"East Meets West"
A unit of study in the arts designed to create cross-cultural understanding and friendship.


 



 
Objectives
WebQuests
Assessment
Teacher Information
Resources

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***


 


Technology
Students will use the Internet in a guided search to access information on Chinese Art and culture.  By following the steps in a WebQuest, students will view traditional Chinese Ink Paintings and analyze their components.  Students will search for Chinese cultural traditions and compare these traditions to their own culture.  Students will also access a web site that will allow them to create the Chinese characters that most closely parallel the sounds in their own name.  These characters will be used in the studio portion of the course to create their own name seal.

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.