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AnonymousGreat ideas! Do you have anything for ancient civilization for Asia?
AnonymousThank you! I love your idea of having students compare their own lives full of selfies, having to have the latest thing out there (consumerism) and just where they are at on the happiness scale with the earl of the Yellow River and his being taught by the ocean that possessions and reputations are not the most important thing. A truly great man ignores self. Yes and the artwork showing man's insignificance would work well with this. Love your idea!
AnonymousI had the same experience today while reading Autumn Leaves. Thank you for your insight. I feel a need to strive for more balance in my own life. This week has shown me that there is so much more to see than I am seeing in life, in artwork, in literature. I too am intrigued by[font=Times, 'Times New Roman', serif] the powerful messages of these ancient philosophies that have grown even stronger with time.[/font]
AnonymousAfter this morning’s session, I thought about how to incorporate some of these pieces into a lesson for my special education students. I think they would really take to the idea of comparing PlayStation’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms to the original work by Luo Guanzhong. Anything that starts with material relevant to them will be a great attention grabber that I believe would help capture their interest for the original work that inspired the game.
AnonymousI enjoyed being a part of the Autumn Leaves group and discussing it, and going off to meet some other teachers and hear their interpretations of their reading assignments. Even with a clear presentation and discussion, I am not sure I could teach Taoism, or Confucianism, but it was good to get updated on the philosophies and clarify how the principles spill into literature and arts. It would give students a greater access into an art object to be able to apply the theory or cultural knowledge of the times onto the artwork/writing. For each of these readings, I can imagine having my students illustrate the story. Each of the writings was highly visual and would make a great starting point for illustration. I can imagine the the students will also be excited and inspired to see some the illustrations, movies and even video games that are already out there for these ideas and stories. I would have a student chose a quotation, or passage to illustrate, and give them time to create the artwork. I would then have them follow up with a reflection of how their work incorporates the ideas and how they used the images and materials to get to the author's vision.
AnonymousThe discussion was rich and fulfilling for me. I kept thinking of how to have students compare the tenets of Christianity with those of Buddhism, Toaism, and Confucionism. Autumn Floods would be an excellent starting point. As teachers we often teach happy and positivism to our classes shielding them from some of life's stark realisms. The poems we read could allow students to swim in some of the real emotions that they often feel but have no platform to express. Finally, the obvious comparison between the Peach tree Blossom store and the famous book Utopia would be a natural but the larger issue of integrity would be the perspective that I would love to facilitate.
AnonymousI really enjoyed the morning section with Professor Dube. I really thought it was great that he had us complete a teaching strategy with his Jigsaw lesson. It showed how to apply the knowledge we have been learning about East Asia in the classroom. We became the students. We had to be experts on one set of readings and teach it to other people from different groups about the readings and their purpose. I thought this was a great approach to engage the group and have them discuss the documents and really hold us accountable for our own learning.
AnonymousFrom the readings, I really connected with the passage from the Chang-Tzu text, “You can’t tell a frog at the bottom of a well about the sea because he’s stuck in his little space.” I felt that I immediately understood the meaning of this passage and not only understood it but that it also aligns very closely to the way that I deal with others in my everyday life.
For example, I recently took a trip to Nepal and India with my best friend. Although my friend is Buddhist she has problems with patience and compassion and empathy. She becomes frustrated by others very easily and she is also very judgmental of others. On our trip, she criticized quite a few others in our tour group, particularly a British couple. She was criticizing them because they were not following the dress code in India and didn’t seem to be dressed appropriately for certain activities we participated in. My friend would complain to me about them, but although I understood her disdain, all I could say to her is that we couldn’t blame them for their behavior when it is the only behavior they know. They were not doing anything out of maliciousness or spite; it was simply because they didn’t know any better. I tried to tell her that judging them for their lack of knowledge was akin to someone judging us for being Americans based on that information alone.
My conversation with my friend came to mind when I read this passage and also made me realize that we are ALL restricted in the only perspective we know, which is our own. The ability to empathize is a rare talent/skill – most people cannot see beyond themselves and their lives. Even when someone is trying to connect or relate to someone, it is through their own personal experience, their lens, just like I am doing here in this post. Ultimately, it is difficult to explain or describe something to someone unless they do it or see it for themselves.
AnonymousAs we were in our three different groups looking at the poems/literature we were asked to read I kept thinking of how I want to incorporate some of these poems in my ancient Chinese philosophies lessons. That way the students are learning about the philosophies but also being introduced to good literature that makes them think. I will use [font=Times, 'Times New Roman', serif] the Du Fu and Li Bai poems and have them decide which philosophy they speak about. I know this will make my teaching richer and more meaningful for my students. I had never thought about using poems to reinforce this concept nor that there was such good poetry to use. Thank you! Great session-great ideas shared![/font]
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AnonymousIt was a unique way how Professor Dube combined the poems of Li Bai and Du Fu for us to read as one reading. It was unique because it combined different perspectives of how people felt about the years of war. It was not one person's story, there were over 6 different perspectives of what the Chinese people felt about war and what was going on at the time. it really gives the reader a holistic idea and view of this time period. As a reader, you get to see how a young person is curious about join the army, see what someone feels about being in the army for their whole lives, a person that is far from home, a woman that describes how life is without the men around because they are off to war, a person standing alone, and a person drinking alone because it seems like no one is around to drink with them during the war. These poems humanize the war and shows what was going on with the people involved. These poems did not glorify the war and give the false information about how great the war was. The poems actually dove deep into showing empathy towards the Chinese people. I thought this was a great way to show perspective of an individual event, it engaged the reader to try and figure out when, where, what, and why these poems were written, and show an over all outlook of the people that were involved in the war not just high ranking officials.
clay dubePlease use this thread to discuss the authors and approaches I've introduced.
AnonymousI really enjoyed learning about the New Culture movement. In this pursuit of enlightenment and nationalism, there was a rebellion against feudalism. This comes out very clearly in the stories of this time. This resulted in a "New Fiction" with vernacularization, short fiction, and social realism. All of these point to the fact that society keeps moving at a faster pace, hence the need for novellas, that which can be communicated orally and abridged versions. I wonder with the even faster pace created by new technology what the ramifications will be on literature.