Chinese in the Mississippi Delta​​

• Pre-Reading Activity
• Discussion Questions
• Activity 1 (Maps)​
• Activity 2 (Folktales)
• Activity 3 (Storyboards)

Pre-Reading Activity

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Jump to Vocabulary List (bottom)

Activity Instructions:
​Step 1 (5 min)
Present the slides to introduce the lesson (slides 1-6). Before reading, first watch the book trailer video for Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Review the vocabulary and note on language.

Step 2 (10 min)
Facilitate a classroom discussion on the following questions:

1. What do you think of when you hear the word "sugar"?
2. The main character's name is Sugar. Why do you think she hates sugar?
   
3. Sugar says she wasn't supposed to make friends with the Chinese men because "they're different." What do you think "different" means?
   
4. Before Sugar's mom died, she told her, "Do. See. Feel." What do you think this means?

 

Vocabulary List:
Sugarcane: the tall plant that is grown to make sugar
Plantation: a large property with farmland that grows crops to sell, such as sugarcane, where enslaved African and Black people were forced to work
Slavery: the business of owning, buying, and selling other human beings, treating them like property instead of people, and forcing them to work for free
Chinese: people who are from China, or whose ancestors are from China
Equal: when two or more people or things have the same value and are balanced
Solidarity: when people join together to support each other and fight for the same goals

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