CHINESE CULTURE BACKGROUND OF UNDERSTANDING

Chinese Culture Background of Understanding by Nicole Revitsky

I.

Lesson Plan Overview and Description

1. Expected duration: 2 days (1 hour each day)
2. Social Sciences: History and Culture
3. Concepts (Big Ideas): The purpose of this lesson is to a) explore what hardships the
Chinese suffered when coming to America, and b) discover how they overcame those
hardships.
4. Vocabulary
Dynasty: Family that passes from one generation to the next.
Immigration: To come to a country of which one is not a native.
Industry: Businesses or manufacturing enterprises that provides a particular
product or service.
Nomadic: No fixed home but wanders from place to place.
5. Skills: Reading, critical thinking, and cultural awareness.
6. Broad Goals of Lesson: Examine Asian culture, including the hardships they
had to endure in order to immigrate to the United States.

II.

Content Outline
A. Chinese civilization is the oldest in existence to this day.
i. dates back to nearly 4,000 years
B. Chinese have developed many technologies and advanced the knowledge of mankind.
C. Have been ruled by a succession of dynasties.
i. Dynasty: Family that passes from one generation to the next.
D. Great Wall of China was built to protect nation from outside forces attacking
i. Walls were spread out and not connected
E. Qin was the leader at the time
i. Very ambitious
ii. Ordered for the walls to be connected and cover 4,000 miles
F. The Zhang Qian armies were viewed as a threat to many nomadic tribes
i. Nomadic tribes fought back, and destroyed many of the men in the Zhang Qian
army.
G. Chinese began to immigrate to America with hopes of fortune and dreams of gold.
i. Legends of instant wealth, in California, presented these immigrants with hope
ii. A mountain of gold was spread across the ocean, later arriving in Hong Kong
iii. 1851 25,000 Chinese immigrants left home to go to this gold mountain.
H. Chinese began to lose hope, once they were then faced with hard times and scrambled
to survive in a new country.
i. Began to take up jobs in mining since it was available, but it did not earn a
wealthy profit.
I. Many immigrants struggled to find steady work, and worked hard to obtain just a
living wage.
J. Many immigrants at this time were males, and suffered from being away from their
families.
i. Dreams of gold were unrealistic, mining jobs were not successful, and wages
were too low to make a stable living.

CHINESE CULTURE BACKGROUND OF UNDERSTANDING

K.
L.
M.
N.

ii. Due to this, immigrants struggled to have the money to bring their families
over to the states to live with them.
Chinese then began to find work in various industries
i. Making shoes, sewing clothes, rolling cigars
Living in America then threatened many Chinese immigrants with racist attacks.
i. Murder threats were being made to them if they did not leave the States.
ii. Chinese were then forced out of businesses, beaten up, and tortured.
The Exclusion Act, made in 1882, prevented Chinese from going into the US.
1924 Immigration Act enforced these rules more, forcing many immigrants to live a
life apart from their own.

III.

Standards
PDE SAS Standards PA Civics, History, Geography;
NCSS Thematic Strands and Performance Indicators
1. Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards Aligned System
Subject Area 7: Geography
Standard Area 7.4: Interactions Between People and the Environment
Grade Level 7.4.3: GRADE 3
Standard 7.4.3.B: Identify the effect of people on the physical systems
within a community.
Subject Area 8: History
Standard Area 8.3: United States History
Grade Level 8.3.3: GRADE 3
Standard 8.3.3.B: Identify and describe historical documents, artifacts,
and places critical to United States history.
2. PDE Common Core
N/A
3. National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Thematic Strands and Performance
Indicators
I.
Culture
a. Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups,
societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.
b. Give examples of how experiences may be interpreted differently by
people from diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference.
II.
Time, Continuity, & Change
a. Demonstrate an understanding that different people may describe the
same event or situation in diverse ways, citing reasons for the
differences in views.
e. Demonstrate an understanding that people in different times and places
view the world differently.

IV.

Lesson Objectives
A. After lesson, students will be able to identify two key details about Asian culture.
B. After lesson, students will be able to show their knowledge of the history of Chinese
culture by discussing the hardships these individuals faced through use of a scavenger
hunt.

CHINESE CULTURE BACKGROUND OF UNDERSTANDING

V.

Teaching Procedures
1. Introduction/Anticipatory Set
i. First, we will review what we already know about Chinese immigration and
Chinese culture. We will discuss what we know, and the teacher will explain that that
is called our background knowledge. From there, the teacher will inform students that
they will be looking more into depth about Asian culture, looking into the background
of how they struggled to get to America.
2. Lesson Input (Teacher talk is italicized)
i. Look over various articles and other tools such as a PowerPoint slide. Explain to
students that they will be looking at key importances of Asian culture to better their
understanding of background knowledge on Chinese culture and immigration.
Explain to students that the Chinese came over to America with many hopes and
dreams for a wealthy life, but were faced with many challenges. This overall thought
should open students minds to get them to be aware of what immigrants had to face
when coming over to a completely different country. Look over articles, PowerPoint
slides, and stop or pause at points for both whole class and group discussions.
3. Guided Practice
i. Have students pull out a sheet of paper, and examine images that are placed within
their small groups. Ask students to use their knowledge from the lesson to examine
these images, and pick out any clues that might lead them to how the Chinese had
struggled to settle into a new country. Ask students questions such as How do these
people look? How do you think they are feeling? What clues do you see in the
pictures that lead you to this? Why do you think it was difficult for them to adapt to a
new country? Students will work in groups, and write down their response.
4. Independent Practice
i. Students will work independently to successfully complete a scavenger hunt on
their own. Students will be given the necessary resources to complete this task, and
must answer all required questions on the sheet to get full credit for their work.
5. Differentiation
Lesson will be differentiated based on the specific learning and behavioral needs of
students in classroom, such as ELL, gifted (above level), and remediation (below
level).
6. Closure
i. As a class, the teacher will review the key importances from the lesson, and go over
how the Chinese struggled to settle their lives in America. The teacher will post a
question on the board, and students will answer it as an exit slip. Students will write
their responses on the slip, and teacher will walk around the classroom to monitor as
they do. Once students are done, they will turn in the slip on their way out of the
classroom.

VI.

Teacher and Student Resources and Evaluation of Resources

A. Student Reading Resources:
Houghton-Mifflin textbook
Chinese immigration images
Scavenger hunt

CHINESE CULTURE BACKGROUND OF UNDERSTANDING

B. Teacher Resources for Lesson Design
Houghton-Mifflin teachers guide
Chinese immigration images
Scavenger hunt
C. Evaluation of Teacher Resources
Resource
Influence
3+ Characteristics
Title or
Significant
suggesting that the
Website
Influence (SI) or
source is a quality
Address
Minor Influence
resource, reliable
(MI) in informing material
your thinking,
decisions about
the lesson plan
HoughtonSignificant
Vocabulary, questions
Mifflin
Influence
of assessment, reliable
teachers
sources for
guide
information
Chinese
Significant
Pictures in good
immigration Influence
quality, factual clues
images
within the images,
context clues to find
answers

Accessibility
Access for
teachers or
others

Overall Rating
and
Suggestions for
current, future
use of resource

Easily
accessible

This will be a
useful resource
for the whole
lesson/unit.
Use images as
review from a
previous lesson.
Promote
understanding
of individual
hardships.

Easily
accessible

VII.

Formative/Summative Assessment(s)
A. Formative Assessment
i. The teacher will observe and monitor the students discussion during the guided
practice, and listen for active student involvement.
B. Summative Assessment
i. The teacher will collect exit slips from the students.

VIII.

Technology/Materials/Equipment
Computer or laptop with internet and audio capabilities
Projection capabilities to a SmartBoard (or whiteboard) for the
computer/laptop
PowerPoints

IX.

Reflection on Planning
This lesson is focused on providing students with background knowledge and cultural
awareness of a culture that is different from their own. With this lesson, students will
learn about the Asian culture, especially focusing on the Chinese immigrants. This
lesson is mainly teacher directed, and will incorporate the use of PowerPoint as a
technology tool. The teacher will initiate overall discussion, but allow students more
range of freedom to contribute and expand the discussion accordingly. This lesson

CHINESE CULTURE BACKGROUND OF UNDERSTANDING

will give students more background knowledge and insight toward the Asian culture,
which will help with their understanding and learning more within the unit plan itself.