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HOME > RESOURCES FOR K-12 EDUCATORS > ASIAN AMERICAN HERITAGE
Dream in Color --
Asian American Heritage in the Classroom
The Asian Pacific Fund is a proud partner of Target and Scholastic in presenting the Dream in ColorSM project, launched in April 2008. We believe this national curriculum project is the first to address multiple Asian ethnic groups in lesson plans for grades kindergarten through 12 that celebrate Asian American heritage. Dream in Color encourages students to embrace and celebrate the diversity in their classrooms and communities, and we applaud Target's investment in this project.
The Asian Pacific Fund is pleased we can contribute to this pioneering project. In this as with our other education programs, the Asian Pacific Fund aims to provide resources that help Asian American youth understand and value their cultural heritage. We believe two key components of well-rounded education for youth is the development of a strong sense of personal identity and an appreciation of the cultures of their peers. By celebrating our differences as well as the values and beliefs we share in common, the Fund believes Dream in Color will help Americans of all backgrounds better understand their Asian neighbors.
The Dream in Color lesson plans and classroom materials will share with students the achievements of highly-accomplished Asian Americans and teach them about the many countries that Asian Americans in the U.S. originally came from. The lesson plans were designed specifically for four grade categories: K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Two of the lesson plans address geography and mapping, and the other two discuss Asian American heroes. We are proud to join Target Corporation and Scholastic in celebrating all heritages and cultures by inspiring kids to “dream in color.”
About the Mapping Lesson Plans
There are more than 50 countries in Asia and Oceania, and we chose to highlight the 15 countries from which the most Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders originated. According to U.S. Census data, these groups are Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, Pakistani, Native Hawaiian, Taiwanese, Thai, Samoan, Guamanian or Chamorro, Afghani, and Bangladeshi. Please note that the Hmong people live in many Asian countries but have no country of their own, and Hawaii and Guam are a U.S. state and territory, respectively. As a result of these considerations, the Hmong were mentioned as a notable ethnic group in some country fact sheets, and Hawaii and Guam were addressed as U.S. Pacific islands rather than as separate countries. Thus, the 15 fact sheets produced for classroom use focus on the following countries: China, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan, U.S. Pacific Islands, Taiwan, Thailand, Samoa, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
The mapping activities aim to introduce students to the many different Asian countries. We relied on public sources for information and made every reasonable effort to present basic information that was appropriate for this kind of project. Even though the U S. is a nation of immigrants, Asian countries and the Asian continent overall have a long history of great diversity. In some Asian countries, 50 to 100 ethnic groups live side by side and speak many languages and distinct dialects. Other regions of Asia are unstable because of border disputes or wars. Because the issues surrounding geopolitical disputes and relationships between ethnic or religious groups are often very complex, we hope that feedback from the public will help us improve these materials over time. We welcome input for any corrections to the curriculum and classroom materials that will be considered for future editions.
Click on the links below for the mapping lesson plans:
About the Heroes Lesson Plans
Asian Americans are about 4 percent of the U.S. population, and many of them have distinguished themselves in a variety of fields. In some areas of the country, like metropolitan New York and Los Angeles, these noteworthy individuals may have a higher profile than in other regions. Many of these Asian American leaders already serve as role models and some live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Asians are 24 percent of the population. In these lesson plans we profile heroes who have achieved national prominence and share their stories of struggle and success, in the hopes that we will inspire young people of all backgrounds.
We have included the profile of writer Amy Tan below as a sample of the information you will find at the Scholastic Dream in Color web site. Please see the lesson plans for detailed instructions on how to use the Amy Tan Hero Card in the classroom. Other prominent Asian Americans profiled for Dream in Color include Dado Banatao, Steven Chu, Yul Kwon, Suketu Mehta, Betty Nguyen, Ellison Onizuka and Jerry Yang.
Click on the links below for the heroes lesson plans:
Additional Resources
Many cultural institutions throughout the country have fine materials available to educators. Your students may enjoy participating in the special events these organizations host throughout the year. Click here to download a list of such cultural groups and contact your local organizations directly.
You may also be interested in viewing student work from the Growing Up Asian in America program. This annual art and essay contest is a forum for students to explore what it means to be Asian American and express how they feel about who they are and where their families came from. You may view the winning entries of 2008 or search the archive, which includes the top essays, poems and art from 1995 through the present. Every year, students in the San Francisco Bay Area compete for $27,000 in savings bond awards distributed through Growing Up Asian in America. Typically the winners are chosen from 1,500 entries, and the winning art and essays are reproduced in exhibits that are hosted throughout the year by local libraries. For many years, teachers and parents have told us that Growing Up Asian in America is a valuable resource for understanding the issues that Asian youth face. We hope this material is helpful as you celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in your classroom.
Amy Tan
Amy Tan is a writer. She has written and five novels, including The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Joy Luck Club, which was also made into a movie. She is also the author of two children's books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, which later become an animated television series. Her essays are in her memoir, The Opposite of Fate. When she was eight, she won a transistor radio for her essay on the library, but she did not start writing fiction until she was 33.
Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from China, leaving behind their family members, including her mother’s three daughters. The Tans wanted Amy to become a doctor. So she started out as a pre-med student in college but later decided to become an English major instead.
When she first wrote fiction, she created stories about people who were not Chinese, who had always been successful and also well-to-do. When she gave up on the idea of ever being published, she simply wrote stories based on the confusion she felt as a child growing up American in a family that was Chinese in outlook, expectations, and cuisine.
She encourages young people to find their own philosophy in life--to know what is meaningful to them, for example, what they mean by family, love, kindness, and honesty, and to write their own sayings that remind them to find those things in themselves and in others. She believes that the American Dream is the freedom to create your own identity--to be who you want to be and not limited to what people think you should be.
Sometimes she carries freedom of expression too far. For example, most people think she can’t sing that well, yet for many years she has been a member of a rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose members are all published writers, including Stephen King, Scott Turow and Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons. At least they have raised $2 million for charity. While she may not be a great singer, she is a pretty good skier and an excellent dog trainer of her two Yorkies. Her husband, Lou DeMattei, will tell you this is true. He is a tax attorney who also volunteers his time serving on the board of Half the Sky, an organization that helps develop programs for orphanages in China. Amy and Lou both share commitments to charities serving children, the elderly, literacy, the arts, and the Asian community.
What is one skill or talent that has helped you achieve your goals?
Is imagination a skill or a talent? Or is it something we all have in plenty and we simply need to find it?
Whatever the case, I think imagination has been my talent, my skill, as well as my friend, my passion, my private place, and the door I walked through to get to where I am today. When I was young, I found that my imagination grew when I read stories or looked at pictures. When I was lonely, I wrote stories that I was someone else who lived somewhere else, and I drew a picture of that fantasy person. When I had to practice the piano one hour a day, I made up stories that matched the mood of the music I was playing, because otherwise piano practice would have been pure torture. I wrote stories about secret wishes that were too embarrassing to tell anyone. Over the years, I learned that my imagination has a lot to do with what I am feeling at the moment.
Today, I use my imagination to tell stories about people with secrets or sadness or unspoken wishes. And often people who read my stories tell me that the feelings in the book are the ones they have as well.
Name someone you admire and briefly explain why you like and respect this person.
I have a niece named Patty. She is 16 and was born with several congenital problems. She has significant hearing loss and wears hearing aids. Yet when she was in junior high school, she took up playing the flute and worked as a young activist to save her school’s music program. She also loves horses, so she cleaned horse stalls in exchange for free rides. She has had two major operations, one to correct her spine and another to adjust her jaw and airway so she could breathe properly. Even though she had to be in bed for months at a time, she never said, “Why me?” She asked only to borrow a lot of books to read. I’ve noticed that when I have given her money as a gift, she often gives some to a good cause and she saves the rest for college. She has a great understanding of kids who feel they are “too different”. She encourages them to be who they really are. I feel lucky to have a niece who is so spunky, sensible, and kind.
What is an important lesson you learned from a parent or mentor?
My mother taught me to be an honest person. That meant being genuine in how I treat people. She disliked it when people acted friendly and concerned about you and then talked behind your back. She taught me to look for honest friends, to be careful of people who are what she called in Chinese, “eat meat drink wine” friends, those who are nice to you only when times are good, who will abandon you when you are no longer popular or able to give them what they want. That also meant I had to be a true friend in the same way. As an honest person, she told me, you should not hide behind a mask. A real person does not always feel confident or cheerful. Real people also have worries and troubles. If you let people know you are not perfect and that neither is your life, people will also trust you are telling the truth about many other things. Her lessons have helped me as a writer. Even though I write fiction, my stories are not about telling lies. Rather, they are about the true things we feel.
Hero Card: Amy Tan
Amy Tan Profile
Photo of Amy Tan by Pat Boyd Photography
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