The Poem of Mulan was written over 1,500 years ago and will provide your students with a unique perspective on the early history of China. Poetry reading doesn’t have to be limited to literature analysis – learn the history behind the poem.

Historical Analysis

Usually, when students read poetry in class, they are analyzing it from a literature standpoint. They are concerned with the main point, point of view, construction, and word choice. However, when you conduct a historical analysis, the amount of information that emerges is enormous.

In the Poem of Mulan, students have the opportunity to learn about the political upheaval of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and how the threat of invasion from Northern China as well as the rapid sinicization of the Northern Dynasty led to the unified dynasty of Sui.

The poem brings history alive. These events didn’t just happen – they happened to a young girl that many of your students already know. It humanizes the history.

Why a podcast?

The honest answer is I wanted this new resource to be a video but there were not enough public domain images available. A lot of information is presented but the images didn’t change enough that the original resource felt like a bad PowerPoint presentation. I kept the audio, threw out the video and created a podcast.

Podcasts work in the classroom. Podcasts are an excellent opportunity to teach students information in a short amount of time. Similar to lectures, podcasts disseminate a lot of information in a short amount of time. This podcast comes with a poem follow along with space for notes. This will help students learn or reinforce listening skills – an important skill for anyone to have.

Summaries

For teachers who are looking for ways to assess what students learn, summaries are included. You have the choice of two different types of summary:

• Historical analysis summary (like a PERSIA chart)
• Traditional summary

For those that are looking for Common Core Aligned resources, the summaries meet various Common Core Standards. A list is included in the preview.

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