Explore a curated collection of resources designed specifically for educators teaching about East Asia and Asian America. Below, you’ll find links to primary sources, structured curriculums, comprehensive resource collections, and other classroom materials to enrich your lessons. You can filter your search by grade level, region, state standard, and resource type, or just search for a specific topic or keyword. Additionally, don’t miss the excellent content available through NCTA’s Partner Sites, tailored to support K-12 educators in bringing East Asia into the classroom.
Founded in 2021 by Stewart and Patricia Kwoh, using learning resources developed in partnership with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Stanford University SPICE and PBS Learning media, this site contains over 48 individual lesson plans for grades K-12 focused on various aspects of Asian American history, organized by time period, with fantastic search features! Here are a few with specific connections to the South:
This site offers a curated collection of primary sources, lesson plans, and contextual timelines on U.S. immigration history. Developed under the direction of Dr. Madeline Hsu—an expert in Asian American Studies and editor of Asian American History: A Very Short Introduction—the resource provides accessible, classroom-ready materials with a strong focus on Asian American experiences and broader immigration narratives.
“Japanese Sea Lords” from Rogue History on PBS Learning Media offers an exploration into the sea lords of Japan’s maritime past, designed for students in grades 6-12. Labeled as “kaizoku,” or pirates, these lords reigned the seas from the fourteenth to sixteenth century, guarding vital sea zones and supervising maritime trade. This resource delves into their complex roles in Japanese society, challenging historical labels and revealing the legacy left by the Noshima Sea Lord family.
This curriculum made by TEA is a collection of teacher-developed, standards-based, cross-curricular K-6 lessons. The collection is designed to promote the teaching of cultural studies of Japan while developing students’ knowledge and skills in literacy and communication. Each of the six lessons features an authentic children’s literature book on an aspect of Japanese culture.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, though located in Hiroshima, offers permanent exhibitions available for free and easily accessible online. Housed within the museum are items of material culture that represent the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima, in which a single atomic bomb killed tens of thousands of the city’s inhabitants, most of whom were civilians. The museum stands as a testament to the permanently altered way of life led by the survivors, and as a memorial to those who perished. Those who visit the museum’s virtual exhibitions can navigate the site’s user friendly pages to view the entire permanent collection. This interactive resource is encouraged for use in history classrooms in particular.
The MIT Visualizing Cultures project is an online database of historical images accompanied by essays that teach world history, and one of their most important pages is “Ground Zero 1945.” This page teaches about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki through drawings from survivors and an essay by John H. Dower. This is a great interactive resource for high school history classes that will allow students to visualize this unimaginable event. Please note that, though the atomic bombings are a crucial part of history to include in classrooms, the drawings in this resource are graphic depictions of painful and disturbing events. Discretion is advised.
Shinto: An Introduction is a lesson plan for History classes that enables educators to teach about Shinto—the oldest religion in Japan—through its beliefs, values, and rituals. This resource, provided by the World History Encyclopedia, offers a complete lesson plan, activities, homework, assignments, and answer keys, altogether providing everything needed to make understanding Shinto accessible to students. The lesson itself covers Shinto’s gods and core beliefs, its application to everyday life, and classroom ethics teachings on values and accountability. This informative and engaging resource is available for free download as a PDF or Microsoft Word document.
Another online curriculum designed by TEA, “Imaging Japanese History” enhances students’ visual literacy skills, historical thinking skills, and knowledge of Japanese history. Five online modules each provide a case study in the role of art in capturing and conveying not only the history of Japan, but the human experience at large.
This lesson plan from iCivics offers an engaging mini-lesson on the Supreme Court decision that mandated public schools provide language supports to English and multilingual learners. Initiated because students of Chinese ancestry who did not speak English were receiving inadequate instruction, this case underscores the importance of educational equity. Designed for students in grades 6-12, the lesson also connects Lau’s arguments to Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case and explores how the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects students from discrimination.
These lesson plans from the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies provide an insight into the experiences of youth within World War II Japanese American internment camps through primary and secondary sources. Lessons are available for students in grades K-12.
The “Asian Immigration” lesson plan from Immigration History, designed for students in grades 6-12, provides an in-depth look at how severe immigration restrictions from 1790 to 1952 have shaped U.S. society’s attitudes toward Asian immigrants. This lesson explores both the harmful stereotypes that dehumanized Asian Americans and the modern ideal of the highly educated and wealthy “model minority.
The Asian American Education Project offers a collection of K-12 curriculum and lesson plans focused on the rich history of Asian Americans in the United States. By exploring the struggles and triumphs of Asian Americans from the first settlements to the present day, these resources highlight their contributions to major historical achievements, aiming to amplify their importance in American history and inspire a deeper understanding among students.
