Review by Erin Brereton, Common Sense Education | Updated August 2013
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Asian Art Museum

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Inventive lessons and activities integrate Asian history, art, and more

Common Sense says
4
Rating Details
Teachers say (5 Reviews)
$avg_user_learning_rating
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Grades
Pre-K-12 This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
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Price:  Free
Platforms:  Website

Take a look inside

5 images
Teachers can search for lesson plans and activities by subject, grade, and other qualifications.
Exercises include grade level, subject, and related materials.
Teachers can register and star items they like to save them in one place on the site.
Many lesson plans include references to the Common Core Standards.
A Professional Development section also offers additional resources for educators.

Pros: The site features dozens of excellent lesson plans, activities, and other classroom resources that provide a diverse look at Asian art.

Cons: Materials are intended primarily for teachers; the structure makes it a bit difficult to just let kids loose on the site.

Bottom Line: It offers an in-depth look at Asia’s influence on art and history and provides lots of creative tools for educators.

Lesson & Activity Ideas

Curriculum units center on topics like Chinese dynasties, samurai arts, and New Year celebrations; subjects include visual and performing arts, history and social science, English and language arts, math and science, and art history. Kids can work on an archeology inventory projects involving terminology and Afghanistan; classify organic and inorganic objects and hypothesize what will happen to them in different environments; and map out ancient traders' travel experiences. Many items include multiple documents, including lesson plans with extension activities and Common Core standard tie-ins, maps, PowerPoint presentations, and packets that cover concepts like myths and metaphors.  

A professional development section lists workshops that provide professional development credits; you can also download packets on art in different regions and view studies on programs on Asian topics in K-12 schools, museum partnership benefits, and other topics.

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Standards:

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco's educational website offers 91 lessons and activities, 326 videos, images of 257 pieces of art, and many more resources for educators and students. Its content incorporates and builds upon the museum's collection, which includes pieces from countries ranging from Turkey to India and China from a more than 6,000-year period. The museum's cache features more than 18,000 objects, including paintings, furniture, textiles, and large sculptures; more than 10,000 are available online in its growing artwork database.

You can search for artwork, activities, and video clips by term, region, topic, curriculum unit, academic subject, and grade level. Items are available for pre-kindergarten to college and beyond. Teachers can access content on topics like Chinese brush painting and assembling a personal narrative; they'll also find reading and other material, labeled as background information, on the geography of Southeast Asia, Buddhism's main branches, and other subjects.

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The inventive, creative activities provide a solid mix of art projects, reading, geography, and other lessons. Each is classified in a way that makes it easy for educators to gauge its potential age and lesson applications, and the search functionality makes it easy to find specific types of assignments or ones on certain topics.

You can also access more than 650 video and audio recordings on iTunes U, many of which are programs intended for educators, including scholar talks, storytelling videos, art activities, documentaries, and other items. It would be nice to see some more content that kids could access and have fun with directly on the site, but it's a great tool when driven by teacher support.

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Overall Rating
4
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?
4

Kids may find most items are geared toward educators, but they can view the museum's art and read about history and other topics on the site.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?
4

Teachers initiate most of the activities, so kids should receive in-person feedback. Activities reinforce learning in a variety of ways, including visual exercises, art projects, and listening to stories and presentations.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?
3

Teachers can access professional development aids, including more than 650 video and audio museum resources on iTunesU. California schools can also participate in gallery tour programs at the museum.

Common Sense Reviewer
Erin Brereton
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Teacher Reviews

4
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Featured review by
Tina S. , Other
Other
Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences
Detroit, MI
4
Great lessons in Asian Artwork

This site is fabulous! It has a large number of ideas/lesson that incorporating the Asian culture. I love how they offer photos and videos to give the students a visual. In addition lessons go across grade levels and subjects. This site is very easy to navigate. I was able to instantly find material based on grade level. I was able to spend 15 minutes on the site and came up with a ton of usable material. I like how I can easily connect art with culture and make the deeper connections the students need. It also allows for me to connect to what they are learning in the classroom and helps build those cross curricular lessons that we strive for! This site is a must for any art teacher!

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