Break-out Groups

During the afternoon curriculum development sessions, participants are divided into the following five group:

11th and 12th Grade  | U.S. History, Government & Economics

Facilitator: Greg Adler

Our 11^th & 12^th Grade breakout sessions will model fun ways to incorporate modern China into U.S. History and Government/Economics courses.  Building off the morning speaker presentations, teachers will compare “Chinese Dream” and consider how our students might travel the “One Belt, One Road” in our classrooms. We will also brainstorm how TED Talks & YouTube videos might become texts for Common Core activities. There will be time each day set aside to allow teachers to start to develop their own unique modern China lessons.

9th and 10th Grade  | World History & Modern World

Facilitator: Pat Ajemian

Teachers will have time to get to know each other and form Professional Learning Communities.  They will discuss the speakers’ presentations and the information they received during the morning sessions in order to utilize their breakout time to formulate central questions, and apply the workshop information to their own curriculum.  Teachers will review the California History-Social Science Framework as it applies to China.  They will also view sample lesson plans from other sources, website articles, videos, and current resources on China, and discuss how these materials might be applied to their classrooms with the ultimate goal of creating lessons to use in their own classroom.

Middle School  

 Facilitator: Lisa Ernst

Through the Middle School lenses of the Common Core connecting history and China’s Social Kaleidoscope, teachers will be able to develop essential questions and lessons relevant to the 21^st century.  Each day, we will be integrating and scaffolding strategies. Teachers will develop engaging and evidenced-based lesson plans that meets the needs of diverse students using first and secondary sources.

Chinese Language & Culture 

Facilitator: Ken Klieman

The primary goal of the Chinese Language and Culture breakout group is for participants to collaboratively develop ways to integrate studying China throughout their school year.  We will do this by unpacking Common Core Standards across multiple subjects and collaboratively generating essential questions, which will promote the creation of performance-based, student-inquiry projects. In our session we will practice 5 different teaching strategies that encompass every learning modality and can be used for any subject and grade level.  By the end of our 2-days, all teachers will develop practical lesson plans which bridge the speakers’ content to implementation of classroom instructions.

Asian Studies  and Global Perspectives

Facilitator: Sushu Xia

The benefit of an elective course is that you have a self-selected group of students who are already interested in the topics of modern China or Global Contemporary Issues. The challenge is in going past that initial interest to help them understand China at a deeper level.  How do you teach the nuances of Chinese culture to American students?  How do you juggle the range of student experiences and perspectives in your classroom?  How do you draw the necessary links to contemporary politics and culture without treading on toes?  We will discuss ways to tackle these challenges in our breakout session, share resources, and work in small groups to create concrete lessons to use in the classroom.

Breakout Groups