Curious about integrating Asian American picture and chapter books into your K-8 classroom, but don’t know where to start?

Just 9% of children’s books published in 2022 featured an Asian American main character. When students do not see themselves in the stories they read, it can be hard for them to feel understood, valued, and empowered. For students of all backgrounds, including diverse voices in the classroom helps build an open community, where students can relate to one another, share their perspectives, and learn together.

Join MOCA, Make Us Visible, and New York Chinese Cultural Center for a day of hands-on workshops dedicated to strengthening literacy instruction in your Social Studies, English Language Arts, and Humanities classrooms in culturally affirming ways. Throughout the day, educators will:

• Tour MOCA’s core exhibition, With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America
• Meet Author Cathy Linh Che, co-author of An Asian American A to Z: A Children’s Guide to Our History and director of Kundiman, an organization dedicated to nurturing Asian American writers
• Analyze a range of fiction and non-fiction texts that give voice to the manifold experiences of Chinese Americans, as well as old classics that fall short
• Explore how to choose books which reflect students’ identities and lived experiences, support students’ social-emotional learning, and meet curricular goals
• Reflect on the balance of voices in their own classrooms

Participants will receive 5.5 CTLE hours. $5/participant. Coffee/tea and Chinese breakfast pastries included. Recommended for educators of students in grades K-8. An Asian American A to Z: A Children’s Guide to Our History will be available for purchase and signing by the author. 

Fee waivers are available. Email education@mocanyc.org for more information. 

*This workshop’s title references Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s scholarship. Dr. Bishop famously wrote: “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror.”

Featured Presenter: Make Us Visible NY

Founded in January 2021 by two parents, a student, and a teacher, Make Us Visible seeks to empower local communities to become more civically engaged and politically active through advocacy ensuring the inclusion of Asian American history in K-12 curriculums.  We see this work as a long-term preventative measure against future anti-Asian American bullying and violence. As a 100% volunteer-driven coalition, we have so far successfully established 6 laws across 4 states over the last two years, with 19 active state chapters and 15 additional states in different phases of chapter development. We’ve been covered by outlets including NBC Asian America, Axios, CNN, Vox, USA Today, and The Washington Post.

Featured Author: Cathy Linh Che

Cathy Linh Che is a Vietnamese American writer. She is the author of Split (Alice James Books) and co-author, with Kyle Lucia Wu, of the children’s book An Asian American A to Z: a Children’s Guide to Our History (Haymarket Books) and works as Executive Director at Kundiman, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing writers and readers of Asian American literature.

About the Book:  An Asian American A to Z: A Children’s Guide to Our History by Cathy Linh Che and Kyle Lucia Wu, Illustrated by Kavita Ramchandran

A comprehensive and spirited exploration of Asian American history—its movements, cultures, and key figures—beautifully illustrated and compellingly told for readers of all ages.

Co-authors Cathy Linh Che and Kyle Lucia Wu take us on a journey through stories of celebration and resistance: the Third World Liberation Front, the Muslim Ban, Japanese American incarceration camps, Padma Lakshmi, Rashida Tlaib, Sunisa Lee, and more. It is a history of struggle, but also one of great triumph, brought to life with colorful and dynamic illustrations by Kavita Ramchandran.

An Asian American A to Z: A Children’s Guide to Our History will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

This event is co-sponsored through the generosity of the New York Chinese Cultural Center and Make Us Visible NY.