Resource: The Voyage of Zheng He II

Print Frame/Focus

The following Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions are best suited for middle school students using this video in an English language arts or social studies lesson. Be sure to modify the questions to meet your students' instructional needs.

What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?

Frame (ELA) When we are presented with unfamiliar information or ideas that contradict what we already know, how do we determine their validity? What criteria do we use?

Focus (ELA) Does the information about the rudder, an artifact found in the Tachung Shipyard, tell you anything about Menzies’s claim?

Frame (SS) What do you know about naval expeditions in the 15th century? Describe the ships. What were they used for? How far did they normally travel?

Focus (SS) What structures from the 15th century can still be seen in the former shipyard?

Print Follow Up

• (ELA) How do historians research the past? What are some of the ways to determine whether new information is valid or accurate? Create a criteria or set of questions you could apply to the information, artifacts and opinions presented about the ships built in the Port of Tachung that would prove or disprove their use in the naval expeditions of Zheng He.

• (SS) This video segment presents a site now partially abandoned and partially residential that was once a busy ship building port. Think of an area or structure like a road, marketplace or harbor that might have been used in a different way long ago than how it is being used now. How do you know the former purpose or activity that occurred there? What evidence still exists that points to the past of this place or structure?