South East Asia
Designed by: Rachel Casteel                  
School: Maine West High School      
 Date designed: September 2004
Grade Level(s): Nine                      
Course: World Cultures      
Time Frame:  5 days

Key Words: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sinicization, Indianization, Western and Japanese Imperialism, Colonization, Nationalism, World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot

Link to State Standards:

14.E.4   Analyze historical trends of United States foreign policy (e.g., emergence as a world leader - military, industrial, financial).

14.E.5   Analyze relationships and tensions among members of the international community.

16.A.4a  Analyze and report historical events to determine cause-and-effect relationships.

16.A.5a  Analyze historical and contemporary developments using methods of historical inquiry (pose questions, collect and analyze data, make and support inferences with evidence, report findings).

16.C.4a (W)  Describe the growing dominance of American and European capitalism and their institutions after 1500.

16.C.5a (W)  Explain how industrial capitalism became the dominant economic model in the world.

16.C.4b (W)  Compare socialism and communism in Europe, America, Asia and Africa after 1815 CE.

16.C.5b (W)  Describe how historical trends in population, urbanization, economic development and technological advancements have caused change in world economic systems.

STAGE I:  IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS

What enduring understandings are desired?

Students will understand t hat Southeast Asia is an extremely diverse region of the world that in the past and present has shaped and been shaped by cultural, political and economic worldwide trends.

What essential questions will guide and focus teaching / learning?

What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?

Students will know:      Students will be able to:
  • The different countries of Southeast Asia each have unique cultural and geographic characteristics that pre-dated and tempered foreign influences.
  • Due to colonization, trade and geographic proximity Southeast Asia has long been influenced by China and India. Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism’s continued practice demonstrated this influence today.
  • Southeast Asia’s position as a center for trade in the Indian Ocean (“the Spice Islands”) also brought Muslim merchants and Europeans to the region. In addition to bringing great wealth and Islam and Christianity to the region it would also lead to European imperialism.
  • Various Europeans colonized the region each leaving unique cultural influences and legacies of exploitation.
  •  Southeast Asia was a major target of Japanese imperialism and battlefield during World War II.
  •   The end of WWII brought independence from colonial powers. The quest to create new governments made Southeast Asia an obvious place for cold war tensions to build. Soviet and American intervention added to the instability of the region, most obviously in Vietnam and Cambodia.
  • Southeast Asia is continuing to try to stabilize and democratize its governments. Inequality, corruption, and terrorism continue to threaten the region while the growth of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and globalization offer economic opportunities.
  • Make connections between the cultures and experiences of Southeast Asia and those of China, Japan and India studied in earlier units.
  • Interpret photographs to make inferences about the culture Southeast Asia.
  • Read and interpret charts, graphs and timelines.
  • Pick out key details and main ideas from a variety of resources and compose a concise summary about the culture of Southeast Asia.
  • Read a story and concisely summarize its main events and themes.
  • Apply themes from the story of one historical period (Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge) to other current or past events.
  •  Express their reaction to a historical story in a creative, personal manner.
  •  Identify and explain in writing key elements of their own culture to foreign students.

STAGE II:  DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE

What evidence will show that students understand?

Performance Tasks:

  1. Southeast Asia chart and summary;
  2. Artistic response to Mardi Seng's biography;
  3. Culture Box contribution an response letters.          

Other Evidence:

Story web

Unprompted evidence: (observations, dialogues, etc.) Student Self-Assessment:
  • Group discussions about Southeast Asia pictures and charts;
  • Class discussion of Mardi Seng’s biography.
  • Student reflection over the accuracy of personal inferences when compared to concrete information from charts and timelines.

STAGE III:  PLAN LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND INSTRUCTION

What sequence of teaching and learning experiences will equip students to develop and demonstrate the desired understandings?      

For the first day of my unit on Southeast Asia I plan to give students a chart similar to the one below. They will have completed a map of Southeast Asia the night before and will at least know the countries that make up Southeast Asia:

What do you KNOW about Southeast Asia?

 

 

 

What can you HYPOTHESIZE about Southeast Asia from our previous units and its geographic location?

 

 

 

 

What INFERENCES can you make from the pictures of Southeast Asia?

 

 

 

 

 

RECORD important data from charts, maps and timelines.

SUMMARIZE major characteristics of Southeast Asian culture and history in a one page typed essay.

 

I will ask students to independently fill out the first section of the chart with things that they know about Southeast Asia. After a few minutes I will ask students to share their answers with the class. I will record correct answers on the board and students can add them to their chart as well. Most likely students will know very little about the region, if this is the case I will ask students why their knowledge is limited.

Next, I will put students in groups of four and give them a map of Southeast Asia and its surroundings. I will ask the group to work together to make hypothesis about Southeast Asia based on it geographic location and our previous units.  Again I will ask each group to share with the class and I will record their answers on the board.  Hopefully students will be able to hypothesize about Chinese and Indian influence and the resulting spread of Hinduism and Buddhism, Japanese influence during World War II and possible European and American colonization as we have studied these themes in our units on China, Japan, and India

Next I will give each group photos from various people and places in Southeast Asia(skyscrapers, farmers, fishermen, mosques, Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, palaces etc.) I will also give them a separate stack of captions that they will have to match with the pictures.

After they have matched the captions with the corresponding photos students will fill the third section of the chart with inferences they can make about Southeast Asia from the pictures and captions. Additionally they will make check marks next to inferences that support their hypothesis.

Day 2
On the second day of class I will give each group various historical maps showing Southeast Asian kingdoms, Chinese and Indian colonization, Western and Japanese colonization, and Cold War Conflicts. I will also give them charts showing language, ethnic and religious compositions of Southeast Asia, as well current government type, per capita GDP and life expectancy. From these sources students will record important information and when possible make limited generalizations. At the end of class I will ask students which of their hypothesis seem to be correct. I will also ask them to share some generalizations about Southeast Asia. I will also ask them if there are exceptions to the generalizations.

For homework students will use all of the information on their chart to write a one to one and half page, typed summary of Southeast Asian culture and history. This will help them develop the ability to pick out important information and themes from large amounts of data and report it in a concise manner.

Day 3
From Southeast Asia as a region, I will introduce students to the country of Cambodia, by elaborating the historical background and the geopolitical context for the Khmer Rouge atrocities of the region, and include a brief outline about the events in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.

We will then watch the video "Year Zero." For homework students will read the personal recollections of Mardi Seng, “Hope: A Cambodian Journey”. They will complete a story web to show they read and comprehended the true story.

 Day 4
We will discuss the events of the story in class as well as the timeless human themes and lessons that the story teaches. I will ask students about current events that may share similar themes. For homework students will create a personal artistic response to the story. This could include a painting, poem, collage, song, sculpture or dramatic presentation. I will give students at least a week to work and reflect on these projects.

Then they will present to the class.

Day 5
I will give the students a short introduction to the current culture of Thailand and ask them to compare and list the similarities and differences in histories and cultures between Thailand and Cambodia.  Then I will tell them that we will be sending a Thai class a culture box that reflects our culture and that the Thai class will send us a culture box as well. Each student will have to contribute an item with a typed explanation (glued neatly on a note-card) of the object and its relationship to our culture. We will brainstorm possible ideas and students will sign up to bring specific items. As students decide what items they want to contribute, I will write these items on the board to avoid duplication and so students can see what items might be “missing.” At the end of two weeks students need to have brought their items and explanations to class. We will review the items and I will mail the box to Thailand. When we receive the box from the Thai class we will look at the items and write letters thanking the Thai students for their box and reacting to its contents.

 Resources:

Cambodia: Return to Year Zero. By John Pilger and David Monroe, 1993, 60 minutes. Available from the American Friends Service Committee (http://www.afsc.org/nero/bigcat/camblao.htm).

Mardi Seng: Hope: a Cambodian Journey. Plant Hope in Cambodia (http://www.phic.org/who/story.htm) November 1993.