Hosted by the East Asia National Resource Center – Nam Center for Korean Studies, the Center for Japanese Studies, and the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, this one-day professional development workshop for K-14 educators focuses on China, Japan, and Korea.
2025 Professional Development Workshop
Connecting Family and the World:
Using East Asian Children's Stories in the Classroom
Sunday, May 4, 2025, 9:30 AM-4:00 PM
University of Michigan, 1010 Weiser Hall (10th Floor)
500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
(Free parking available at the Church Street parking structure)
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, educators are invited to a full-day professional development workshop exploring the use of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children’s literature in the classroom.
This engaging session features three interdisciplinary blocks designed for grades 3 to 5, with a focus on inclusive storytelling that represents diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Participants will leave with lesson ideas, hands-on resources, and free books to bring back to their classrooms.
Free and open to educators.
👉 Register Here by Wednesday, April 23, 2025.
What’s Included:
- Lunch and light refreshments
- Free classroom resources
- Complimentary books: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park, While I Was Away by Waka T. Brown, and Look! What Do You See? by Bing Xu, illustrated by Becca Stadtlander
SCECH credits are available.
For inquiries, please contact EastAsiaOutreach@umich.edu.
Workshop Highlights
Through interactive discussions, live demonstrations, and lesson plan explorations with cultural specialists—as well as a special visit from children’s author Kyunghee Kim—we’ll explore:
- How family values, cultural traditions, and transnational experiences shape identity in children’s literature
- The ways stories offer unique perspectives through generational and geographic lenses
- Essential East Asian themes across history, language, and culture using engaging, age-appropriate narratives
- How to align East Asian children’s literature with Michigan K-12 Standards, especially for grades 3 to 5
Classroom Goals
Participants will learn how to help students:
- Connect language and culture through text, imagery, and discussion
- Recognize different languages and cultural practices across East Asia
- Identify writing systems and artistic traditions from various countries
- Analyze how stories convey central messages and how characters face challenges
- Explore how narrators’ or authors’ perspectives influence storytelling
- Understand how literature and art reflect society and respond to real-world experiences
- Examine the relationship between personal/historical context and creative expression
Collaboration & Reflection
Join us in reflecting on how we create a community of readers and learners. Together, we’ll consider:
- How do communities of readers evolve in the classroom?
- In what ways can students be encouraged to explore the world beyond their own experiences?
- How can we inspire curiosity, empathy, and appreciation for diverse perspectives through literature?
