GRADE LEVEL: 9-12
SUBJECT: Ethnic Studies
INTENDED UNIT: Identity
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How are identities socially constructed? How do marginalized communities reclaim their power and shape their identities?
CENTRAL QUESTIONS/BIG IDEAS:
How was the label “Asian American” and “AAPI” created?
How does aggregation empower as well as disadvantage the most marginalized communities?
CONTENT OBJECTIVE:
Knowledge: Students will be able to explain the history of Asian American and AAPI racial formations. Students will understand how collaboration can be a useful skill but also sometimes a disadvantage in community organizing.
Skills: Students will practice historical thinking and critical analysis.
Habits: Students will practice considering and uplifting the perspectives of the most marginalized sub-groups.
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT AREA STANDARDS:
9 (Ethnic Studies)
CA ELD STANDARDS:
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information. (RH 9-10.1)
Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts. (RH 9-10.6)
IEP/504 ACCOMMODATIONS:
All lesson plans will be accommodated with a transcript (for video clips), student facing worksheets, and visual slides ready to be shared and accessed. For the paragraph activity, it would be helpful to create sentence frames and provide them to students.
Feel free to accommodate extra time for any formative assignments and provide scaffolds as needed for differing age groups/needs.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Slides (link)
Graphic Organizer (link)
Johnny Cepeda Gogo Oral History (14:10 >> 16:52); (1:05:35 >>1:07:56)
A People’s History of Asian America Video (link)
“How inclusive is ‘AAPI’? Pacific Islanders debate the label” Today.com article (link, pdf)
Extension Activity
a. Paul Fong Oral History (1:03:20 >> 1:04:06); (14:05 >> 15:32)
b. “‘Good-looking for an Asian’: how I shed white ideals of masculinity” (link, pdf)
LESSON IMPLEMENTATION SEQUENCE:
Step 1: Warmup - Asian American & Pacific Islander Venn Diagram
White board (or digital white board if virtual) activity
Duration: 10 minutes
Implementation:
Draw a venn diagram on the white board with one section for Asian Americans, one section for Pacific Islanders, and one section for both groups.
As a class, brainstorm qualities of both groups. Questions to probe student:
What are some historical events that have impacted each group?
What do you know about the cultures of each group?
Resources/Materials:
Slides 1-3 (intro slides, skip if appropriate)
White board
Slides 4-8
Assessment: Venn diagram will assess students’ prior knowledge
Step 2: Instruction - History of AAPI
Watch the video “A People’s History of Asian America”
Duration: 10 minutes
Implementation:
Use the graphic organizer or a class discussion to assess students’ comprehension. Probe students to explain the history of how the “Asian American” label was created and later changed to “AAPI”, and to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of the umbrella term AAPI.
Resources/Materials:
Slides 9-11
Graphic organizer
Assessment: Comprehension questions on graphic organizer
Step 3: Evaluate “AAPI” as a term using Pacific Islanders’ perspectives as evidence
Duration: 30 minutes
Implementation:
Students will watch or read the transcript of Johnny Gogo’s oral history (14:10 >> 16:52) and (1:05:35 >> 1:07:56) and will read the Today.com article to consider the perspectives of other Pacific Islander activists.
Students will then write a claim, evidence, reasoning paragraph answering the prompt: “What are the benefits and drawbacks of using ‘AAPI’ as an umbrella label?” and incorporating quotes from the activists as evidence.
Resources/Materials:
Slide 13
Graphic Organizer
Johnny Gogo Oral History
”How inclusive is ‘AAPI’? Pacific Islanders debate the label” Today.com article
Assessment: Claim, evidence, reasoning paragraph
Extension activity 1: Possible Extension
Show clips of the Paul Fong interview and discuss questions about 1) Asian American panethnic identity and the purpose it served during its inception, and 2) multiracial socialization and hypermasculinity.
Resources/Materials:
Slides 14-18
Paul Fong Oral History
NOTES ON HOW THIS MAY BE INTEGRATED IN INTENDED UNIT
For ethnic studies, this lesson fits well in a lesson segment about racialization and race as a social construct. It would pair well with discussions of how other racial categorizations were created and changed over time, such as “white” as a label, “Hispanic”, “Black”, etc.