Project 3: Digital Board

Click here to view my Digital Board on cultural assimilation and memoirs.

                                                           REFLECTION 

  How can you use the Discovery Education Board Builder and/or Glogster in your classroom this school year to provide students the opportunity to develop their respectful and ethical minds?

In the spring, I teach memoirs in the fifth unit on Contemporary Postmodernism section. It's under this unit that we cover topics  such as stereotyping, poetry, and cultural assimilation; getting students to truly understand the concept of "America the melting pot" is quite complex. It's fundamental that students acknowledge the many cultures that molded the United States into what it is today, and it's necessary for them to show respect for those who comes from another cultural background--and thus have a different perspective on life, then themselves.  Even though it's contemporary postmodernism, I still give students a history lesson on immigration rising in the 1920's, and how Irish, Italian, and Polish people were among those coming over to America in search of a better life. In this lesson, focusing on the 1970's and beyond, I cover the rise of African American involvement in shaping American culture though poetry/short stories, as well as the immigration of Latino and Asian individuals to the States.

My Board Builder focuses on cultural assimilation through a memoir. Students will read Elizabeth Wong’s memoir titled “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl,” that focuses on Wong looking back at her resistance to her mother’s efforts to send her to Chinese school when she was a girl. She regrets her victory in being “granted a cultural divorce.” The Board Builder will allow them to: 1) read about the author, 2) read an article about the power and purpose of memoirs, 3) watch a video on the cultural assimilation of Chinese people in the U.S, 4) read an article on the different perspectives Chinese and American individuals have on culture, and 5) take a quiz to test what they’ve learned. I believe all these resources and media will appeal to the students’ emotions and open their eyes to something new and different. When people are empathetic or show emotion towards a topic, then they’re more likely to take interest in the objective. My intentions are for students to read the memoir, learn something about the Chinese culture through Wong’s work or even be sympathetic towards her struggles as a young girl, and recognize how the impact of cultural assimilation is global struggle.

Howard Gardner (2008) said "educators can smooth the road to an ethical mind by drawing attention to the other connotations of goodness," and that's why students must know the purpose and benefit of learning this lesson (Good work section, para. 2). Hopefully after visiting this board, students will gain some respect for the Chinese culture and the struggle in general for one to blend and function in a country or environment different from their norm. It was important that I provided some information on the Chinese culture (the document at the bottom) because I felt in order for students to be ethically respectful of certain principles and morals they (Chinese people) hold to their culture, they needed to be aware of what those moral principles or ideals entailed. As oppose to me lecturing them, this board is more interactive, visually enticing, and a motivational piece. I really enjoyed this project. 

Credit
Discovery education video board streaming and board builder [Photograph]. Discovery Education and Board Builder. Retrieved https://bcpsodl.pbworks.com/w/page/97704912/Discovery%20Education%20and%20Board%20Builder

Gardner, H. (2008). 5 minds for the future [Kindle Fire version]. Retrieved https://read.amazon.com/