May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. An Asian Pacific Islander is defined by the U.S. Department of Labor as:

"A person with origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, or the Pacific Islands. This area includes, for example, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Republic and Samoa; and on the Indian Subcontinent, includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan."

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) is celebrated in May to commemorate the contributions of people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent in the United States. Congress passed a joint Congressional Resolution in 1978 to commemorate Asian American Heritage Week during the first week of May.

This date was chosen because two important anniversaries occurred during this time: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in America on May 7, 1843 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad (by many Chinese laborers) on May 10, 1869.

In 1990 Congress voted to expand it from a week to a month-long celebration. In May 1992, the month of May was permanently designated as "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 recent Census statistics. 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.

BookCart Learning Activity

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help your students learn more about the contributions of Asian Americans—"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 and credibility. Each Cart provides examples of essential questions that help students develop 21st Century critical thinking skills. 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 Teacher Edition.
• Click BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top.
• 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.

Librarians or teachers can edit this BookCart to customize it for their students. To edit this BookCart:

• Click the new BookCart TITLE with the prefix "COPY OF".
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your name in the AUTHOR boxes and your initials in the EMAIL box (required filler info).
• Option: Edit any ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS for your students in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Option: Edit the existing STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the Description box.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS and view your new student learning activity.