Session 2 (9/30) - From Monarchy to Republic

[Ester Yang]

China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War was a traumatic event because it demonstrated the weakness of the Chinese empire. China was seen as the most powerful country in Asia but the defeat from the Japan, a much smaller country, showed the emergence of new power to the world. To teach this concept of power shift, I can use a simple science experiment using magnets. I would be using two magnets, a smaller with a stronger magnetic force and a larger magnet with less electromagnetic force. Even though the other magnet might be bigger in size, the one with the stronger electromagnetic force will be able grasp more objects. This large magnet will then be used to exemplify China and it's weak internal power while the small magnet will be used to exemplify Japan.  

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

I have also discussed the importance of voting with my 7th graders. I always encourage them to speak their mind and to fight for not only their own rights but for the rights of others. I tried to emphasize the importance of helping their community and taking seriously national issues. However sometimes I find it difficult to encourage voting and helping others.  Due to having a diverse set of students some of my students have shared that voting goes against their religion. I want to  continue to have a positive environment in my classroom by showing acceptance but I feel conflicted when my students share that your religion prevents them from voting and from learning history.

[Khrystle San Diego]

Zoe, the study of family dynamics for the younger students can be a little bit difficult for them to understand, but I believe if you make it "kid friendly" by using shows or cartoon characters they are familiar with they can see the social tensions. For example, if you use the example of Mickey Mouse and his friends in the "Clubhouse" and then bring in another character who disregards the rules and makes a mess. Though it is quite a different situation than 19th century China, I think it would be a great starting point to bring in the context and pique their interest.

[Khrystle San Diego]

Tara, I think one way of addressing unequal treaties with the younger elementary students is to roleplay having a list of differenet set of rules for each student. If your students aren't able to read yet, you can use pictures of things they can and cannot do. The students can compare their rule sets and see that maybe one of their friends is able to play on the playground while everyone else is not allowed to go there. By comparing, they will see that they have unfair rules and that will open up the discussion about the unfair treaties and how it affected the Chinese. 

[Khrystle San Diego]

Susie, you are so right. Many of our history books only show the positive effects of the treaties we make with other countries. For the activity you mentioned above, maybe you can have your students on separate sides of the room and defend or argue against the treaty. For example, one side can be China, and the other can be any of the foreign imperialist powers of the time (Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russian, and Japan). They need to support why the treaty works in their favor or the opposite. 

[Zoey McKinney]

I have been thinking about this a lot, especially in light of Columbus Day / Indigenous People's Day, Thanksgiving, and Native American Heritage Month. I absolutely agree that students need to be exposed to the good and bad of US history. I think looking at both perspectives helps develop critical thinking skills - students learn that no country is perfect, as you said, and that it is important for problems to be addressed, not shied away from. This also makes me think of our discussion about comfort women, and Japan's lackluster attempt to address its role historically or make amends. However, I am still struggling with how to begin addressing these ideas age-appropriately for primary grades. I think it is really important that we do not sanitize history for young students, but at the same time we don't want to focus on the more upsetting or disturbing facts, so a balance must be struck.

[Guadalupe Moreno]

What an interesting and creative way to introduce power shift to students! I love the concept of using a larger magnet yet weaker to demonstrate how size is not always the stronger power. You mention explaingin to the students the reasoning being the lack of electromagnetic force within the larger magnet, I think this can lead into a group activity where the students will then reaserach as to what were the reasonings for China's weakness. For example, it was mentioned that China's resitance to the Western Ideals compared to Japan that was open to integration of cultures. These can be ideas connected to both the science and historical aspect of the lesson. 

[Ester Yang]

The defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese War came to a huge humiliation for the Chinese. The war demonstrated the failure of Qing dynasty’s attempt to modernize military and showed the world the huge power shift from China to Japan. China failed to unify as one because some were adapting to the Western cultures and the systems. 

 

To teach this concept of power struggle between two East Asian countries, I’d have a class debate and have the students do a research on their own. I would split the class in half as naturalists and communists and have them debate on why China was defeated in the war. 

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

I love your idea of showing students the different weapons that were used in the war. I would show students different photographs and have them make up their own conclusions of which war used them and the origin of their manufacturing. It would also be interesting if students compared and contrasted American weapons with the weapons used in Asia. Sometimes students forget that other countries manufacture their own weapons and hadve their own strategies and ideas.

[Betsy Telle]

Thanks for bringing up teaching decreasing populations as well. Decreasing populations have their own set of problems. I’ve read an increasing number of articles about cities trying to lure people to move to their cities. Cities, even some in the US, are offering cheap houses or thousands of dollars to anyone to move to their city. Cities are willing to pay a lot of money to get population growth to help solve some of these problems.

[Betsy Telle]

Wow, I love your lesson! I want to be in your class. I think this is a great way to have the students discover on their own the problems and solutions to these very grownup and global problems. In my class we do a lot of projects with craft supplies and since I mostly provide random recyclable materials there is sometimes shortages of certain supplies and limited quantities of the “best” supplies. It would be great to have a class discussion about what to do and use China’s growth as a historical context for the discussion. I love the questions you provide to lead the discussion.

[Thomas Pineda]

Thank you Khrystle for coming up with this idea, and also thank you to Lizbeth for commenting on it recently. I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier, but that is a great idea and something I would expand to lessons in my Science class. Having two kinds of images to compare and using them as a discussion before introducing the material would definitely engage students (especially with weapons). But I can see how this would come in handy in my Science class as a way to compare two natural phenomenon and finding and commenting on the visual evidence.

[Cynthia Jackson]

*Sorry I saw that I never shared some of my drafted posts.*

 

A simulation, like the one we did in class last night, is a great way to help students understand the three main perspectives of the China empire in the 19th century. For 7th grade, I would like to combine this with a mini-poster. This mini poster would be simple (sometimes less is more) and require students to add pictures and words answering the three questions. It would be similar to a collage, except this paper would have three distinct columns with these questions at the top of each one: 1) As a _______, what problems do you believe the Qing Empire has? 2) What do you hope China’s society will become? What will it look like when these problems are fixed? 3) How can we solve these problems to achieve your goals for China’s future? Analyzing sources for their assigned perspective, students would collaborate in groups to design and add evidence to their individual mini-posters that they would then be able to use during the debate. The group with the most people who spoke and provided evidence based arguments would “win” the debate. This lesson would most likely take two days for students to first analyze sources, make their mini-posters, and then argue their ideas.

[Guadalupe Moreno]

 

Students can learn about economic growth and economic development through a trade activity. Perhaps students can be set in groups and ecah group posesses a specific object. All are able to successful trade at first and as the economy growths it can show the students how they can barely manage to produce enough products. As it continues to grow adding people who cannot contribue to the workforce the students will realize how a country can not be succsessful if the oly growth it has is that within the population. Now one way to compare is having groups become two seprate countries but one will have both economic growth and development. Once the activity is finished they can do a compare and contrast of the outcome to both situations.

[Guadalupe Moreno]

 This treat is labeled unequal because all the requirments are in regards to the Majesty of China being at fault. Brittan made sure that they would have free will to do as they please in China and the government was to accept it without an argueement. Asiade from Brittan given her subjects freedom to roam within China, she requested the Majesty of China to pay money for incidents that had occur leaving China to suffer financially. The main beneficiary of this agreement was Brittan. As a result, Brittan was able to access China at it's full contempt.

 

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