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"East
Meets West"
A unit of study in
the arts designed to create cross-cultural understanding and friendship.
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Overview
Students will gain an understanding of Chinese art and culture through guided exploration on the Internet (using a Webquest) and experimentation with various traditional Chinese Art forms, media and processes. They will contrast and compare Chinese traditions with the traditions of their own culture; and create intercultural understanding by identifying areas where our cultures influence each other and overlap. Through their experiences students will gain a respect for members of other cultures and traditions.
Students will explore Chinese art by analyzing traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Students will have the opportunity to learn how to use a bamboo brush and create their own ink landscape, including a reflective poem inspired by their work. They will practice selected Chinese calligraphy characters and create their own origami book that uses some of these characters. Students will create a Chinese name seal that will be used to "sign" all the projects in the portfolio. Through exploration of Chinese culture and art forms, students will gain an appreciation and acceptance of another country's traditions and a clearer understanding of themselves.
Students will have the opportunity
to make pen pals with Chinese students, and will impact the cycle of poverty
in China by participating in a project that sends needed farm animals to
the Chinese. By interacting with other students their age one-on-one
, students will be able to avoid stereotyping and the formation of
personal prejudices. Intervening in the cycle of poverty helps students
to develop a social conscience and empathy for others while actively making
a difference in their global society.
***Cross-Curricular Connections***
Language
Arts
As students understand the link
between chinese painting and the calligraphy that is included on the painting,
they will respond to their own painting in a similar way by creating a
diamante poem that expresses the feelings that their painting inspires.
They will also use expressive language to define the calligraphy characters
they select to include in their origami book.
Art
Studio
Students will complete several
art projects throughout the course of this unit, developing a portfolio
of work for assessment. They will practice the brushstrokes necessary
to complete a landscape scene with ink and bamboo brushes. Students
will carve their own name seal (using the printout from the Webquest) and
use it to "sign" their projects. They will also create an origami
book, using some of the calligraphy characters that they learned.
Social
Studies
The teacher will use www.epals.com
to locate Chinese students that are looking for American pen pals.
Interested students will draw a picture of themselves and send it with
information about their interests to the contact person. (Teacher
note: With parental permission, you can set up pen pal accounts for
your students on www.epals.com. See their
website for specific instructions.)
Religion
As this course was designed
for use in a Catholic School, we incorporate our religious beliefs
into the curriculum. Other schools may wish to classify this portion
of the project under some other category, such as social activism or social
studies. As students begin to see the level of poverty experienced
by many Chinese, they will be challenged to "make a difference" by participating
in The Heifer Project - a program designed to alleviate some of the poverty
through providing animals to these people. See their website at www.heiferproject.org
for more information.