Wednesday, 8/1, morning session - Ken Brown, CSU Long Beach

[cgao]

Professor Brown's presentation will focus on Japanese Postcards and Sheet Music: Ephemeral Graphic Design.

Please download his two readings below. 

 

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[Midori Sanchez]

Thank you to Professor Brown for your presentation. It was awesome to have a professor from my alma mater present!

The presentation on postcards would be something that I could use with my 9th grade class. Our first unit focuses on the immigrant experience and what it means to be an American in 9th grade; students will be interviewing a family member or friend to tell their experience of coming to America, serving in the military, etc. I think it would be a great mini project to have a mini lesson on postcards and their use in the past and present in American cultures as well as other cultures, and then have students write a postcard to a family member from the past or to someone who lives in the country of their own heritage. They would design the postcard to reflect the modernity of the United States in present day in which the student lives as well as include elements from their own cultures during the time period in which that family member lived i.e. art deco, art nouveau. The content of the postcard could include current events, achievements within the family or in the United States, and questions that you have for that family member. There is a large population of Latino students at my school, so this could also connect to Dia de los Muertos. 

[Shad Springer]

Great idea, Midori! I could see myself tweaking your idea slightly for my sixth grade class. In the first week or two of the year, I typically do different projects that allow the students to introduce themselves to me and each other (and vice versa). I like the idea of frontloading the imagery of Japanese postcards via Professor Brown's lecture. (I've already pulled a number of them off of the internet.) The students would then be given blank 5" x 7" postcards upon which they could create a postcard that visually represents themselves and their culture. (On the back side they could even write a paragraph about themselves and address it to the class!) They could even take photographs of their postcards and post them on our class blog where their families could view them as well. 

[Dacia Garza]

Professor Brown's presentation let me to think about creating a lesson for my 6th grade students by exploring Chinese postcards. Starting with whole group observations using visual thinking strategies of several postcards chosen by me, both American and Chinese. Then I will invite students to explore and choose 1 Chinese postcard to examine. Students will present their findings to another group. Next, students will create their own postcards using Adobe Spark. Their postcards should portray the core values of the Chinese culture or Confucianism. Symbolism. Then posting their postcards link in google classroom for classmates to view and share their thoughts (See, Think, Wonder) in the comment section.

 

•  Know about the life of Confucius and the fundamental teachings of Confucianism and Taoism.

  • Early Chinese thought (6-D.2)
  • The teachings of Confucius (6-D.6)

• 4 Identify the political and cultural problems prevalent in the time of Confucius and how he sought to solve them.

  • Early Chinese thought (6-D.2)
  • The teachings of Confucius (6-D.6)
•  

 

 

 

[Midori Sanchez]

I like this idea, too! That's a fun and educational way to incorporate history and individuality into a getting to know you activity! I teach English, so I would probably integrate this after doing our readings of narratives, poems, and non-fiction pieces of the units as inspiration.

What subject do you teach?

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

After teaching WWII, I usually mention to students how Japan and Germany differ in their approaches to teaching history. While German students visit concentration camps and study their role in the war, Japanese students do not study atrocities committed by their military. I am not surprised that Professor Brown’s argument of militarism in art deco during the 30s and 40s is rejected in Japan. Instead of simply mentioning this aspect of Japanese society, I would like to design a lesson. A quick google search uncovered this paper: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/7824/1/Tan_Weilu_BPhil.pdf

While I have not read the paper yet, I did browse it and found some useful information and ideas, such as on page 27 Table 4 where we can read translations of “controversial textbooks” versus “traditional textbooks.” Here is an excerpt on the Nanjing Massacre from the controversial textbook with a 0.4% market share:

              In August of the same year, two Japanese army officers were shot and killed in Shanghai, a city where foreign interests were concentrated. This incident escalated the confrontation between Japan and China. The Japanese army believed they could make Chiang Kai-shek surrender by taking the Kuomintang capital of Nanjing. In December, they occupied Nanjing, but Chiang Kai-shek transferred the capital inland to Chongqing and continued to resist. *Footnote at the end of this sentence: “At this time, the Chinese military and civilian population suffered many casualties due to the Japanese military (the Nanjing Incident). Furthermore, controversy has arisen with the data used to calculate the number of victims in this incident. Many perspectives exist on the number of victims and other details about this incident due to doubts about the historical record, and debate continues to this day

The author compares this to a traditional middle school textbook with a 14.9% market share:

             The Japanese military also invaded China from the south and occupied Shanghai and Nanjing, the capital at the time. In Nanjing, many Chinese, not only soldiers but also women and children, were killed. Japan was criticized by the international community for the “barbarism of the Japanese military” (the Nanjing Massacre). The Japanese people, however, were not informed of this incident.

Clearly neither excerpt cover the massacre in detail and leave out vital information. However, I can use excerpts such as these and compare them to sources we use in class to study “what really happened” while also analyzing bias and historiography.

 

[Wen Shi]

Hi Midori

I think your idea is brilliant! There's a big group of latin American students in my school and some of them just moved to the United States or are new immigrants to this country. I think interview their family or each othe will be a great opportunity for the students to understand the immigration expericne, what it meaning to be an American, adapting to a new culture and keep their identity. My school teaches IB curriculm and I can definitely see this activity applied in the "self-identity community, and world aroud us" unit.

 

[Wen Shi]

Do you mean Japanese postcards..? I don't recall there's any part of lecture talking about Chinese postcards..

[Shad Springer]

I'm multiple subjects, so I have a lot of ton of different standards that I could potentially incorporate into this specific lesson idea. One further tweak I thought of after I posted my first response that we could perhaps both use: students could post their postcards in their respective class blogs. Their peers could then attempt to guess what the colors and imagery represent in terms of their personal and cultural backgrounds in the comments section. Because many parents have access to their child's postings, they could perhaps weigh in themselves...although I'm always slightly wary of this. 
 

I agree with you that this lesson would have more impact after first having them do readings like you described (narratives, poems, etc.). 

[Shad Springer]

I think she means modifying the postcards to use Chinese ones instead of Japanese ones in order to connect to the sixth grade social studies standards related to ancient China, a big unit for us sixth grade teachers. Unfortunately, ancient Japan isn't one of the required content standards at this point and time (although it should be). 

[Carissa Sadlier]

Donna, 

Have you been to the WWII museum in New Orleans? I've heard that the Gilder Lehrman PD surrounding this is fantastic. It would be interesting to see if they address any of these topics or what might be left out of the American narrative. 

 

 

 

[Wen Shi]

Professor Brown brought up a very important aspect when it comes to teach history: Musuems( authorization version of history) vs real life objects in the peirod of time which is being taught

I was inspired by the idea and thinking about the project of recreation of an art piece. After examing, analyzing the postcards of Japan from 19 century to 20 century, students choose a Japanese postcard  and recreate one. I assigned a similar project to the students before when we were in Renassiance unit. I noticed that a lot of students were tracing off an art piece from their laptop instead of drawing them. To encourage students to actually recreate the art, I will give extra credits to students who recreates the art piece.

[Midori Sanchez]

I enjoy doing gallery walks as well with students, but it could definitely be used on a blog or google classroom as well! Might be a good way to make the classroom look nice at BTSN! 🙂

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

I have not, but I have attended a PD through the museum on the War in the Pacific and have their curriculum kit. I should check their website again for more materials. 

[Akunna Uka]

I appreciated the professor's 4 categories for Japanese Deco that he would have possibly used if he redesigned his exibit.  As an end of unit assignment, it would be interesting for students to choose a theme and curate their own exibit choosing one piece of art for each category. Students would explain how the theme is significant to history (context) and offer an analysis (author perspective, connection to self,etc) on each piece. 

1. Domestic Art

2. Art of the Street-Customer-Consumer as Curator

3. Art of the Museum

4. Art of the Individual-choosing to wear an American hair tie, and a Japanese Kimono

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