Classroom Activities
Since the main goal of my classroom is to facilitate the acquisition of language through a communicative approach, students will spend a minimal amount of time as “receptacle” of information and instead use language to examine concepts in a meaningful way and engage their critical thinking skills to process ideas being presented in the second language (L2). In some cases, differentiated versions of materials will be provided to ensure language does not hinder comprehension of the content. Scaffolded materials may or may not include simplified English versions of worksheets or versions including first language support. The activities will incorporate all four domains of language (reading, writing, listening, and speaking)38 to ensure that students develop all aspects of their language proficiency throughout the unit.
Information Gap39
Following their lessons on four of the most important events in Asian American history students will be asked to identify these significant events and match them with a brief summary. In this activity, students will receive a graphic organizer packet with boxes for each of the four studied events (Chinese Exclusion Act, Internment during WWII, and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988) Each student’s packet will have a different one of the boxes completed for them, detailing one of the covered events and/or a summary. Students will be given time to read their completed organizer and to ask the teacher any questions about it. Then, students will move about the room and find a student who has a different completed box from them. They will first make note of that student’s name on the corresponding page of their packet, to ensure they do not speak with the same person twice. Next, they will explain the information on the completed space of their organizer to the other student, allowing time for the student to copy the notes onto their own blank. Once they have done so, they will have an opportunity to ask any clarifying questions before moving on to find a different student with a different completed space that they lack. They will repeat this process until their entire organizer is completed and they have reinforced the new concepts by explaining and discussing them multiple times with other students.
IAT
Since this unit begins with an introduction to the concept of unconscious bias, the first conducted activity will be an adapted version of the Implicit Association Test created by the teacher developed by Harvard sociologists. The test will provide a tactile chance for students to evaluate their own biases by making connections between categories of people and their perceived attributes. After the students completed their test, the teacher will lead a discussion in which students analyze their answers for trends in how they responded and ask for student opinions on how and why they made certain associations. This will solidify the concept of bias as being a part of every person’s perspective on the world, as well as a driving force behind how people categorize input.
Minority Group Google Slide
To provide students with background knowledge on minority and majority groups in the United States, students will work in groups and use a website provided by the teacher to summarize the experiences of a minority group. Each group will be assigned a minority (i.e., African Americans, Native Americans, Latino, etc.) to read about and create a Google Slide addressing some key information about that group and their involvement in US history. They will identify examples of events that demonstrate how this group was/is disenfranchised, describe laws/policies that impacted them, and select an image that represents them in their struggle to obtain equal rights from the American government.
Vocabulary Journal
Following the need for explicit vocabulary instruction of ELs as detailed above, students will keep a vocabulary journal for the terms in this unit. Although old-fashioned compared to today’s more “flashy” methods of teaching vocabulary, I have personally found directly teaching the meaning of each word to be very effective in ensuring student retention in my practice; The vocabulary journal serves as an anchor for students to reference as they continue to work with the chosen words in different contexts throughout the unit. Research shows that students need at least 17 different exposures to a new word in order to retain it;40 by having a vocabulary journal at their disposal at all times, students can regulate their own interactions with the terms. With newcomer and beginner level EL students, it can also be helpful to offer translations of the vocabulary in the first languages of the students using a reputable online dictionary.41 This encourages metalinguistic connections. In addition, each word and definition is accompanied by an image to aid in comprehension.
Word Splash
In the first part of the unit, students will explore how Asian Americans are portrayed in our society via various types of media. Students will be presented with primary sources focused on Asian American discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic. As students generate a list of words they think accurately represent the treatment of Asian Americans as a minority group, the teacher will keep a running list and assemble the terms into a “word splash”. A word splash42 is a visual representation of words connected by a central idea that are arranged into a single image. The benefit of this activity is that students can more easily determine the main idea of a conversation or discussion topic. The word splash can remain displayed in the classroom throughout the unit to remind students of the enduring understandings of the unit. See below for resources to create a word splash.
Immigrants Then vs Now Venn Diagram
At the close of the unit’s second part, students will reflect on the treatment of Asians as a minority group in the past versus today. Having studied the history of Asian workers in the 19th century as well as the Chinese Exclusion Act, students will work in partners to identify the similarities and differences between the perception and rights of Asians at that point in history versus most recently. The purpose of this activity is to help students ascertain how although the infringement of rights may be less overt in 2021, Asians are still subject to very similar types of prejudice as they were in 1880. Illustrating this point using a graphic organizer43 creates a solid foundation for students to examine how democracy has both negatively and positively impact their rights as a minority group in the next part of the unit.
I Notice, I Wonder
As the third part of the unit continues, students will move on to studying Japanese internment during World War II. Although students will likely have no background on Japanese internment, they will have had exposure to study of a similar event, the Holocaust. For this reason, students will be introduced to the internment through the lens of what they already know about government-sponsored incarceration. As an opening activity, students will view a slideshow of photographs by Great Depression photographer Dorothea Lange of various scenes from the period of internment. They will view the pictures before being given any information about the historical event we are studying. As they do so, they will complete notes for each picture on an “I Notice, I Wonder”44 graphic organizer. This worksheet requires students to record their individual observations, as well as any questions they have. The exercise enables students to think critically about the input and utilize inductive reasoning skills, versus traditional deductive instruction. Students will then discuss their responses as a class before the teacher moves into a more direct lesson about Japanese internment.
Book Studies
The two texts utilized in this unit are Coolies by Yin and They Called Us Enemy by George Takei. Both books center on key events in Asian American history, the building of the transcontinental railroad and the internment of Japanese Americans during the second world war, respectively. Both books are below grade level for my grades 6-8 students, however, due to their limited language proficiency, they are much more accessible for entering and beginning level EL students. Additionally, the subject matter that they address remains developmentally appropriate for middle school students. The teacher will read each text aloud to students as a class, as well as ask students to reread certain excerpts in groups in order to emphasize specific areas of the text that correlate to unit objectives.
#StopAsianhate Post
The culminating project of this unit will be a “social media post” (actually a poster). Students will select the social media platform of their choice (i.e., Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and create a poster mimicking the format of that platform. Their “post” must meet the criteria of including a timeline outlining significant events in Asian American history, in conjunction with policies and laws that have impacted the rights of Asian Americans as minorities. The “post” should juxtapose these facts with how Asians have been characterized in the wake of the global pandemic in order to encourage its audience to form a coalition against anti-Asian sentiments.
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