Classroom Activities
To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, A Piece of Home will start the book study on Asian American experiences for the month of May. In this collection of stories, students will hear about Asian American history, about the struggles and challenges of immigration, about finding community, about seeking acceptance and belonging. Students will learn that these stories that are based on real events written through the genres of autobiography, biography, or historical fiction. Stories about immigration often explore profound themes such as identity, belonging, cultural conflict, and the search for a better life.
The following activities are the sequence for reading each book. The books from the Immigration Stories section are intended to show a chronological presentation of Asian immigration over time. The remaining choices are organized by country and can be used in any sequence with the goal of including every country with at least one text. Activity One introduces the text, Activity Two centers on a creating a piece of material culture from the text, and Activity Three allows the students to reflect on each story by creating a journal entry about the journey of the child in each story. The students will collect their journal entries into a bound book at the end of the unit.
Activity One: Introduce and Discuss the Text
Materials: Copy of A Piece of Home by Jeri Watts, chart paper, globe, map of Asia, colorful pins or flags for map
Day One: Whole class read-aloud, create a chart with four columns to track the titles of the books, countries of origin, main character(s), any important objects from home
Introduce the book as a story of immigration. “We will be reading many books on this topic for the month of May. Immigration means to move from one country to another, where things will be different, including language and food. We will hear the stories of many children who immigrated to United States with their families and had to learn how to live in a new place, make new friends, and speak a new language.”
Reference the chart as a place to start keeping track of our learning.
Questions to ask before reading the story: What do you think this book will be about? What do the title and cover illustrations tell you might happen in the story? Have you ever been away from home for more than a day? Where did you go?
Questions to ask during and after reading: What is Hee Jun’s family doing? How does Hee Jun fell about his new school? How does he feel about living in a new place? How do his family members feel and do their feelings change?
Day Two: Whole class quick review of A Piece of Home to remind students of the story. Add information to the complete the chart.
Questions to ask during and after review: Where did Hee Jun’s family move from? What made him feel like a part of his new community? What helped his family members feel like part of the community?
Locate Korea on the map of Asia. Locate Korea and the United States on the globe. Place a pin on map to identify Korea’s location. Tell the students we will be placing a pin on the map as we read each story throughout the month.
For subsequent books: Adjust questions to storyline of each book, focusing on information to add to the tracking chart.
Activity Two: Material Culture of Immigrant Stories
Materials: paper, markers, crayons, scissors, glue, craft materials (pompoms, pipe cleaners, feathers, tissue papers, etc.)
Using materials of their choice, students can design and create the Rose of Sharon or Mugungwa the object that is the “piece of home” for Hee Jun’s grandmother.
For subsequent books: Use a selection of the materials to have students create an object from the story – an item that traveled with the family, how they made the journey, something meaningful from their home country
Activity Three: Journey Journals
Materials: paper with heading “A Piece of Home” by Jeri Watts and Hyewon Yum
Students will create a drawing that shows the journey Hee Jun’s family made. Pictures can show how they traveled, the difference between their homes or schools in each country, or their choice of how they understand Hun Jee’s journey.
For subsequent books: Create a page, with the book title and author/illustrator heading for each book used during the teaching of the unit. Students will use these pages to draw a picture showing the journey story of each immigrant family. Once the unit is complete, the drawings will be collected to create a Journey Journal with several entries, telling a story of Asian immigration.
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