road" as well as timelines that pertain to the history of the Silk Road.
The site is a bit odd at first because it inlcudes hitorical material as well as contemporary references to the Silk Road. These include current events along the road as well as books that refer to the Silk Road, both fiction and non-fiction.
For student use I would direct them to where you want them so as to save time.

Overeall a good site for basic introductory info.

David Dandridge

[Anonymous]

If you have any questions about the Japanese kimono, this website can probably answer them. I was looking for information about the multi-layered clothing that women of the court wore in the Heian period (called kasane shozoku). This document describes the history of women's clothing from that period until today, with illustrations of each major era.

Some interesting facts about the kimono
The word kimono means "things to wear," and was "used in the early to mid 19th century to distinguish Japanese clothing from yofuku or western clothing. During the Heian period, the aristocratic women wore multiple layers of garments (up to 20). The layering of colors was important in that it not only showed the wealth and rank of the woman but also her taste in design.

During the Edo Period, the number of layers was standardized to five. Over the course of centuries, the number of layers was reduced; "the multilayer style of sedentary court life was too restrictive for the active lifetyles of the samurai who preferred the single layer kosode instead."

The kimono continued to be worn until the Meiji period (1867-1912) when Western style clothing started making its way into the daily life of Japan. The men were the first to change to Western style clothing; most women wore the kimono up until WWII. Today, kimono are mainly seen at weddings, New Years, coming of age ceremonies, or when a person is demonstrating a cultural art such as the tea ceremony.

Courtney
http://www.yoshinoantiques.com/kimono.html

[Anonymous]

The National Endowment for the Humanities has an amazing website. This site could keep you busy for days; it's a good one to bookmark.

The site has four major subject areas: Art & Culture, Literature & Language Arts, Foreign Language, and History & Social Studies. If you click on one of the subject areas, you'll find dozens of excellent lesson plans that include learning objectives, standards alignment, links, internet activities for students, and the lesson.

I found four lesson plans in the Literature & Language Arts category that related to Japan:
haiku, tanka, Haibun, and Jataka tales (stories about the earlier lives of Buddha). You'll find Asian topics in all four of the subject areas. And, I found information on so many other topics I teach: the epic, heros in literature, modernist poetry, reading essays, Chaucer's Wife of Bath, etc.

Additionally, there are resources for students: tips on evaluating online resources, tips on analyzing primary resources, etc.
There's a calendar where the site lists important historical events of the day and then lists related lesson plans (from their website) that could be used that day. For example, one of the "events" was the naming of Sandra Day O'Conner to the supreme court; the lesson plans on democracy, etc., could be used throughout the next several months when a new supreme court judge will be named.

Anyway, the edsitement site is pretty exciting!
Courtney

http://edsitement.neh.gov/ - homepage
http://edsitement.neh.gov/printable_lesson_plan.asp?id=399 - lesson on Japanese poetry

[Anonymous]

Warning... high student interest...

If you want to explore some wacky things japanese- this is the website

http://www.syberpunk.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?page=main

You can't beat a pancake wearing Hamster nor exuberant, positive thinking , fig-leaf wearing Yatta dancers.

Good for comparing/contrasting with our pop culture.

[Anonymous]

RE: Website Review – Women and Childbirth lesson plan at: http://www.chinamirror.org/moduleview

This site and lesson plan has a lot of very good information, which could easily be tied into 18th century medical practices and the development of immunization (smallpox) which came to England from an observer in Turkey. Additionally I think this would be a higher interest topic since childbirth is universal and for many students they may not know exactly how this occurs and the risks involved.

I like the lesson but I would be hard pressed to spend 4 sessions on this one topic. Each session is detailed and has a very good culminating assignment. I like the prior knowledge tap-in question and would use that as well as several other questions in an anticipation guide structure. I would use only one of the culminating assignments.

This lesson plan meets the standards in several senses. The first being in the examination of a primary source document, which makes all social science teachers ecstatic! The scaffolding materials are all good and the students use the website and the links to find the information, incorporating technology (plus students tend to love the computer).

I found the different advice scenarios assignment based on the Treatise for Successful Childbirth an excellent assignment, not only because it requires students to locate information from the document, but also causes them to make some judgments about the information and put it in their own words, with application to real world scenarios.

[Anonymous]

I visited the United Nations website initially to look at the census data on different countries to use as a link to the website I’m creating. My initial search rendered http://www.un.org/popin/data.html, which had some good information. The UN website as a whole has a lot of information with a load of different links. What I found great was that on the initial homepage there were six headings in different languages and you select the one you want and it welcomes you in your language.

I decided to check out a particular country and went to that link for Morocco (I love Moroccan food). Nice effect of the flashing text on the first page in both French and in Arabic writing. The problem of course was that my French is extremely rusty and I have no clue with Arabic.

Other interesting information on the site include the World Bank, press releases on world population policies (includes interesting facts such as the percentage of women using contraception, what kind of contraception, etc.), different women’s’ organizations complete with online discussion boards on Womenwatch.

[Anonymous]

After reading core survival literature, like Hiroshima, Farewell To Manzanar, Night, Hatchet by G Paulsen, Fahrenheit 451 or Lord of the Flies by Wm. Golding, Students could then view/read survivor generated art on the US attack on Japan. Some pretty intense portraits.

http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Atomic/atomic.htm

http://www.villagevoice.com/art/0311,baker,42460,13.html

Then draw/write an intense survival portrait/essay/short story of their own about some sort of survival experience (9/11, etc.) and share with the class. I suggest a gallery walk where students post their work and others walk around and examine it. I also have students vote on their favorite and explain why they liked it best with descriptive information.[Edit by="kdietrick on Jul 27, 3:56:30 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Since lots of students are into older rock these days (i.e.; Beatles, Led Zep, etc.) here is an address from Yoko Ono to the United Nations. It marries matters of worldwide concern with the art of persuasion in an understandable format.

Go to for original text

http://www.jeclique.com/onoweb/news-un2005.html

Students could write their own address regarding a topical issue (9/11, Iraq war, etc.) to the UN, President, or? Student generated text could spin off of Yoko's format-

ex.

AS A CHILD OF ______________________________

Thank you, _______________________________, the living witnesses to and survivors of ________________________. My name is ____________________________. And it is my honor to be here with you all at this historic moment in time.

As a child of __________________, as a citizen of the global village, and as a ____________ of the species, I am concerned for the welfare of our planet.

Then explain the topic using rich imagery.
Then make a call to action.[Edit by="kdietrick on Jul 27, 3:17:02 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

One of England's original punks for peace/vegetarian bands is Crass and this is one of their most well known songs which works pretty well to illustrate the horror of the attack for both history and English (Hiroshima) classes.

Here is an excerpt:
...
Nagasaki nightmare, Nagasaki nightmare
Fishing children fish in the Imperial Waters
Nagasaki nightmare, Nagasaki nightmare
Sons and lovers, lovers and daughters
Nagasaki nightmare, Nagasaki nightmare
Cherry Blossom hanging on the cherry blossom tree
Flash, blinding flash, then there's nothing to see
Nagasaki nightmare, Nagasaki nightmare
...

For complete text go to

http://lyrics.duble.com/C/crasslyrics/crassnagasakinightmarelyrics.htm

Students could write their own lyrics/poem ( for English feature lit. techniques of imagery & repetition)

[Anonymous]

Another Silk Road related Website is at http://www.silkroadproject.org
This site is a bit clumsy to find historical information, but it is there you just have to look around a bit. It has a wide variety of information regarding the SIlk Road as well as tangental information. The site also has a great deal of information on current issues and events on, about ans around the Silk Road.
The site also has a pretty good list of links.
I would send experienced students to this site with little guidance, but if your students are new to websites and computer usage I would give them more guidance of how to navigate this site.
3 stars out of 4
David Dandridge

[Anonymous]

Still another web site on the Silk Road (yes I have been doing a bunch of research on the SIlk Road) is http://www.silk-road.com/artl
This is a very cool site with lots of great information for both the Silk Road novice and the expert. It also has many links to other sites. This site contains a great timeline of the SIlk Road which not only includes events along the Silk Road, but also other major world events so as to better put it all into context.
I would consider this site to be user friendly and would have to adversion to directing students to this site.

4 stars out of 4

David Dandridge

[Anonymous]

A really multidisciplinary website I found is http://www.waterhistory.org

This site is great for history, just about all of the world as well as for science.
It looks at how various empires and nations have dealt with water issues throughout history. This include aquaducts, canals etc.

It has charts, diagrams, drawings, photos, and descriptions.

I would use this as a teacher resource or as highly directed student resource.

4 stars out of 4

David Dandridge

[Author]

Posts