NCTA Sponsored Teaching Materials and Resources

Take & Go Series - Teaching and Learning about East Asia Modules

Take & Go Series - Teaching and Learning about East Asia Modules: Created in collaboration with The East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University, The Take & Go Series are teacher and student teaching resources have been created for several East Asian topical areas that are ready to go for immediate use in the classroom.  As a means of enhancing what you currently teach or supplementing differentiated learning opportunities the Take & Go series are designed to give more in-depth resources for use by teachers or students and may include suggested readings, websites, maps, videos, vocabulary guides, games, simulations, timelines, etc.  All are connected to standards and include target grade levels. Click here to view the resources

Centering Taiwan in Global Asia

The interactive website Centering Taiwan in Global Asia explores the themes of Indigeneity & Early Settlement, Navigation, Trade & Piracy, and Colonization to introduce the rich and contoured history of the island of Taiwan and its role as a nexus for global trade and conquest by outside powers. Developed by a team at the Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh including a NCTA Alumna of the University of Pittsburgh National Coordinating Site, this website fills a gap in curriculum about Taiwan by providing a content-rich and guided, interactive, spatial digital humanities resource for classroom use.

Edo Avant Garde - Film and Educational Modules

From the renowned filmmaker Linda Hoaglund, the film Edo Avant-Garde seeks to reveal the pivotal role Japanese artists of the Edo era (1603 – 1868) played in setting the stage for the “modern art” movement in the West. Utilizing two hundred works of art from museums and private collections across the U.S. and Japan, curators, restorers, collectors and scholars provide insights into the genesis of their mesmerizing, prescient visions.  Working with scholars and NCTA Alums from the University of Pittsburgh National Coordinating Site, the website features five educational modules built around a series of lesson plans that highlight key aspects of the historical and cultural factors that lead to the flowering of art in the Edo era as well as the techniques utilized to create the masterpieces seen in the film. These educational modules enable you to fully integrate the art of the Edo era into your classroom or curriculum with a robust selection of images, videos, as well as a fully voiced audio glossary and pronunciation guide of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean terms used in the film. 

World Historical Gazetteer Teaching Resources & Materials

Teaching with World Historical Gazetteer: Place names—their origins, change over time, and reflections of identity—can provide a fascinating and revealing lens through which to explore history. Used with the interactive tools of digital history, the study of place names brings new, deeper, and broader connections to our understanding of patterns of historical change. World Historical Gazetteer Teaching Resources and Materials were developed in conjunction with NCTA Alum and other educators.

NCTA Resources for Teaching COVID-19

A list of resources for teaching about COVID-19 in East Asia. This list includes online articles, videos, and multimedia presentations "crowdsourced" from NCTA staff and educators from across the country. Please keep in mind that this list is a "snapshot" in time during a rapidly changing situation. New resources will be added continuously throughout the crisis.

Click Here to View the PDF Resource List

Day of the Western Sunrise

Day of the Western Sunrise is a documentary about Castle Bravo, the largest U.S. nuclear test to date, and the lives of 23 Japanese fishermen who were caught in the radioactive fallout during the 1954 test in the Bikini Atoll. Told in a combination of Japanese kamishibai animation and live action, the film can be used to discuss issues of nuclearization, advocacy, and humans rights as well as connecting to subjects such as history, art and science. The documentary is supplemented with an NCTA alumni created Educational Toolkit designed specifically for educators.

Individuals and institutions can purchase the DVD and Toolkit at: http://daliborkafilms.com/

Asia 1-2-3

Asia 1-2-3 (pdf) is a toolkit of Asia-related books and hands-on projects for kids (4-11 yrs), teachers and librarians. This unit was put together by the former Asian Studies Center's Outreach Coordinator Jennifer Murawski and Julie G. Kant, a children's librarian at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

2018 NCTA Teaching Modules

2018 NCTA Teaching Modules : In 2018, seven NCTA alumni from throughout Tennessee created fourteen  teaching modules about East Asia that are designed to both accommodate the Tennessee 2019 Middle and Secondary School Social Studies standards and to reach a national audience of teachers and students. Module topics include low fertility rates and population issues in Japan, Singapore, and South Korea, post-war development of the two Koreas, and Confucius.