Curated OER
The Poetry of Chinese Immigration
Numerous people from China immigrated to the US during the era of industrialization and expansion. Provide your class with a glimpse into the life of a Chinese immigrant through the poetry they left behind. They then compose a poem of...
Curated OER
Chinese Folktales: An Illustrating Activity
In need of a really good lesson that incorporates literature, art, and cultural themes? After hearing a traditional Chinese folktale and discussing cultural themes and symbolism, learners create original illustrations for the story. This...
ESL Library
Beginner Level Thanksgiving ESL Lesson Plan
Thanksgiving is a cherished tradition in the United States and Canada. Introduce the beginnings of the Thanksgiving celebration with a resource that features reading comprehension activities, vocabulary exercises, and a short...
Curated OER
Chinese Landscape Painting
Third graders learn about Chinese poetry and landscape paintings, then create their own. They view several examples and discuss the elements of each, then paint their own landscape inspired by what they saw. They then listen to, read,...
ESL Holiday
Chinese New Year—ESL Lesson
Language learners read a passage about Chinese New Year celebrations and then complete a series of reading comprehension and grammar exercises based on the passage.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Lu Shih — The Couplets of T’ang
Writing poetry in ancient China was the modern equivalent of sending a greeting card. Scholars learn about the ancient Chinese poetic form called the lu shih. They read about the context of poetry during the T'ang Dynasty and complete a...
Curated OER
Splendid China: Chinese Folktales
Students investigate Chinese culture by reading their folk tales. In this creative writing lesson, students practice identifying the different elements in a folk tale and examine the related vocabulary. Students organize...
Curated OER
World Literature: “The Wounded” By Lu Xinhua
“The Wounded,” the title story from a collection of stories about the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1977-78), is the central text in a World Literature unit examining choices. An anticipation guide, discussion topics, vocabulary list,...
Curated OER
Chinese Mythology
Seventh graders examine creation myths of China, discuss how myths reflect Chinese culture, differentiate between Chinese and Greek creation myths, and explore place of myths in Chinese culture as compared to their place in other...
Curated OER
Teaching the Chinese Immigrant's Story - Angel Island (1910-1940)
Students pretend to be Chinese and European immigrants, and U.S. citizens, as they explore immigration in California in the first half of the 20th Century.
Curated OER
The All-American Slurp
Explore Chinese culture and customs with your class and allow them time to connect and compare their own experiences with experiences of character a from the short story The All-American Slurp. They create a short presentation on some...
Curated OER
Understanding Tiananmen Square
William Bell's Forbidden City is used as the basis of a study of China, Chinese culture and government, and especially of the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Class members select a topic for Internet research and then prepare a...
Curated OER
China's Three Gorges Dam
A very well-done resource includes an informational reading passage describing the controversy and impact of China's Three Gorges Dam. It also includes eight guided reading questions, a pros/cons arguments chart, and a creative writing...
K12 Reader
Discrimination Against Gold Rush Immigrants
Immigration to the US has been a topic of discussion for many years. Inform your class about discrimination against immigrants during the Gold Rush with a short reading passage. After reading, class members answer five questions related...
Curated OER
Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems
Poems carved into the wooden walls of the Asian immigrant prisons on Angel Island provide upper elementary graders an opportunity to study not only the story behind the poems but to also focus on the figurative language employed by the...
Curated OER
Student Opinion: Who Inspires You?
Inspire your class to write about role models and personal heroes with this resource from The Learning Network. Class members read a New York Times article excerpt about basketball star Jeremy Lin and how he inspired the author. After...
Curated OER
Opportunity and Danger
Young scholars analyze the immigrant experience. In this Chinese immigration lesson plan, students research Internet and print sources regarding the topic. Young scholars also watch videos regarding the topic and interview immigrants...
Curated OER
Who Are These Chinese People?
Students research the Han, a main Chinese ethnic group and the Hui, another numerous group. They write a paper about the Hui including geography, religion, eating habits, languages, politics and customs.
Museum of Tolerance
Disenfranchised People of the New Nation
Why are some immigrant groups in the United States embraced while others become disenfranchised? To answer this question, teams investigate why groups emigrated to the US, why some of these these peoples were...
Curated OER
Changing Places
Students investigate the Chinese-American immigration experience. In this assimilation instructional activity, students watch "Becoming American: The Chinese Experience" and then participate in classroom activities regarding the topic....
Curated OER
How I Became Me
Students examine their own identities and read about the experiences of adopted Chinese daughters celebrating the Jewish rite of passage, the bat mitzvah. They write personal poems or speeches illustrating how their identities evolved.
Curated OER
Dissidents Delicately Democratize
Students read and discuss the article, 'Chinese Dissidents Issue a Sharp Challenge to the Government' on pro-democratic manifestos that were recently written in China, write a journal entry on what human rights means to them.
Curated OER
Who Said It First? Scavenger Hunt
In this original languages worksheet, students utilize the Internet to access one specific website to find the original languages for eight unique words. Students draw a line from each word in column one to its original language in...
Curated OER
When Human Rights Are Wronged
Students explore the concept of human rights by examining the arresting of prominent Chinese dissidents who are members of the China Democratic Party. They develop and defend their own Bill of Human Rights and write a reflective essay.