Lesson+Plans+for+American+Born+Chinese

**Lesson Plans for "American Born Chinese"**

**American Born Chinese and Stereotypes**

Grade Level: 9 - 12 Subject: English/Social Studies Overview: Students discuss different stereotypes for different groups of people within their school and society. Objectives: Students recognize how assumptions and stereotypes influence our attitude and restrict us from making fair judgments about someone.

Suggested Topics: 1.Begin by discussing with students how people often use labels or categories to describe others and how these labels can be based on such characteristics as clothing, looks, the way a person talks, or the groups to which he or she belongs. Explain that categorizing things or people is a natural human inclination; however, people often make assumptions about groups of people they don’t even know.

2.Ask the class to brainstorm categories that are used at school to group people. Categories could include labels such as “jocks” or “brains.” Write each category the class generates onto the board and then have students narrow that list down to five major categories.

3.Write these major categories onto five separate pieces of paper and post these around the room. Give the class 10-15 minutes to travel to each posted sheet and write down adjectives related to the category headings. Remind students that they should only add new descriptions to the list.

4.When they are finished, ask students to take a moment and look at the adjectives that the class has generated under each group heading. Use the following questions to lead a discussion about what they recorded:

•Do assumptions apply to everyone in a group? •Do most people hold the same assumptions about a group? Why or why not? •Do assumptions tell us anything definite about a categorized individual? •How do assumptions affect your behavior toward others?

5.Now ask students to define the word “stereotype.” Explain that when we make assumption about an entire group of people, those assumptions are referred to as stereotypes. When assumptions and stereotypes influence our attitudes, we may find that making a fair judgment about someone or something is difficult. This influence on judgment is called “bias.”

6.Take another look at the adjectives recorded and hold a class discussion around the following questions: Do these adjectives describe stereotypes? How can they be unfair or hurtful?

Suggested Topic: Racial Stereotypes 1.Begin with a discussion on the concepts of race and ethnicity. Write each word on the board and ask students to list the attributes that define the terms “race” and “ethnicity.” Next ask students for the name of five different racial or ethnic groups. (Can use included Stereotype handout).

2.On the board write the name of one of the groups that the students named.

3.Divide the class into five groups and supply each student in the class with a marker.

4.Give each group one of the five sheets of paper. Ask them to list as many stereotypes that are commonly used to describe the category of people written at the top of paper. Give students three minutes to complete the exercise. Emphasize that students should list stereotypes that they have heard, not ones that they necessarily believe to be true.

5.When they are finished, rotate the sheets of paper between groups so that each group works on a new sheet. Have them add any unlisted stereotype adjectives. Rotate every three minutes until every group has worked on every sheet.

6.Post the sheets in class where everyone can see them and give students five minutes to read the sheets.

7.Conclude the lesson with a discussion on the exercise, asking students the following:

•How do the stereotypes recorded by the class make you feel? •What do you notice about the stereotypes listed? •Where have you seen these stereotypes portrayed? Television programs, movies, magazines, books? •How do you think a stereotype might cause someone to act unfairly toward another person?

Suggested Topic: Experiencing Bias 1.Before class begins, post around the classroom the 10 pieces of paper generated about assumptions and stereotypes in school and society.

2.Ask students to spend 15-20 minutes writing about a personal experience with biased behavior. Emphasize to students that they should not put their names on their papers. They can share an experience in which they were a victim of biased behavior or in which they witnessed bias.

3.Prompt the class with the following: “Think about a situation when someone made a biased judgment about you or acted unfairly toward you because of your age, skin color, clothes you were wearing, gender, the way you speak, where you live, how much money your family has, or some other reason.”

4.Ask students to consider the following questions before they begin to write:

•How did you know you were being unfairly judged? •What words or actions were directed at you because of assumptions or stereotypes? •Why do you think those assumptions were made about you? •How did the experience make you feel? •How do you think you should have been treated in that situation?

5.When students are finished, have them pass their papers to the front of the room. Shuffle the papers and pass them back out to the class, making sure no one person has their own paper. Have each student read the personal experience of a classmate.

6.For homework, have students identify stereotypes in the media. Over the course of several days, they will keep a log of stereotypes they notice in television shows, commercials, or movies. Students should record the name of the show, movie, or product advertised; the group stereotyped; the stereotype portrayed; and any thoughts or feeling the student experienced while watching the program. Explain that this exercise might not be as easy as it seems; many of us are so accustomed to seeing certain stereotypes that we don’t even notice them. Encourage students to look for patterns in the images they watch

Gene Luen Yang First Second Books ISBN-10: 1-59643-152-2 The following lesson plan by second language learner specialist Dr. Stephen Cary can be found in the Heinemann-published //Going Graphic: Comics at Work in the Multilingual Classroom.// || Yet despite the consistency of some characters and core elements — the superhuman powers, the skintight costumes, the dual identities, the mix of science fact and fiction and our hero's one fatal flaw, green kryptonite for Superman and the bracelets of submission for Wonder Woman — superhero comics have changed on numerous fronts over the decades. So have other genres of comics. Both the similarities and differences across eras provide students with a mountain of interesting material for small-group research and discussion. ||
 * **Teaching History with //American Born Chinese//** ||  ||
 * ^  || Grade Level: || 9 — 12 ||
 * ^  || Source: || //__American Born Chinese__//
 * ^  || Source: || //__American Born Chinese__//
 * Background: || [[image:http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/images/spacer.gif width="20" height="1" align="left"]] |||| A number of the early comic book action heroes and superheroes (action heroes with unearthly powers) are still going strong. Superman (1938), Batman (1939), The Flash (1940) and Wonder Woman (1941), for example, continue their fight against the forces of evil and injustice everywhere. And unlike the rest of us mere mortals whose middles expand and tops thin with time, these guys (and gal) are looking good. In fact, most look better than they did over a half century ago. Many of the villains and super-villains, the characters comics fans love to hate, have also been around for years: The Joker and Catwoman (in //Batman//, 1940), Lex Luthor (in //Superman//, 1941), Two-Face (in //Detective Comics//, 1942) and Cheetah (in //Wonder Woman//, 1943), are still bad to the bone, as irrepressibly and deliciously wicked as ever. And thank heavens, since without them, our heroes and superheroes wouldn't need to be nearly as heroic.
 * Task: || [[image:http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/images/spacer.gif width="20" height="1" align="left"]] |||| Students research social issues using comic books from various eras. ||
 * Topics & Strategies:
 * || comics as research materials * social issue change across time
 * Lively talk for language development
 * vintage comics reprints ||
 * Process: || [[image:http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/images/spacer.gif width="20" height="1" align="left"]] |||| In Time Traveler, students work in small groups with two sets of comic books. Set one contains recently published titles, set two has comics anywhere from two to six decades older. Students read comics from one era, then "time travel" to another via the second set. As they move back and forth between eras, students compare and contrast the comics in terms of one or more key elements, including:

Depending on the type of discussion you're after — wide-ranging or narrowly focused — each group can tackle a different element, or all groups can investigate the same element, say hero/heroine body shape or the depiction of scientists, teachers or business owners. How far back in time students travel and how many stops they make along the way also varies. One group may want to tally and compare the amount of violence used by the Dark Knight (Batman) in only two time zones, now and in the stories from the 1950s. Another group may want to race alongside the Scarlet Speedster (The Flash) through each decade beginning in the 1940s, contrasting the ethnicity of "bad guys" and "good guys." || Groups present their Time Traveler investigations orally or in writing. Oral reports generate lots of cross-talk — and vigorous debate. Be prepared to mediate, moderate and just plain "keep a lid on" as students share findings and feelings related to sexism, racial discrimination, class warfare, crime and punishment, acculturation versus assimilation and a host of superhero-moral relationship issues. This is not a quiet activity; students talk up a storm, which is exactly what we want for language development. With little to no teacher encouragement, students typically broaden their investigations and discussions to included other non-comic material they're reading at school and at home. Finally, a note on materials. Without a good selection of comics going back at least two decades (at a minimum), your time traveling students may return to the present without the data they need to create strong, meaty reports. Two sets of //Spider-Man// comics a few years apart will differ only slightly on hero traits, language, themes and social issues. Increasing the time range between sets increases differences and gives students more material for comparing and contrasting key elements. Fortunately, you can still buy lots of twenty- to thirty-year-old (non-collectible) comics for a song, usually twenty-five cents to a couple dollars a piece at your local comics shop. Older and collectible comics, though perfect for the Time Traveler activity, cost more. A lot more. Stick with the non-collectibles, or better yet, use reprints of the collectibles. Your local comic shop will have several volumes of reasonably priced vintage reprints. Also check your public library. For a change of pace from the SLAM-BAM! of the action heroes, students can research five decades of teenage life in one of comics' favorite cities, Riverdale. The seven-volume //Archie Americana// Series (Archie Comic Publications, Inc.) offers reprints from the 1940s through the 1980s. Archie, Veronica and Betty go from the jitterbug and sock hops to beatniks, surfing, miniskirts, sit-ins and roller disco. Expect some heated discussion and lots of passionate writing as students move beyond the Archie comics and compare and contrast the simple and generally danger-free life in Riverdale with the far more complicated and hazardous life of students living in Shanghai, Phnom Penh, Munich, Addis Ababa, Tehran, San Francisco, Atlanta or Joplin, Missouri.
 * the big ideas (themes/issues), featured and ignored
 * gender roles and relationships
 * representation and treatment of minorities
 * stereotyping and scapegoating
 * type and amount of violence
 * type of justice (vigilante versus court)
 * hero's personality traits
 * hero's physical characteristics
 * type and use of technology
 * background (clothing, hair styles, furnishing, vehicles)
 * use of idioms, slang, colloquialisms, collocations
 * artistic style and storytelling craft
 * [[image:http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/images/teachers/abcChinkeeChopTn.jpg width="90" height="90" align="left"]] || [[image:http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/images/spacer.gif width="20" height="1" align="left"]] |||| I recently recommended Gene Luen Yang's //American Born Chinese// to a group of middle schoolers investigating racial stereotypes. The group used Yang's comic, which deals with a variety of Chinese American issues including stereotyping and racism, as a starting point, then looked at portrayals of Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans (when portrayed at all!) in several genres of comics back through the 1950s. A second group investigated gender roles and mother-daughter relationships using Robbins' and Timmons' //GoGirl!// comics and several romance comics of the 1940s and 50s.

This wasn't my favorite Lesson Plan but it was from the publisher's website so i thought it might be really interesting to include in order to see how the graphic novel is postioned by the publisher. We as future teachers can look at this and see what things we might do diffferently take out altogether. ||