IIR Teaching Resources: East Asia and the Pacific

Web Resources

There are many Web resources for teachers with downloadable lesson plans, teaching guides, searchable databases, primary documents, games for students, professional development opportunities, and much more. But how do you know where to begin? Here are a few tried-and-true Web sites, used almost daily by the EAPS staff, where you can begin your search for materials on Asia. Most also offer links to other, more specialized recommended Web sites.

Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS)
AEMS is an EAPS program whose mission is to promote understanding of Asian cultures and peoples and to assist teachers at all levels, from elementary schools to colleges and universities, and other individuals and groups, in learning and teaching about Asia.

AEMS offers help in locating audiovisual media resources about Asia and advice in choosing among the many resources available. Their international panels of experts review newly-released materials, and evaluate them for content, accuracy, appeal, and educational usefulness.

AEMS publishes a free newsletter and has videos and print guides available for purchase. Also, AEMS conducts workshops and organizes exhibits at an array of conferences related to Asian studies and social studies education. In addition, AEMS provides a collection of high-quality media and curriculum materials available in their local resource library.

Asia for Educators
Asia for Educators is a resource site for teachers developed by Columbia University’s East Asian Curriculum Project (EACP), a national initiative devoted to supporting education on Asia at the secondary and elementary levels. Focusing primarily on China and Japan, the site features teaching units, lesson plans, primary-source readings, resource lists, bibliographies, Web courses, a searchable database, and more.

AskAsia
AskAsia is the Asia Society’s online clearinghouse for K-12 Asian and Asian American studies. Teachers will find lesson plans, maps, images, and professional development opportunities; students can explore an interactive tour of Shanghai and more, and kids of all ages can try their hands at language games. AskAsia can answer nearly all your questions about Asia—or direct you to someone who can.

Forum on Asia in the Curriculum
A Columbia University project, this bulletin board serves as a clearinghouse for announcements of professional development opportunities, conferences, grants and prizes, and other events of interest to educators at all levels. Anyone can read the postings, and a simple registration process allows participants to post their own announcements or queries. This is the place to go if you want advice from your colleagues, notices of events in your area, or if you’re simply curious about other educators’ activities. The Forum on Asia in the Curriculum is jointly supported by: the ASIANetwork; the Committee on Teaching about Asia (CTA) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS); the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA); the Asian Studies Development Program (ASDP); the Council of Conferences (COC)of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS); and the Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ).

The Digital Classroom at NARA
(National Archives and Records Administration)
This site features primary-sources documents, classroom activities, and information on professional development for educators. To encourage teachers of students at all levels to use archival documents in the classroom, the Digital Classroom provides materials from the National Archives and methods for teaching with primary sources.

Education About Asia (EAA) Magazine
Now in its eleventh year, Education About Asia is designed to be a toolfor K-16 teachers who wish to bringinformation on Asia to their classrooms.EAA features articles on all areas ofAsia, with subjects ranging from ancientcultures and literature to current events;extensive guides to resources for use inthe classroom, including films, books,videos, curriculum guides, Web sites,software, and other useful educationaltools; plus thematic issues on topicsof particular interest. Highly recommendedfor lesson plans and backgroundinformation that is useful acrossdisciplines and grade levels.

Lunar New Year
by Anne Prescott, Associate Director, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies
Excerpt: "The Lunar New Year, which is celebrated throughout East Asia, begins on February 18, 2007. The traditions of this time of celebration are all told in folk tales, and are a good way to learn about East Asian cultures in general. It is important to know that this festival is celebrated not only in China, but in other parts of Asia as well, and Asian-Americans prefer to refer to it as the Lunar New Year rather than Chinese New Year. But many of the traditions associated with this holiday originated in China, and many children’s books describe the Lunar New Year from a Chinese or Chinese-American perspective."

National Clearinghouse for US-Japan Studies
This Web site showcases a variety of services and products for elementary and secondary educators interested in teaching and learning about Japanese culture as well as U.S.-Japan relations. It features a database that includes information on print materials, videos, artifact kits, software, and teacher-developed materials. Japan Digests, concise reports on a number of topics of interest to teachers specifically developed for the Clearinghouse, may be downloaded from the Web site.

 

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