Classroom Activities
Hook and Opening Introduction:
“My Treasure Box” Instruction: On the first day of school, assign students the task: a) Find a shoebox for the treasure box project; b) Collect 5 to 7 personal items (such as photos, favorite toys, a souvenir, etc.) to put them inside the box; c) Write at least one paragraph to introduce themselves and their personal items. Some questions to consider include: Who are you? What can someone learn about you from these items? d) Optional (Extra Credits): Decorate the outside and the inside of the treasure box by painting and collaging magazine pictures. Give students at least one week. Encourage students to be creative and take risks. To introduce this project during remote learning, teachers can do a quick icebreaker, and ask students to quickly look around their house to find an object that represents who they are. Then have a quick show and tell.
Prerequisite Lesson on Primary v. Secondary Sources:
Explain to students that “primary sources'' are created by someone with firsthand experience of a historical event; primary sources can be found anywhere – in your home, a museum or a public space. Therefore, primary sources are original records of the cultural, political, economic, artistic and scientific thoughts and achievements of specific historical periods. In contrast, “secondary sources” are second-hand, something created using information from primary sources. After the distinction between primary and secondary sources, use a T-chart and brainstorm examples of primary sources and secondary sources. Examples of primary sources can be divided into 3 basic groups: 1) Things people say; 2) Things people write; 3) Things people make. Examples of secondary sources include textbooks, Wikipedia, dictionaries, articles, books with endnotes, bibliographies, book review, biographies, literary criticism, opinion pieces, and other works that interpret the primary sources.
Establish a Shared History with Word Walls and Vocabulary Journals
Before, during and after each lesson, evaluate the need to address (Tier 3) complex and content-specific words. The goal is to build a collaborative “shared” vocabulary in the formats of a word wall and/or individual student journals. Teachers can replicate classic word walls virtually by adding hyperlinks, and videos to help with the pronunciation and definition. Most words can be understood by students through a careful close reading and textual dependent analysis. When context clues are absent and the difficult word is essential to understanding, teachers can define the word briefly for students. Some “difficult” terms associated with injustice include: bias, bigotry, discrimination, equal, ethnicity, exclusion, gender, heritage, injustice, minority, nationality, prejudices, race, racism, segregation, separate, slurs, stereotypes, etc.
In the process of creating a shared vocabulary against social justice, teachers need to model and facilitate open communication to address each other's shortcomings, misconceptions, and biases. Challenge the destructive power of biased language, bigoted words, and distinguish hurtful slurs v. joking words. Here is a short list of racially charged words (some extremely hurtful and derogatory to Asian Americans) to begin the conversations with students: ABC stands for American-Born Chinese, bamboo ceiling, brownie, chee-chee, Chinamen, Chink, coolie, FOB for Fresh Off the Boat, gook, Jap, Nip, oriental, raghead, yellow face, and Yellow Peril. When confronted with a hurtful word, one strategy is to have a deep dive to understand the historical context of the word. For example, the word “Orientalism” was used by the Western colonialism, hegemony and imperialism to rationalize the East and its people as exotic, mysterious, inferior, strange and in need of being rescued by Western religion, culture, law and value. In 2016, President Barack Obama signed a bill that bans the usage of the term “Oriental” in federal law. Similar examples are everywhere in our popular culture, music and paintings.
Lessons for Social Issues #1 to #5
The basic framework for each box or shared document contains the following steps. First, brainstorm a list of social issues with your students and through discussion, narrow the list down to the most important four or five social issues for further investigation. Label the physical box or filename the “virtual box” with the social issue (example: Hair). For grades K to 3rd, have students identify two general topics relating to the social issue. Examples: queue and dredlocs. For grades 4th to 8th, have students identify more specific topics. Examples: Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan court decision overturned the Queue Ordinance, and a viral video of wrestler Andrew Johnson having his dredlocs cut before a match. Collect primary sources through google searches. For grades K to 3rd, teachers may want to collect the primary sources. For grades 4th and 8th grades, teachers can set up collaborative platforms such as Google Slides, Google Jamboard, etc. for students to search for primary sources online. Organize your primary sources by the following three catalogues:
1) “Things People Make” include artifacts, clothing, maps, tools, inventions, weapons, gravestones, memorabilia, pictures, photos, posters, advertisements, paintings, sculptures, videos, and films. Lastly, have students brainstorm a list of opinions (biases and stereotypes) about each social issue. See my suggestions of primary sources, secondary sources, and claim statements listed below for each box. 2) “Things People Say” include speeches, conversations, interviews, lectures, songs, and oral histories transcribed into text or recorded in audio or video format. 3) “Things People Write” include diaries, letters, memoirs, poems, autobiographies, news articles, legal documents, court decisions, treaties, laws, statistics, scientific studies, reports, recipes, blogs, tweets, emails, text messages, and other social media formats.
If desired, divide students into 2 general teams (just queue and dredlocs) for grades K to 3rd. For grades 4th to 8th, divide students into 6 specific teams. For example, set up 3 teams for things people make, say, and write in regards to queue and Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan, and another 3 teams for things people make, say, and write in regards to dredlocs and wrestler Andrew Johnson.
Google Search Suggestions for Social Issue #1: Boxing Hair
Claim Statements (opinions) about hair discrimination: 1) Man should not have long hair; it is too feminine. 2) Only black people should wear dredlocs. 3) Hair is … 4) Hair is not...
Related Topic A: Queue and Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan court decision. Things People Make: Photos of: 1) a Chinese man braiding another Chinese man’s queue; 2) Chinese men with queue hairstyle at work, social gathering or at home; 3) a sculpture titled Cutting off the Queue (2012) at Pak Tsz Lane Park, Hong Kong. Things People Say: Political cartoons of Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinese men wearing queue from: 1) Pacific Chivalry (1869) and other artworks by German-born American cartoonist Thomas Nast, Harper’s Weekly; 2) The George Dee Magic Washing Machine Company (1886); 3) The Coming Man (1881) by George Keller, The San Francisco Illustrated Wasp. Things People Write: 1) Court transcript of Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan.
Related Topic B: Dredlocs and the high school wrestler Andrew Johnson. Things People Make: 1) Viral video of Johnson’s coach cutting his hair; 2) Photo of Jeremy Lin (Asian American basketball player) wearing dredlocs, 3) Photo of Justin Bieber (singer) wearing dredlocs; 4) Viral video of Cory Goldstein on college campus. Things People Say: 1) TED Talks “Loc’d and Coded: The Politics of Dreadlocks” by R. Matthews. Things People Write: 1) Tweets about hair discrimination, example hashtags: #dreadlocks, #naturalhair; 2) Statement issued by parents of Andrew Johnson on Instagram (Dec. 25, 2018); 3) Interview of Dale and Sherine Virgo on Jamaica’s Supreme Court ruling, CNN (Aug. 4, 2020).
Google Search Suggestions for Social Issue #2: Boxing Race
Claim Statements (biases and stereotypes) about race: 1) Asian Americans are quiet and good in math. 2) Black people are good athletics, singers and dancers. 3) All men are created equal. 4) The Race Card Project is a website where people can submit a six-word sentence to distill their opinions, ideas, experiences or observations about race.
Related Topic A: The Chinese Exclusion Act. Things People Write: Saum Song Bo’s letter (1885), see websites Digital History for a transcript, or Newspaper.com for a newspaper clip.
Related Topic B: Jim Crow Laws. Things People Write: Robert Leon Bacon’s letter (1955), visit Education @ Library of Virginia for handwritten letter (three pages) and transcript.
Google Search Suggestions for Social Issue #3 Boxing Gender and Intersectionality
Claim Statements (stereotypes) about gender, race, class, age, and marital status: 1) Girls should act like ladies. 2) Boys should be tough. 3) Asian American women are meek and shy. 4) Black men are aggressive and violent or Black slaves are “Magical Negro” (a term popularized by Spike Lee in 2001) who selfishly helps white people. 5) Rich people are more educated, competent and hardworking than poor people. 6) Young people can move, think and remember better than old people.7) Unmarried and childless women are unhappy and lonely. 8) Men are afraid of marriage and commitment.
Related Topic A: Afong Moy. Things People Make: 1) A black and white newspaper drawing (1835) of Afong Moy sitting on a chair in an exhibit called “The Chinese Saloon.” 2) Photos by Michael C. Palma of a play titled “The Chinese Lady” on the website Stage and Cinema (2019). Things People Write: 1) Newspaper advertisement of the exhibition of Afong Moy, refer to the website South China Morning Post. 2) A Chinese woman’s narrative titled “Tongue-Tied” published in 1976 as the first chapter of Maxime Hong Kingston’s novel The Woman Warrior based on the author’s account of her childhood and Chinese family history. 3) The informational book “The Chinese Lady” by Nancy E. Davis on the life of Afong Moy and how 19th century Americans perceived China and Chinese people.
Related Topic B: Henry Brown. Things People Make: A black and white illustration on a poster from a magical show in Shrewsbury, England which refers to Brown as the Native Prince depicting him emerging from the box (Image courtesy of Martha Cutter). Things People Write:
1) Brown’s 1849 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, in which he described his escape. 2) Children’s book titled Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine.
Google Search Suggestions for Social Issue #4 Boxing Hate
Claim Statements (opinions) about hatred, xenophobia, violence and police brutality: 1) The COVID-19 pandemic is a Chinese virus from Wuhan, China. 2) Black people are law breakers and perpetrators of violence. 3) All Asians look alike. 4) Freedom of speech means I have the right to say whatever I want.
Related Topic A: Vincent Chin. Things People Make: photos of 1) Lily Chin holding a picture of her son Vincent Chin (Richard Sheinwald, AP). 2) Lily Chin speaking at a news conference in 1983 at historic Cameron House in San Francisco’s Chinatown with Reverend Jesse Jackson in the background. 3) Lily Chin lamenting the death of her son (Bettmann Archive, Getty Images). 4) Public protest after the verdict. Things People Say: 1) Feature film titled “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” (1989); 2) A documentary titled Vincent Who? The Murder of a Chinese-American Man produced by Curtis Chin. Things People Write: Reports of hate crimes on Stop AAPI Hate website.
Related Topic B: George Floyd. Things People Make & Write: 1) Public murals of George Floyd, photos and videos of street protests in Minneapolis and other major cities. 2) Collage and testimonials at the website: “Black Lives Matter Help by Desire” https://3a8e964b-31d3-4c43-aceb-3f26f53a9d4b.godaddysites.com; 3) Time magazine covers and articles: May 11, 2015 photo by Devin Allen of a Baltimore protest after the death of Freddie Gray; June 5, 2020 photo by Devin Allen of a Baltimore protest after the death of George Floyd depicting a protestors lying down on the ground; and June 15, 2020 painting by Titus Kaphar inspired by Floyd’s mother, Larcenia Floyd. Things People Say: 1) Public speeches by Floyd’s younger brothers: Terrance (June 1, 2020) while visiting a memorial in Minneapolis, and Philonise (June 10, 2020) before the House Judiciary Committee. 2) Documentary titled 8 Minutes and 46 Seconds: The Killing of George Floyd (2020) produced by Sky News.
Google Search Suggestions for Social Issue #5: Boxing “The Problem”
Claim Statements (biases and stereotypes) about “the Minority’s Problem”: 1) Asian American students are the model minority because they are good students who work hard and don’t really need a lot of help from teachers. 2) Black students are low achieving with behavioral issues more than the most other students. 3) Black and Asian American kids cannot get along. 4) The 1992 Los Angeles race riot and the Model Minority myth created a wedge and continue to the racial tension between the two communities.
Related Topic A: “The Negro Problem,” a collection of seven essays by Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles W. Chestnut, Wilford Horace Smith, H. T. Kealing, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and T. Thomas Fortune. Things People Make: The Atlantic’s YouTube video. Things People Write: 1) Poem “I, Too, Am America” by Langston Hughes. 2) Essays written by Du Bois: Strivings of the Negro People, and The Talented Tenth. 3) essays from the book “The Negro Problem.”
Related Topic B: The Model Minority Myth. Things People Make: August 31, 1987 Time Magazine’s cover, a photo by Ted Thai titled Asian-American Whiz Kids. Things People Write: Article titled Success Story: Japanese American Style by sociologist William Petersen (1966, The New York Times Magazine).
Student-Created Primary Sources and “Let’s Celebrate!”
At the end of this unit, it is a good idea to have a cumulative activity to showcase and share students’ artworks, writings and other accomplishments with the school community including parents and community leaders. The ability to “create” new and original work is fundamental for students’ developmental growth and future learning. Throughout this unit, there are numerous opportunities for students to bring in artifacts from home to describe who they are, interview family members to preserve family history, and produce original writings such as poems, personal narratives and argumentative essays. In general, encourage ways for students to create their own primary sources based on the concepts: things people make, things people say, and things people write. The final goal of the whole group inquiry (#5 Boxing “The Problem”) is to have students collaboratively innovate a real-life solution with a service-learning project. It is important to set a date and a designated space (physical and virtual) for students to celebrate, share, and “publish” their historical knowledge, understanding, analyses, and innovations. Our students’ victories and reversals are the living manifestation of our current mass civil rights movement. I want to end the unit with a quote to encourage teachers to participate in an ongoing “undefeated but unfinished revolution” from Jacquelyn Dowd Hall’s essay The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past:
“Both the victories and the reversals call us to action as citizens and as historians with powerful stories to tell. Both are part of a long and ongoing civil rights movement. Both can help us imagine - for our own times - a new way of life, a continuing revolution.”93
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