Chinatown Resource Guide
Teaching Tools
The Insistent Chorus: Voices of San Francisco's Chinatown
This lesson relates to the following topics from the California History-Social Science Framework for grade four:
Gold Rush, Statehood and the Westward Movement
GOAL
-
By learning about the contributions and hardships of the Chinese who
came to America, students will appreciate their role in California's
development and see the roots of anti-Asian sentiment today.
TIME REQUIRED
-
1 CLASS PERIOD - discussion, preview questions,
watch 1/2 of program
1 CLASS PERIOD - review,preview questions, complete program
1 CLASS PERIOD - choral reading, choose culminating project
VOCABULARY
-
immigrant - a person who comes to a country for the purpose of
establishing permanent residence.
citizenship - entitlement to the rights and privileges
as a member of a community.
segregation - the separation or isolation of a
race, sex, class, or ethnic group.
1. DAY 1 Introduce the class to the program
by reading the following quote from CHINATOWN:
" Heard one by one, their voices may seem small, quiet. But multiplied many times over, generation after generation, you start to hear an insistent chorus. It says "We want to be here...we want to improve the lives of our children...we want to dream American dreams."
Have the class discuss the meaning of this quote. What examples can they
find from their daily lives among their friends, family and community
that might represent a collective strength? Write a brief paragraph about
these examples.
2. Questions for students to think about as they view the program.
- What types of occupations did Chinese people have in America?
- How did other people feel about the Chinese in America?
- What are some of the obstacles that Chinese people had to overcome?
3. Viewing. Pause the program at the part just before the earthquake
section. Have students brainstorm while discussing the questions in cooperative
groups, record their thoughts on large chart paper and present their findings
to the class.
4. DAY 2 Review some of the occupations and challenges from Day
1. Use these preview questions for Day 2:
- -Did the occupations of the Chinese change after the earthquake?
- -How did Chinese people respond to discrimination?
- -Do you think that Chinese people still face discrimination today?
View the second half of the program. Have students meet in cooperative
groups again to discuss the questions.
5. DAY 3 Class choral reading. Ask one student to read the quotation
from the program again. At the end of the reading, have two students join
the first student to reread the quote above. Next, have it repeated and
reread by four students, then eight students, then sixteen students, and
finally, by the entire class, ending with emphasis on "WE WANT TO BE
HERE." Students should discuss how important small individual efforts
are to developing strong group efforts.
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
Students could individually design a 2" x 4" cartoon box depicting a historical scene from the program. Have them stop and pause the video footage to freeze-frame images for their cartoon square. Students can then organize all of their cartoons in a comic page format for a school display.
Using the charts created by the cooperative groups, have students pick out any ten phrases and write a poem about their thoughts and reactions to the program. Illustrate the poem and share it with classmates. Mount the poems on tagboard to create an accordion book to share with other classes.
As a homework assignment, have students interview their parents about their heritage. Did they immigrate to this country? How did they feel as newcomers to America? Each student can give an oral presentation or make a poster of their family's journey.
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