“Class, meet Asia.” Well, that was easy, wasn’t it? But introducing your students to the Asian continent requires a bit more than a simple introduction. In fact, easing into a unit on Asia can be overwhelming as students may have trouble relating to those on a completely different continent. But it doesn’t have to be a dreaded transition! Introducing the Asian continent in an engaging way will spark students to seek knowledge, approach the lessons with curiosity, and begin to draw conclusions about the continent all while skipping over that overwhelmed resistance to learn new things.
There are many resources on the wide-reaching world wide web for teaching about Asia, but your middle school and high school students may disengage from lessons that are boring, repetitive, lacking in creativity, and catering to only one learning style. Instead, using engaging walking tours like this Asia Walking Tour will act as a quick catalyst to encourage learning. By integrating this walking tour, along with these other Asia-centered lesson plans, into your unit plans, your students can broaden their existing knowledge and develop a deeper interest in Asia.
Stroll Around Asia (well, your classroom): Engage students with this interesting Asia Walking Tour which requires groups of students to walk around the room and interact with different cards about Asia, collecting information to compare and contrast, learn basic demographic information, delve into cultural, social, and political descriptions, and more.
Once you’ve grazed the surface, you can encourage deeper learning by integrating these other Asia activities into your lesson plans.
Map it Out with the Asia Geography Introduction Atlas Activity or the Mapping the Asian Empires Activity
Dig into the Chinese Dynasties with the Chinese Dynasties Interactive Lecture, Chinese Han Dynasty & Silk Road Activity, or a Chinese Dynasties Archaeological Dig
Analyze Imperialism with the Imperialism 4-Thought Organizer and Primary Source Analysis Activity or Age of Imperialism Guided Notes
Do it all with the Complete Unit on Asia!
For other activities to build your unit on the Asian Continent, check out more than 20 resources on Asia here!
Building a strong, engaging unit on Asia doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it can be exciting for students and can provide a firm foundation for learning more about the continent. Using these existing resources limits your planning time, and these activities are sure to fit into any unit on Asia!
Happy Teaching!
Any suggestions for teaching this Asia unit virtually?
I've been working on digitizing many of my resources. If you follow my store on TpT, you'll see them as I get them posted. 🙂