Here are some ideas for your proposed curriculum. As far as looking at
other schools, my former school, Sidwell Friends, teaches a 5th grade
curriculum in which students study medieval Europe and Asia. The
teachers used to spend a lot of time on Japan, not China, and they still
might.
As far as some content and curriculum suggestions, Japan is an
interesting comparison because it developed a feudal system independent
of Europe at roughly the same time. If you do a google search, you'll
find that there is quite a bit of comparison information, including
lessons and webquests for middle and high school classrooms. =20
There are some wonderful people around the country who specialize in
China and Japan in the curriculum and you might want to contact them.
In your neck of the woods, the Five Colleges Center for East Asian
Studies (at Smith College), and its director, Kathy Masalski, can offer
you some good insight into novels, stories, humanities curriculum, etc.
Go to www.smith.edu/fcceas or e-mail directly KMASALSK@email.smith.edu.
There is also the East Asia center at Columbia. Contact Karen Kane at
kak13@columbia.edu. In fact, Karen and her colleagues put together a
fabulous online unit on China and Europe, though it focuses on 18th
century to present. That and other units are at the Asia for Educators
site: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/. There have been a series of
superb curriculum guides written on China and Japan over the past ten
years focused on the humanities. Sadly, they are no longer in print
(the organization that received the grants to write them dissolved) but
they are still in circulation and available for borrowing. The units on
China and Japan during the period you specify are particularly good.
The Five Colleges Center for East Asian Studies will have them for you
to borrow.
Good luck!
Best,
Jon Zeljo
----------------------------------------
Jon Zeljo
Director of Global Education
Holton-Arms School
7303 River Road
Bethesda, MD 20817
301.365.6004
www.holton-arms.edu
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