Community College Resources - Carolina Asia Center

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Asian Diasporas | Contemporary Asian Societies | Economics & Business | Language Arts | Philosophy & Religion | Science | Visual Arts | World History

High School Lesson Plan Database can be Adapted to Community College Level

Contemporary Asian Societies

Asian Cities
By Tese Wintz Neighbor of the University of Washington
Presented by the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies Outreach Centers and The Seattle Times Newspapers In Education Program
“Exploring Asia: Asian Cities — Growth and Change” is a collaborative project between the Newspapers In Education program of The Seattle Times and the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies outreach centers. The project consists of a five-article series, a teaching guide, and a pre-series workshop for secondary teachers. Designed for high school readers in mind, each article in the online newspaper series focuses on the changing face of cities in Asia.

Continuity and Change in Asia
Presented by the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies Outreach Centers and The Seattle Times Newspapers In Education Program
This study guide works in conjunction with the eight-article series, Continuity and Change in Asia. The series and the guide address three broad themes in a study of power and politics in twentieth- and twenty-first century Asia: Legacies of Imperialism and Colonialism; Women’s Rise to Power, and Emerging Voices. Each theme richly demonstrates continuity and change within Asia, emphasizing the need for a deep historical and cultural approach to an understanding of current events.

Exploring Asia: Human Rights
By Tese Wintz Neighbor and Jacob Bolotin of the University of Washington
Presented by the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies Outreach Centers and The Seattle Times Newspapers In Education Program
“Exploring Asia: Human Rights” is a collaborative project between The Seattle Times Newspapers In Education (NIE) program and the University of Washington Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies outreach centers. The project consists of a five-article series, a teaching guide, and a pre-series workshop for secondary teachers. Designed with young readers in mind, each article in the online newspaper series focuses on a human-rights issue in a country or region of Asia. The teaching guide provides a lesson plan for each article that includes activities to do with students before, during and after reading the featured article. Together, the articles and accompanying lessons allow students to explore human rights in several Asian countries, asking them to look at the issues from multiple perspectives and investigate organizations that protect and promote human rights

Global Asia: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
By Tese Wintz Neighbor of the University of Washington
Presented by the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies Outreach Centers and The Seattle Times Newspapers In Education Program
“Global Asia: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” is a collaborative project between the Newspapers in Education program of The Seattle Times and the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies outreach centers. The project consists of a four-article series, a teaching guide, and a workshop for secondary teachers. Designed for high school readers in mind, each article in the online newspaper series focuses on the changing face of empires, colonialism and modern conditions of countries in Asia.

Global Health: Asia in the 21st Century
By Tese Wintz Neighbor of the University of Washington
Presented by the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies
For five weeks, students will learn about different health issues affecting various countries in Asia. Each week, students will identify one or more health issues and its effect on Asia or on a population in Asia. They will read concurrent Seattle Times articles as well as additional readings supplied in these lessons. They will discuss the ramifications of these problems and form opinions about how individual countries can begin dealing with the health issues facing them today.

Political Change in the 21st Century
By Tese Wintz Neighbor of the University of Washington
Presented by the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies Outreach Centers and The Seattle Times Newspapers In Education Program
Exploring Asia: Political Change in the 21st Century is a collaborative project between the Newspapers In Education program of The Seattle Times and the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies outreach centers. The project consists of a five-article series, a teaching guide, and a preseries workshop for secondary teachers. Designed with young readers in mind, each article in the online newspaper series focuses on major political changes in Asia. The five-part series begins with an overview of political change in Asia followed by articles featuring Burma, China, India and Central Asia. This teaching guide provides a lesson plan for each article and activities to do with students before, during and after reading the featured weekly article. Together the articles and accompanying lessons take students on an exploration of politics in several Asian countries, asking students to look at the issues from multiple perspectives and to explore how North America is becoming more and more connected to Asia. The points of view represented in the articles and the guide materials are a sampling of perspectives on these issues.

Language Arts

Islam in Asia: People, Practices, Traditions
By Tese Wintz Neighbor of the University of Washington
Presented by the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies Outreach Centers and The Seattle Times Newspapers In Education Program
Exploring Asia is a collaborative project between the Newspapers In Education program of The Seattle Times and the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies’ Asia and Global Studies outreach centers. The project consists of a five-article series, a teaching guide, and a pre-series workshop for secondary teachers. Designed with young readers in mind, articles in this year’s Exploring Asia online newspaper series titled “Islam in Asia: People, Practices, Traditions” focus on social, political, educational, devotional and cultural practices in Islamic societies in Asia, where a majority of the world’s Muslims live. The five-part series includes articles on Indonesia, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and China, as well as an overview of Islam in Asia. This teaching guide provides a lesson plan for each article and activities to do with students before, during and after reading the featured weekly article. Together, the articles and accompanying lessons take students on an exploration of Islam in several Asian countries, asking students to look at the issues from multiple perspectives and to promote understanding. The points of view represented in the articles and the guide materials are a sampling of perspectives among many viewpoints on these issues.

Philosophy & Religion

China’s Cultural Revolution
By Amy Freedman of the Department of Government at Franklin and Marshall College
Published and developed with Expanding East Asian Studies from Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University
This unit uses memoirs of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) to broaden students’ understanding of political activism and the motivations behind political campaigns. By studying the Cultural Revolution in the context of the sociology of mass mobilization, students will gain an awareness of the power of politics and ideology. Through personal accounts and scholarly writings this unit shows how leaders use ideas, ideology, and “information” (i.e. propaganda) to mobilize people for their own aims. It also illustrates how these forces can work in the everyday lives of normal people. In addition to gaining a deeper understanding of Chinese politics under Mao, students will hopefully understand the substantial power of ideology and a charismatic leader in motivating people towards destructive ends. They should also be able to think more rigorously about where and how values and social relations are shaped and molded — values and culture are not static and can be substantially influenced by politics.

Science

World History

China’s Cultural Revolution
By Amy Freedman of the Department of Government at Franklin and Marshall College
Published and developed with Expanding East Asian Studies from Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University
This unit uses memoirs of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) to broaden students’ understanding of political activism and the motivations behind political campaigns. By studying the Cultural Revolution in the context of the sociology of mass mobilization, students will gain an awareness of the power of politics and ideology. Through personal accounts and scholarly writings, this unit shows how leaders use ideas, ideology, and “information” (i.e. propaganda) to mobilize people for their own aims. It also illustrates how these forces can work in the everyday lives of normal people. In addition to gaining a deeper understanding of Chinese politics under Mao, students will hopefully understand the substantial power of ideology and a charismatic leader in motivating people towards destructive ends. They should also be able to think more rigorously about where and how values and social relations are shaped and molded — values and culture are not static and can be substantially influenced by politics.

East Asian Security Today: Surprising Stability and Potential Flashpoints
By Allen Carlson of the Government Department at Cornell University
Published and developed with Expanding East Asian Studies from Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University
This unit explores the contemporary security situation in East Asia through student readings that provide differing views on the security outlook in East Asia and a student activity that examines one likely security flashpoint in the region — Taiwan’s independence.  The unit argues that there is more peace and stability in East Asia today (despite the persistence of real trouble spots that have the potential to disrupt such a trend) than is conventionally acknowledged by many observers.  It also considers the validity of competing explanations of the region drawn from different aspects of international relations theory and security studies.  In short, while the unit has a regional focus on East Asia and places a particular emphasis on China’s position within the region, it is framed within the broader literature on international politics.

History and Politics of the Muslims in Thailand
By Thanet Aphornsuvan of Thammasat University
Published and developed with the Southeast Asia Outreach Program at Cornell University
This unit covers the rich history of the Islamic peoples who have inhabited Thailand for ages. The unit also offers a close look at the politics of these peoples, offering comparisons and contrasts of other people groups in the area.

Law and Society in East Asia: Selected Teaching Resources
Published and developed with Expanding East Asian Studies from Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University
The following primary legal sources, organized around the theme of “law and society,” offer insight into how the power of the state or dynasty interacted with people’s everyday lives. The list includes legal cases that have been translated into English, along with films that illustrate legal procedure, from China, Japan, and Korea, starting in the thirteenth century to the present day.  Used in the classroom these legal cases not only serve as examples of legal concepts, state doctrine, or social values, but they also serve as snapshots into social history, bringing the extraordinary and ordinary of everyday society to life for students.  Reading these translated legal cases, students can gain first-hand insight into how legal practitioners envisioned social order, while also witnessing what happened when those ideas conflicted with social realities.

Political Change in the 21st Century
By Tese Wintz Neighbor of the University of Washington
Presented by the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies Outreach Centers and The Seattle Times Newspapers In Education Program
Exploring Asia: Political Change in the 21st Century is a collaborative project between the Newspapers In Education program of The Seattle Times and the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Asia and Global Studies outreach centers. The project consists of a five-article series, a teaching guide, and a pre-series workshop for secondary teachers. Designed with young readers in mind, each article in the online newspaper series focuses on major political changes in Asia. The five-part series begins with an overview of political change in Asia followed by articles featuring Burma, China, India and Central Asia. This teaching guide provides a lesson plan for each article and activities to do with students before, during and after reading the featured weekly article. Together the articles and accompanying lessons take students on an exploration of politics in several Asian countries, asking students to look at the issues from multiple perspectives and to explore how North America is becoming more and more connected to Asia. The points of view represented in the articles and the guide materials are a sampling of perspectives on these issues.

Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence
By Christian Lentz of the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Published on and developed with the National Humanities Center
In this lesson students will analyze the Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence, read to an audience of thousands in Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi, Vietnam, by Ho Chi Minh on September 2, 1945. The presentation, drafted by Ho during the previous five days, had been shown to American political advisors, hoping to encourage an alliance with the US. The speech had two purposes: to declare national independence and to legitimize the birth of a new nation-state known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DVR). Instead, it would mark the beginning of 30 years of war. Two follow-up assignments ask students to evaluate a letter Ho Chi Minh sent in 1919 asking for recognition of Vietnamese independence, and compare the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence (1945) to the American Declaration of Independence (1776).