Hudson High School

Teacher Implementation Plan (TIP)

Explanation of what opportunities I will have to teach about East Asia:

I will have the opportunity to teach about East Asia in the 2003-2004 school year during a semester elective called Euro-Asian Literature. The course is designed for high school seniors but one or two sophomores/juniors elect to take the course. The class meets everyday for a fifty-minute period. I will also be sharing the information from the seminar with colleagues from the English, Social Studies, STRIVE and Art departments.

How I will apply the seminar to my own teaching:

I plan to apply the seminar to my own teaching by including historical background (Murphey text) into my lessons. I also plan to include several texts that were introduced to me during the seminar: Aching for Beauty by Wang Ping, Lost Names by Richard Kim, The Analects, portions of the Rhoads text, and possibly Crosses and Tigers by Nagase Takashi, The Railway Man by Eric Lomax, and Return to Kanburi by Sears Eldredge (plus other texts found on the EASC bibliography that I am planning to order). Most importantly, I hope to instill in my students an appreciation for complex cultural differences and inspire them to learn more about East Asia in their futures.

A brief explanation of the pedagogical philosophy that underlies my choice of lessons:

My pedagogical beliefs represent Constructivist, Reader-Response, student-centered learning philosophies. My lessons reflect students involved in their learning by making choices, asking questions, and discovering “answers.”

Lesson Plan #1: China—Confucius Bookmarks

Class Description: Euro-Asian Literature, 12^th grade, 50-minute period

Materials Needed: 5-page handout (“Confucius”), card stock, art materials (paper scraps, old magazines, markers and/or colored pencils/crayons), and Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah.

Objectives:

- to introduce students to Confucius and his influences on Chinese life

- to introduce students to the idea/value of filial piety

- to introduce the new class text, Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

- to introduce students to The Analects

Procedure:

Brief lecture: Confucius, The Analects, Chinese history & life, definition of “filial piety” (10 minutes)
Hand out Chapter 2 (pp 17-35) of the DeBary, which covers Confucius and contains selections from The Analects. For the next 35 minutes, students will be asked to create a bookmark for their new class novel, Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah. The purpose of the bookmark is to keep their places while reading, to remind students of the Confucian influence on Chinese life through his teachings found in The Analects, and to ask students to think about filial piety while reading the novel, Falling Leaves, the “memoir of an unwanted Chinese daughter.” Students should create their bookmarks by finding poignant facts/teachings in the handout and copying them on the card stock cut into a bookmark size and shape. The bookmark should also include the definition of filial piety. Students should also think about creating an inspiring and visually appealing bookmark (decorate with color, decorative papers, images, etc). While students are perusing the handout, making their choices, creating their bookmarks, the teacher may want to distribute the novels and record book numbers in the grade book. (35 minutes)

Closing: During the last five minutes of class, the students will be asked to read/share at least one important fact/teaching that they chose to include on their bookmarks. (5 minutes)

Homework: to begin reading the novel, Falling Leaves

Lesson Plan #2: Japan – Japanese bookmaking: A Reader’s Response Journal for the Novel A Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima

Class Description: Euro-Asian Literature, 12^th grade, 50-minute period

Materials needed: 4X6 note cards (2 per student), paper cut into 4X12 pieces (4 or 5 per student), decorative Japanese paper cut into 4X6 pieces (2 per student), bone folders (craft sticks work well), an awl, needles, thread, glue jars and glue brushes.

Objectives:

- to introduce students to bookbinding, bookbinding tools, traditional Japanese binding, Japanese page/book layout

- to discover the pleasure/satisfaction of successfully creating an artistic book to use as a reader’s response log for the reading of a novel

- to read, write and respond to the novel

Procedure:

Pass around the papers and note cards for students to choose (3-4 min)

2. Using their bone folders, have students fold all of the 4X12 pieces of paper in half (2-3 minutes)

3. Have students brush glue on their note cards and glue the decorative Japanese paper onto the note cards creating their book covers (5 minutes)

4. Students should arrange the folded paper with the crease at the bottom of the book and place the paper in between the note card covers. Then, using the awls, students should make three holes across the top of the book creating square corners (please see attached diagram and instructions) (5-7 minutes)

5. After threading their needles, students should begin their bindings by putting the needle and thread through the center hole and leaving about 3” of extra thread. Then students should put needles through a side hole and create a square binding with the needle and thread (please see diagram and instructions). Then go back through the center hole and head over to the other side hole and repeat. Threading should end at the center hole again and tie the thread to the 3” extra thread from the first threading creating a knot at the top of the book and binding (10-15 minutes) Note: some students will catch on very fast and will be able to show/help their classmates. Also: times are estimated here…this has always taken me the whole 50 minute class period…

Closure: Instruct students to use this book as a reader’s response log and assign due dates.

Homework: Read A Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima and write responses in logs

Lesson Plan #3: Korea—Theatrical Presentations of Lost Names – Scenes from a Korean Childhood

Class Description: Euro-Asian Literature, 12^th grade, four 50-minute periods

Materials Needed: Lost Names by Richard Kim, materials for props, scenery, costumes, etc.

Objectives:

- to read a chapter of the novel Lost Names by Richard Kim

- to think about all perspectives of a conflict and to realize the complexities of war and cultural differences

- to dramatically interpret a scene from the book and to create a mood and/or atmosphere using a simple prop, background or costume

Procedure:

Divide students into small groups (2-3 students) and assign each group a different chapter from the book Lost Names by Richard Kim. Have students read their assigned chapters together in class (20-25 minutes)
Ask students to recreate an important or memorable scene from their chapter to present to the class. Scene recreations should last about 5-10 minutes and should include at least one prop OR background scenery OR costume to enhance their performances of the chapter. Presentations should include an introduction to the chapter (character names, setting, plot summary and background information necessary for class understanding of the chapter). Students will have the remaining class time to begin production of their scene and an additional class period the following day. During the next week of classes, student will perform their scenes for the rest of the class. Performances will take two class periods to complete and will be performed in order of the chapters in the book.

Closure: Following the performances, students will be involved in a discussion of the book and a discussion of the involvement of Japan.

Homework: Outside of class, students will be reading the novel, A Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima.

List of resources:

De Bary, Wm. Theodore, Wing-tsit Chan, and Burton Watson, comps. Sources of Chinese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.

Gotz, Mary. Book Arts Instructor, Professor Emeritus of Education, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN.

Kim, Richard. Lost Names. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1998.

Mishima, Yukio. A Sound of Waves. New York: Vintage Books, 1956.

Murphey, Rhoads. East Asia A New History. New York: Longman, 2001.

Yen Mah, Adeline. Falling Leaves. New York: Broadway Books, 1997.