Guess Who ?

Introduction:

This lesson introduces students to the idea that China’s population is rich and varied with many different minority groups. This study will introduce the top six most populous minority groups to students and will cover topics such as their geographical location, religious beliefs, customs, dress, and way of life. Students will develop map skills as they search to locate the geographical location of each ethnic group. In addition, students will enhance technology skills as they explore the Internet to gather data for their topic as well as prepare a short multimedia presentation on their assigned ethnic group. This lesson will take approximately 6 in class periods for in class presentations. Students will need addition time to research data and prepare presentations.

Student work groups will give PowerPoint presentations, which will provide clues about different ethnic groups. The other students will listen to the clues from the presentation to determine the name of the ethnic group. Students will learn about the differences as well as similarities of each group to other ethnic groups.

The final project will be created individually in which the student will create a brochure about his/her group’s assigned ethnic group. This will provide each student the opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge gained from this lesson.

Grade levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Goals:

The goals of this unit are for students to understand that China’s population is rich and varied. Students will understand that although the minority groups in China are small in number, their variety and political importance is significant and that they occupy a large percentage of China’s Territory.

National Standards:

Behavioral Studies Standards

• Understand that group and cultural influences contribute to human development, identity and behavior.
• Understand various meanings of social group, general implications of group membership and different ways that groups function.

Geography Standards

The World in spatial terms

• Understands the characteristics and uses of maps, globes, and other geographic tools and technologies.
• Knows the location of places, geographic features, and patterns of the environment.

Places and Regions

• Understands the physical and human characteristic of place.
• Understands the concept of regions

Language Arts Standards

Writing

• Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process.

Reading

• Uses general skills and strategies of reading.
• Uses reading and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of texts.
• Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes.

Listening and Speaking

• Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes.

Viewing

• Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media.

Media

• Understands the characteristics and components of the media.

Technology

• Understands the nature and uses of different forms of technology.

Kansas State Curricular Standards

Geography Standard

The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of the spatial organization of Earth’s surface and relationship among people, places, and physical and human environment in order to explain interactions in our inter connected world.

• Benchmark 1 Maps and location – The student uses maps, graphic representations, tools, and technologies to locate, use and present information about people, places and environment.
• Benchmark 2 Regions – The student analyzes the spatial organizations of people, places and environments that form regions on Earth’s surface.
• Benchmark 4 Human systems – The student understands how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
• Benchmark 5 Human environment interactions. The student understands the effects of interactions between human and physical systems.

Listening Standard

Learners will participate effectively as listeners within formal and informal groups.

Media Product Standard

Communicators effectively use and create media products for a variety of audiences, purposes, occasions, and context.

Reading Standard

Learners demonstrate skill in reading a variety of materials for a variety of purposes.

• Benchmark 1 – The proficient reader comprehends whole pieces of narration, exposition, persuasion and technical writing.

Speaking Standard

Learners speak effectively for a variety of audiences, purposes, occasions, and context.

Viewing Standard

Learners will demonstrate skills in viewing for a variety of purposes.

World History Standard

The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of significant individuals, groups, ideas, events, eras, and developments in the history of Kansas, the United States and the World, utilizing essential analytical and research skills.

Writing Standard

Learners write effectively for a variety of audiences, purposes and context.

• Benchmark 3 – The proficient writer uses organization that enhances the readers understanding.

Once this unit is completed, student will be able to:

Cognitive Domain

• Investigate and identify traits of a selected culture
• Analyze data
• Determine how data is to be presented
• Designs a power point presentation

Affective Domain

• Listen to other presentations concerning different ethnic groups.
• Locate different geographical areas where different ethnic groups reside.
• Assist group creating a power point presentation.
• Share information of an ethnic group in a power point presentation.
• Develop interpersonal /social skills within groups

Psychomotor

• Assemble new material in organized power point presentation.
• Respond to clues from other presentations to locate geographical locations of ethnic groups on a map.

Materials:

The materials in the lesson packets are already assembled and only need to be printed out by the teacher. These materials will be found in the Lesson Packet section. The maps that the students will need are marked with an * and should be downloaded by the students.

Lesson packets include:

• List of the six ethnic groups examined in this lesson
• Websites of each ethnic group
• List of books
• Chinese National Minorities and Major Areas of Distribution Map
• Maps of China
• Geographical maps – with longitude and latitude indictors
• Instruction for individual project
• Rubric for the power point presentation
• Rubric for individual project
• Website for PowerPoint

Resources:

Provided in this section is a myriad of information for this lesson. This information is in the student lesson packets; however, the material is listed here as well for convenience to the teacher. Included in this section are: informative websites on minority groups in China, detailed maps, a bibliography and an inclusive website link on using PowerPoint in the classroom. Also included in the lesson packet are instructions for the individual project. Please note the picture websites. They are colorful and show the true lifestyle of each ethnic group. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words!

Ethnic Groups
Background information on ethnic groups and descriptions of what constitutes an ethnic group.

www.index-china.com/minority/minority-english.htm
www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/minority/minority.html#ethnic
www.china.org.cn/e-groups/shaoshu/
www.chinagate.com.cn/english/11.htm
www.columbia.edu/itc/eacp/webcourse/chinaworkbook/society/ch_minor.htm

Informative websites for each ethnic group

Zhuang

www.peopleteams.org/Zhuang/
www.infomekong.com/p_group_zuang_1.htm
www.mcel.pacifu.edu/as/resources/zhuang/zhuangintro.htm
www.redflag.info/zhuang.htm
www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/nationality/zhuang/

Pictures
www.jzphotos.com/china.html
www.tribaltextiles.info/Galleries/Lou_Jia_Zhuang.htm

Wedding Rituals
law.rikkyo.ac.jp/npa/020602.htm
berclo.net/page00/00en-sea-people.html –scroll down to Zhuang

Religion
www.bethany.com/profiles/p_code/1881.html

Mongolian

www.mongols.com
www.ezlink.com/~culturev/costumes.html
www.peopleteams.org/chinese/Mongols.htm
www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHEMPIRE/YUAN.HTM
www.cnn.com/EARTH/9708/10/mongolia.horses

Pictures
www.mongoliaphotogallery.com/
www.ldeo.columbia.edu/trl/Mongolia/pix/Mongallery.HTML

Marriage Rituals
www.angelfire.com/mo/ostrowski/index.html

Religion
home.wanadoo.nl/archive/gvcom/monrelihys.htm

Dwellings, Custom, Food
www.indiana.edu/~mongsoc/mong/daily.htm

Hui

www.cctv.com/english/tc/sanji/ningxia.html
www.cityinf.cn.net/English.htm
www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/nationality/hui/
www.chinagate.com.cn/english/1251.htm
www.bethany.com/profiles/a_code/china7.html
www.yixints.com/teacher.htm

Pictures
www.windowstochina.com/yunnan/Kunming.html
groups.msn.com/WinkartExpressivePhotos/peopleofinterest.msnw?albumlist=2

Wedding Rituals
www.demoway.com/chinamask/c049.htm

Religion
www.bethany.com/profiles/p_code/1033.html

Uighur

www.uyghuramerican.org/
www.uyghurs.org/default-old.htm
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1730/buh.html
news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/asia-pacific/1748801.stm
english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/xinjiang.html

Pictures
www.synaptic.bc.ca/gallery/xinjiang.htm
www.paulnoll.com/China/Minorities/min-Uygur.html
www.oqya.5u.com/photo5.html

Weddings, Dances, Dwellings
www.oqya.5u.com/catalog.html
www.freehomepages.com/xinjiang/The%20uyghur.htm

Religion
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6807/UIGHUR.htmlMiao
www.sakurako-art.com/Travel-5.html
www.peopleteams.org/miao/MiaoHmong.htm
www.hmongstudies.org
www.hmongcenter.org/hmonglanguage2.htmlwww15
www.atwtravel.net/doc/english/journal/china/index_guizhou.htm

Pictures
www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/minority/miao.html – click on photo gallery
www.tribaltextiles.info/Galleries/De_Wo.htm#top

Wedding Rituals, Funerals, Dietary Habits
www.gytouch.com.cn/English/Custom/miaozhu.asp

Religion
www.peopleteams.org/miao/photo.htm

Tibet

www.tibet.org
www.princeton.edu/~shawatw/tibet.html
www.einnews.com/china/tibet/tibet.php3
www.tibetimages.co.uk/
www.tibet.dharmakara.net/TibCulture.html

Pictures
www.billbachmann.com/bachtour.htm
www.wildchina.com/community/photo/listphoto.asp?sys=146

Marriage Rituals
omni.cc.purdue.edu/~wtv/tibet/marriage.html
www.world-wedding-traditions.net/asia/tibet_wedding_traditions.htm

Religion, Food, Habitat, Dress
www.tibetinfor.com/tibetzt/ssmz_en/tibetan/001.htm

Maps:

Basic maps of China. The maps that are marked with an * will be downloaded by each students and placed with their other materials.

*www.maps-of-china.com/ - click on the country view
www.chineseculture.about.com/cs/maps/
www.worldrover.com/vital/china.html
*www.columbia.edu/itc/eacp/webcourse/chinaworkbook/geog/bei_rev.htm – excellent web site for map of Chinese National Minorities and Major Areas of Distribution.

Maps with Latitude and Longitude Indictors

*www.whitneystewart.com/DXP/Mapping.htm – click on "place names"
www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/imageg.htm

Books:
(bibliography is easy to read informational books)

(1999) Benewick, R. and Donald, S. The State of China Atlas. New York: The Penguin Group.
(1999) Fisher, Fredrick. Mongolia. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Publishing.
(1997) Mason, Paul. Atlas of Threatened Cultures. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers.
(1997) Brittan, Dolly. The Hmong. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
(1995) Husain, Sharukh. What Do We Know about Islam. New York: Macdonald Young Books Ltd.
(1995) Pandell, Karen and Brant. Learning from the Dalai Lama. New York: Dutton Children’s Books.
(1991) Steele, Phillip. The People Atlas. Oxford: Publishers Limited.
(1989) Tan, Jennifer. Food in China. Washington: Rourke Publications.
(1982) Rau, Margaret. The Minority Peoples of China. New York: Julian Messner.

Teacher Bibliography:

(1997) Rudelson, J.J. Oasis Identities: Uighur Nationalism along China’s Silk Road. New York: University Press.
(1998) Harrell, Steven. Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

PowerPoint:

This is an extremely informative website for creating PowerPoint presentations in the classroom. This website is all-inclusive and is presented in a very user-friendly format. It evens contains a brief "teachers guide" www.actden.com/pp/

Special Accommodations:

Teacher should have access to a computer lab with enough computers for each student. The computers should have Internet access and PowerPoint.

Teacher Preparation:

1. The teacher should read the entire lesson plan and examine the web sites to become knowledgeable on the six most populous ethnic groups in China. In addition, the teacher should be familiar of what constitutes an ethnic group. An extensive collection of web sites and books are provided in the resource section of this lesson to help teacher gain background information.
   
2. The teacher should run off the material for each student found in the lesson packet section. All the Essential materials and website links are provided in this section. The instructions for the individual project are also included. Provided in the brochure resource section are examples of different types of brochures.
   
3. The teacher should be familiar with PowerPoint presentations. However, if a teacher is unfamiliar with teaching PowerPoint, provided in the PowerPoint resource section are 1) instructions on how to do PowerPoint and 2) an excellent website link for using PowerPoint in the classroom. If the teacher is still hesitant about teaching this lesson with the PowerPoint component, one recommendation would be to teach this lesson collaboratively with the school’s media specialist.
   
4. The teacher will need to reserve time in the computer lab in order for students to research their ethnic group and prepare PowerPoint presentations. Each student should have access to an individual computer.
   
5. The teacher will need to reserve a projector for the PowerPoint presentations.
   
6. When creating the small student work groups the teacher should consider how well students work with each other. The teacher will assign different tasks to the students. The teacher should consider the strengths and weaknesses of each individual. For example, students who enjoy working on the computer and have excellent computer skills would be an appropriate choice for the technology specialist.
   
7. Prior to the lesson, the teacher and/or the schools media specialist will model how to create a PowerPoint presentation. The instructions to create a power point presentation and a very informative website link are found in the PowerPoint resource section.

Procedure:

The lesson is divided into three parts. In part one, students will be divided into small work groups in which the members will conduct research on their assigned ethnic group and prepare a power point presentation. At this time, the teacher should hand out the lesson packet to all student work groups. This lesson packet will be extremely helpful as the students research their ethnic group and prepare the presentation. The customs collector, graphic designer, and regional researcher (see below for definition of each role) will investigate the following topics for each ethnic group: distinctive customs (dress, marriage rituals, cuisine), religion, language, dwellings, life style and the recognized autonomous region. These students may use any type of resources they find helpful, i.e. web sites, books, maps. As these three students uncover information relevant to their topic, the technology specialist will begin to prepare the power point presentation. The technology specialist should refer to the grading rubric to determine exactly what is expected of the presentation.

This part of the lesson may take several days as students gather information and prepare PowerPoint presentations.

The objectives for part one are two fold. First, students will increase their knowledge of ethnic groups in China. Secondly, students will enhance their computer skills by searching the Internet and preparing PowerPoint presentations.

In part two, each student work group will give their power point presentation. The presentation should last anywhere between seven and ten minutes. The clues should be arranged in this order: distinctive customs, (such as dress, marriage rituals, and cuisine), religion, and way of life, geographical location (starting with closest cities and then latitude and longitude) and then the name of the autonomous region. By having the clues presented in this order, the audience will become very informed about each ethnic group before they begin to actually work with the maps to identify each ethnic group.

The audience will listen to the clues presented, confer with each other, refer to the materials in the lesson packet (such as a list of the different ethnic groups and maps) and try to determine which ethnic group is being described. Each work team will write down the name of the ethnic group they think is being described and hand it in to the teacher.

This part of the lesson should take no more that six days. If time is an issue, two or three presentations could be made on the same, thus shortening this part of the lesson.

The objective for part two is for each group giving the power point presentation to present the information on their ethnic group so that the other students will become familiar with the diversity of China’s ethnic groups.

In part three, each individual student will create a final project on their assigned ethnic group. This project will be in the form of a brochure. The project should be well organized and include many of the main points presented in their presentation. These brochures could be displayed on a bulletin board and/or display case as the study of China continues.

This part of the lesson should last no more that one or two class periods as students have already gathered relevant information.

The objective for part three is that students will be able to demonstrate very clearly their understanding of their assigned ethnic groups and will be able to receive an individual grade.

Part 1

1. Organize students into six small work groups. Give each group the name of one ethnic group and the lesson packets. Within each work group, assign students to different tasks; ethnic group investigator, data collector, reader/researcher, technology specialist. These tasks are defined as the following:

• Customs Collector – it is the responsibility of this person to gather information on the different customs, i.e. religion, wedding rituals, diet, dwellings and life style.
• Graphic Designer – it is the responsibility of this person to gather pictures and charts for the assigned ethnic group. This person must work closely with the customs collector.
• Regional Researcher – it is the responsibility of this person to gather maps of the autonomous regions and maps with latitude and longitude indictors.
• Technology specialist– it is the responsibility of this person to organize the material and prepare the power point presentation. This person will also give the presentation.

2. Have students research the ethnic group that they have been assigned. (the web site links provided in this lesson are very informative and will provide effective links to other web sites). Each work group will investigate their assigned ethnic group with respect to distinctive customs (dress, marriage rituals, cuisine), religion, language, dwellings, life style and the recognized autonomous region.

3. Have members of each work group decide how the data should be organized, following the guidelines that clues will be presented in this order: distinctive customs (dress, marriage rituals, cuisine) way of life, geographical location.

4. Have technology specialist prepare PowerPoint presentation.

Part 2

1. Have each work group give PowerPoint presentations. Each presentation should be between 7 -10 minutes long. The presentations should be well organized and include many cultural traits of their assigned ethnic group. The information presented about each ethnic group should follow the sequence discussed earlier. If this sequence is followed it will keep the other students guessing the identity of the ethnic group for as long as possible.

2. Have the remaining students sit with their work groups. Each student will listen to the presentation and then confer with the work study group to determine the ethnic group. The students will be able to refer to the material in their lesson packets. By closely listening to the clues provided from the presentation, each student work group should be able to determine the ethnic groups described in the presentation.

Part 3

1. Have students prepare final project, which includes the main points of their presentation. The final project will be a brochure. Content, organization, creativity and visual impact will be considered to achieve maximum points. Information concerning ways to create the brochure are in the student’s lesson packet.

Notes to the Teacher:

The intent of this lesson is for students to become aware that China’s population is rich and varied with many different ethnic groups. Students will be introduced to the six most populous ethnic groups found in China. By listening to student-led presentations, the audience will learn about diverse lifestyles, customs, religions, languages all found in one single country! During this lesson, students will explore these topics through a "game-like" approach. However, it is important for the teacher to realize that this lesson is not just a "guessing game". Even though this lesson is entitled "Guess who?" students must use many diverse skills during this lesson.

First, students must use research skills as they investigate their assigned ethnic group. This may require the student to use the computer and look up different web sties. It may require the student to use other links as they search to gather information relevant to their ethnic group.

Second, students must use map skills as they investigate the indigenous homelands and autonomous regions of their ethnic group. In addition, these students must learn be able to determine latitude and longitude indictors.

Third, students must use inductive reasoning as they listen to the clues from each presentation to "guess" the name of each ethnic group that is described.

Fourth, by using the medium of PowerPoint presentations, students will have the opportunity to develop technology skills as they explore different usages of the computer and create presentations equal to those presentations given out in the "real world". In addition, by using a computer-based approach, this lesson may appeal to students who normally are not excited about social studies lessons.

The individual project is designed so that students may demonstrate the knowledge gained from this project. Because many students feel that working in a group puts them at a disadvantage; it offers an opportunity for students to receive an individual grade.

Extension Activities:

Link to Language Arts

• Have the students write a brief biography of a person from their assigned ethnic group. The students would include many of the customs and lifestyle learned from their research on ethnic groups.
• Have students write a letter from the perspective of a person from their assigned ethnic group to a person in another country. The letter should reveal lifestyle and customs of their ethnic group. For example, a person writing from the Uighur ethnic group may discuss how religion affects his/her life.
• Have students create a diary from the perspective of a person from their assigned ethnic group. Students should describe their activities, thoughts and feelings in each diary entry.

Link to Geography

• ∑ Pass out the Minority Group distribution map to all students. Have students identify and color different provinces and autonomous regions of each ethnic group.

Link to Art

• Have the students create and build villages that represent an ethnic group. For example, the Mongolian village would have lots of livestock, especially horses, while the Miao village would have rice fields surrounding their village.
• Have students make a diorama illustrating the lifestyle of their assigned ethnic group.
• Have students create a bulletin board map of China. Using an overhead projector, display an outline map of China onto a bulletin board. Have students trace the outline onto a sheet of paper attached to the bulletin board. Students will illustrate each province with pictures of the lifestyle and types of dwellings common to each province.

Hold a Panel Discussion

• Have students discuss the topics of "China’s Minorities – How they are changing" which will help students see the integration, assimilation and modernization of some ethnic groups.

Link to Math

• Have students make population graphs, which show population of the six most populous ethnic groups in China.
• Have students make population graphs, which show populations of each province.

Appendix:

Lesson Packet for students (pdf file)