Publications
K-12 East Asian Connection
Reports
Teaching East Asian Literature in the High School workshop
EASC hosted its eleventh annual workshop on Teaching East Asian Literature in the High School this past July, funded by the Freeman Foundation. Twenty-three high school English and world literature teachers from around the country participated in this intensive week of lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities, led by Chinese literature specialist Gary Xu (EALC and Comparative Literature, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), China historian Klaus Mühlhahn (History), Japanese literature specialist Andra Alvis (independent scholar), Japan historian Scott O’Bryan (History and EALC), and Korean literature and history specialist Sean Kim (History and Anthropology, University of Central Missouri). Teaching strategy sessions were led by curriculum consultant Cecilia Boyce (English, Hillsborough High School, Tampa, FL). Upon completing the workshop, the participants developed lesson plans designed to make works such as Li Bo’s “Bring the Wine,” The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, and Yi Mun-Yŏl’s Our Twisted Hero come alive to high school students. The 2010 workshop will be held July 11th through the 16th. Information is available here.
NCTA Study Tour to China
This summer EASC led 20 middle- and high-school teachers, all alumni of EASC’s National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) Teaching about Asia seminars, on a three-week study tour of the People’s Republic of China. Dubbed the “Shangri-La Tour,” the teachers visited Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, and Zhongdian in addition to Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai. The group was led by Qiong Jiang (outreach coordinator, EASC), faculty expert Richard Bohr (Professor, St. Benedict/St. John’s University), curriculum consultant John Frank (history teacher, Center Grove High School, Greenwood, IN), and Cathy Gao (outreach assistant, EASC).
The tour included visits to cultural landmarks such as the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors, museums such as the Shanxi Provincial Historical Museum and Shanghai Museum, the Beijing hutong, an old-style neighborhood of narrow streets, and the home of a Tibetan family in Yunnan. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Xi’an Aizhi Middle School, where the group observed classes and student activities and exchanged ideas about education in China and the United States with school administrators, teachers, and students. In addition, teachers were given free time to pursue individual research interests and develop curriculum projects and outreach strategies for their local communities.
The trip was a great success, as evidenced by one participant’s comment: “This was the best experience I have ever had! It was life changing and I can’t wait to explore even more about China and East Asia. Teaching others about China will be my mission once I return!”
IL/IN East Asia Fair: “Transforming Blue: From Seed to Dye, Indigo in East Asia”
The 2009 IL/IN East Asia Fair, “Transforming Blue: From Seed to Dye, Indigo in East Asia,” was held in April at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN. The event brought together more than fifty high school students from five schools in Indiana and Illinois for a day of interactive learning about the art of blue dye in East Asia. Rowland Ricketts, an assistant professor of textiles in the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University, taught the students about indigo farming and processing in Japan as well as techniques of using natural materials and historical processes to create contemporary textiles. Cathy Bullington, an NCTA alumna and art teacher at Bedford Middle School in Bedford, IN, also shared information about the symbols and patterns used on textiles in China and Japan, the dyeing process, and how indigo is used in fashion today. Students then had a chance to practice some basic indigo dyeing techniques and create their own indigo artwork.
This event was organized by EASC and its Title VI consortium partner, the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Information regarding the 2010 IL/IN East Asia Fair will be forthcoming.
Center for Chinese Language Pedagogy's Summer STARTALK Programs
IU's Center for Chinese Language Pedagogy offered two Chinese language programs this summer—one for teachers and one for students of Mandarin Chinese. The programs were funded by STARTALK grants totalling nearly $170,000.
The Chinese Pedagogy Institute, a program for middle and high school teachers of Chinese, which was also offered in 2007 and 2008, welcomed 20 teachers to campus for a two-and-a-half-week residential institute, the first week of which was spent at IU's Bradford Woods facility before participants moved to campus for a one-week practicum. The Chinese Language Institute, a program for middle and high school students, provided three weeks of on-campus instruction for local students and a final week of online distance learning.
STARTALK is a National Security Language Initiative project that supports summer programs in critical needs languages such as Chinese and Arabic. For more information about IU's STARTALK Chinese programs, go to: https://www.indiana.edu/~cclp/.
First Chinese Language Program Established in Bloomington—at New Tech High School
Monroe County Community School Corporation has established its first Chinese language program—at New Technology High School in Bloomington, IN.
Thanks in part to support from EASC and the IU Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, which helped lay the groundwork for the program by providing Chinese cultural activities and a part-time instructor in 2008-09, the program is off to a running start. The new instructor, Chen-Lien Hsu, was trained as a Chinese language associate instructor by Jennifer Liu (EALC) and received an M.S. in Language Education from the IU School of Education in 2008.
New Tech uses a teaching model called Project-Based Learning, in which students spend more time working on collaborative projects than in a traditional high school, with an emphasis on developing oral and written communication and critical thinking skills.
EASC will continue to work closely with the New Tech Chinese program by providing cultural programming for the students and professional development opportunities for New Tech faculty interested in learning more about China and East Asia in general.
