Investigating Asia

This week marked the beginning of our final informational unit in reading, with a focus on Asian American history. To kick off the unit, we started by filling out a circle map to capture what students already know about Asia. Many students came into the unit with prior knowledge of various countries and geographic features in Asia. The overarching goal of this unit is to deepen students' understanding of Asia and its diverse peoples.

We introduced our anchor text, World Studies: Asia, by reading the introduction together as a class. During this activity, students had the opportunity to contribute new ideas to their circle maps, building upon their existing knowledge base. Following the introduction, we divided the reading tasks among our teams. Team members one and two delved into a chapter on Asia's history, while team members three and four explored Asia's geography and climate.

To organize their learning effectively, students used a tree map to categorize and structure the information from their respective chapters. They then had time to independently read and take notes before discussing their findings with a partner seated next to them. After these peer discussions, each pair had the chance to participate in a Pairs Share activity, where they taught their findings to another pair. Through these activities, students not only expanded their knowledge of Asian American history but also demonstrated the power of collaborative learning.