Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The nation's Asian American population increased to 15.2 million, or 5 percent of the estimated total U.S. population of 301.6 million, according to Census statistics released this year.

The Census Bureau lists over twenty-five Asian and Pacific Islander groups. Some of the largest groups are: Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipinos, Indian, Pakistani, Korean, Japanese, Cambodian, Laotian, Indonesian, Thai, Taiwanese, and a variety of Pacific Islanders from the Hawaiian Islands, Polynesian Islands, and New Zealand.

Five million Asians live in California, which has the largest Asian population. Other favorite states for Asian Americans are Hawaii, New York, and Texas. These states account for more than half of the Asian American population. Today, Asian immigrants have a high rate of assimilation and participation in the American mosaic.

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help your students learn more about this May theme—"Asian Pacific Heritage Month."

This and all ProQuest model BookCarts are complete one-stop learning activities for your students. This saves time for more teaching and learning that too often is consumed in non-productive searching and evaluating relevancy. Each Cart provides (a) examples of essential questions that help students develop 21st Century critical thinking skills; (b) student directions that guide the research process; (c) call numbers to related print resources; (d) an optional quiz; (e) an information literacy standard; and (f) ProQuest models for written reports and presentations.

You won't find this combination of inquiry-based learning activity support in ONE PLACE in any other K-12 resource.

You can copy, edit, and adapt these models to differentiate instruction for your students. (Learn how.)

• Open the eLibrary CE Teacher Edition
• Click BookCart Admin link at the top right
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab (800 ProQuest models)
• Type "Asian Pacific Heritage Month" in the Search box
• Click the Copy icon in the Actions column to the right of the title
• Click Return to My Local Carts tab to end the copying process

This Cart should be edited in My Local Carts to adapt them for your students:

• Click the BookCart Title—it has "Copy of" as its prefix
• Delete "Copy of" in the Title
• Type your name in the Author boxes
• Type your email address in the email box
• Optional: Edit the essential questions and any other text in the Directions box
• Scroll down and click Save button at the bottom
• Return to My Local Carts

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words, citing at least three resources (or a seven-slide/three-minute presentation), that addresses the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can add or substitute others):

• What are the most important Asian Pacific American (APA) cultural contributions and why?
• Why did most Asian Americans emigrate to the U.S. (list at least three reasons)?
• How have APAs distinguished themselves (name two persons in at least five areas)?
• How is APA culture different from other ethnic cultures in America?

Click Search Topics link > United States History > Special Subjects > Asian-American History. Students may also use a key word search to access more information

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

Assign students one of the following Asian American authors to study: Ai; Desai, Anita; Jen, Gish; Kingston, Maxine Hong; Lahiri, Jhumpa; Mukherjee, Bharati; Tan, Amy; Yau, John; Yep, Laurence; Yamamoto, Hisaye; and Yamauchi, Wakako. Students should create a report of at least 150 words that cites at least two resources from PQLL and one from eLibrary CE. Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can add to or substitute others):

• What genre(s) of literature did this author create?
• How did the author's life experience influence his/her works?
• What theme was featured in most of the works?
• How did the author's ethnicity influence his/her works?

Click the Authors tab > type the selected name in the Search box

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.