CHINA: LAND OF REVOLUTIONS

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/Project1/China.html

Unit Authors

This unit was developed by Lynn Keim and Sherry Wachna and delivered to 6th graders at O'Farrell Community School in several forms over the last three years.

Content Areas

This unit is anchored in social studies and involves language arts and geography to a slightly lesser extent. Drama and art are also areas that are touched on.

Organizing Theme

This unit revolves around many Chinese dynasties that provide an ideal look at revolutions of thought and culture, as well as examples of physical acts of revolution between opposing groups of people. The changes that have occurred during the more than 4,000 years that China has been known as a civilization epitomize the nature of China as a dynamic, long-lived culture and make it ideal for an educational unit theme "revolution."

Implementation

This unit utilized a variety of teaching techniques. Some lessons involved students working in small groups, while others required students to work individually. We have included kinesthetic activities such as building projects or performing plays, which allow students to create things, get up and move around and improve their presentation skills. Listening and writing activities, such as the poetry-writing activities, which encourage students to use their auditory and writing skills. We have made overheads, included videos, and a variety of printed documents to encourage students who are visual learners. We have also tried to include activities which challenge students to work at higher levels of thinking rather than simply utilizing memorization and paraphrasing skills. Examples are to assume a persona and write a letter to the emperor concerning an event during a specific time period, or to create their own proverbs after studying those of Confucius.

Outline of Activities

This unit can cover anywhere from one week to one year's worth of instruction. The time involved revolved around what kind of timeline the rest of the educational family is on. However, it is recommended that units are taught by entire dynasties. Particular activities include: Other Activities were;

Student Products

Over the course of a semester, the students produced a variety of products. Not only did the students practice writing Chinese characters, they wrote original poems, plays and proverbs. They were active in producing a puppets show, as well as creating dragon masks and Chinese kites. Variety and creativity in art projects was at an all time high.

Thinking Skills Engaged

One of the main goals of this unit was to motivate the students to become active learners in every sense of the words. The variety of lessons and teaching methods used tried to engage students in inference-making, critical thinking, creative production, creative problem-solving, observation, categorization and comparison techniques.

Lessons Learned

After having taught portions of the entire unit to different groups of students, the results vary. Teaching and learning are constantly in a state of flux. Overall, the units that were taught were deemed as highly successful. The students were described as being highly involved and motivate. The instructors also described the China unit as "a ton of fun!"

This description written by Laurie Furman. Last updated on March 6, 1996.
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