session #10 10/21 afternoon (dube)

[Tanish Fortson]

I have actually looked up the oral histories from the Houhua Village and I loved the idea of this being a lesson and would be great for my second grade students with a little modifications here and there. I do think my students would benefit form seeing how peasant life was during those times and how they suffered and were targets for the communist party. They did not have basic things like food and clothing and was lacking in the local villages.  I was able to find an article about Eugene Dennis whom was a Communist Party Leader from (1905-1961) in the United States. He was the general secretary of the party from 1945 until 1947. He was the national chairman form 1959-1961 and was also a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1949 he was sentenced to prison time for conspiring to overthrow the government. This would be a nice little research project for my students. He gives his Oral History Story. 

[Matthew Wong]

The Cultural Revolution is a topic that is taught in Modern World History. For my students, this topic may be more relevant to their lives because of their background. Many of my students are ethnically Chinese, and a large percentage are children of immigrants from mainland China. As a beginning teacher, I often find myself trying to teach as much of the past based on the prior knowledge I had. Having read these articles about the Cultural Revolution, I have found new knowledge that I feel I can share with my class.

 

It’s interesting to think about China today under Xi Jingping. Xi is certainly more powerful than his predecessor Hu Jintao. In fact, when I studied modern Chinese history in Hong Kong, I wondered how the Communist Party would continue to evolve in the 21^st century. I know some scholars believe that China will move into a democratic direction, but I have some doubts because Xi’s cultivation of a personality cult similar to Mao. It is interesting to note that Xi comes from the background having been harmed during the Cultural Revolution, much like another strongman—Deng Xiaoping. 

[Sonia Arrayales]

The use of political cartoons that help in further develop a lesson, can be a poerful tool. The political cartoon are a good way to engage a student. I remember when i would get them in my history classes, and I would always try to decipher what the message that was terying to be conveyed.

[Luis Camacho]

Session # 10 by Luis M. Camacho

The Cultural Revolution brought a series of important changes to China. The selective memory of events that could damage the image of the people in the high positions of the politic is just a regular tactic of manipulation of ideas. Same way that Chinese government forgot about the thousand of people persecuted and murdered in the way at the time when Mao Zedong was becoming stronger, the murdered students in 1989 at the Tiananmen square has been also ignored. It is scary to think that nowadays the same information manipulation is present in our country in a very similar way.

 

[Lin ZhaoDavison]

Teaching Chinese through arts is a great method, especially for young students who need plenty of visual aids to grasp meanings of words. They love to draw picture and color them.  The activity - making Chinese words into An Art - is an excellent idea to engage young learners to enlarge Chinese vocabulry.  I 'll impletement this strategy when I teach yougn learners.  Thanks!

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