When the Emperor Was Divine
CENTRAL IDEAS
Content: People’s lives can be irreparably impacted by war. Japanese Americans were impacted in many different and profound ways during the World War II as a result of internment.
Reading: Students will make use of paraphrasing, summarizing, and visualizing when reading the text.
Writing: Students will write a response to literature choosing evidence from the text to support their focus and drawing a “text to world” conclusion about the impact of war on people.
Focusing Question
In what ways did their(one of the four characters) experience in the internment camp damage their sense of who they were and their lives upon their return home?
Focus (answer to focusing question)
The experience of being in the internment camps damaged many Japanese Americans sense of self-esteem causing their lives to deteriorate as a result.
Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft
Provide background on World War II using a timeline and oral storytelling. Students will be provided with a timeline and brief summaries of each date/significant event. They will listen to the story told by the teacher, and they will have opportunities to retell the story making it the story “theirs.” This timeline and story will convey the climate of fear growing in the country. There will be a space afforded for each date/event where students’ questions can be recorded and further researched.
Provide photographs/video to enhance student understanding of the events/dates on the timeline. The video, Pearl Harbored Remembered, will also be shown.
Incorporate select black and white photos taken by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams that capture the faces and activities of the Japanese-Americans interned. This will provide a strong visual reference of camp life.
Post the Executive Order issued by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. Provide a copy of Roosevelt’s executive order. Read this order, providing a copy for each student. Discuss key vocabulary within context of the document and have students “turn and talk” about the message of the order. Use of Primary documents as much as possible at this grade level is very important. It might also be possible to use actual television footage of Roosevelt’s newscast.
Share map of the western United States showing the location of the specific internment camps including the specific camp referenced in the book.
Provide clips of internment camp life using The Children of the Camps documentary which captures the experience of six Americans of Japanese ancestry who were confined as innocent children to internment camps. The film vividly portrays their personal journey to heal deep wounds they suffered from their experience.
Vocabulary: internment (to place in confinement especially during wartime), censor, Shintos, Okies, evacuate, executive order
Re-create the internment setting as described in the text ( to be located in the basement of the church next door to the school)similar (p. 50 and 51): three iron cots, a potbellied stove, a single bulb hanging from the ceiling, a table made out of crate wood, a Zenith radio (must work), a tin clock, a jar of paper flowers, with all windows covered but a small square window, and a magazine picture of Joe DiMaggio. Students will begin reading the text in this setting and also maintain a diary from the perspective of the character they have selected to follow.
Students will be given 48 hours advance notice to pack a single suitcase to include the possessions they would pack for an indeterminate amount of time. Make it clear that you do not know how long they will be away; perhaps a week, a month, a year, or more. Students will be expected to share their rationale for what they packed and then later in the book compare what they chose with what their character chose to bring.
Students will begin reading the text in this setting keeping a diary journal of each day’s activities/experiences/thoughts and the feelings of their character. They will also be asked to note any changes in mood, behavior, and /or thoughts occurring over time with their character.
Students will notetake evidence that illustrates how the character is being affected by the experience. This evidence will be posted on charts labeled for each main character. These will serve as public notes. This evidence will come from the diaries they will maintain.
Structures
Students are familiar with the graphic organizer to support a Response to Literature. More attention will be given to the evidentiary paragraphs and the conclusion where each student will be prompted and stretched to write a deeper, more expansive conclusion.
Teacher-and-student written model. Teacher and students will write the introductory paragraph that can be used by all students. Students will be expected to incorporate into this paragraph some contextual information resulting from the frontloading of content about World War II.
Teacher will provide a couple models of conclusions that illustrate “text to world” connections. These models will include weaker and strong models so that students can note the distinctions between the two models and identify the criteria that is needed for a stronger, more powerful conclusion.
Writing / Revising
Students will maintain a diary as they read each chapter. These entries would serve as notes. (Teacher will provide a model of what an 8th grader should be able to do). The teacher will also maintain a diary and share entries periodically.Students will meet in groups and share their entries daily providing an opportunity to discuss the events and the characters’ perceptions and feelings. This will be a relatively new experience for these students so the teacher will make use of the Fishbowl technique to further clarify for students what is expected of them when they meet as a small group. Each group will record some notes on chart paper that will serve as public notes for all students in the class.
Students will also be taught the use of a PLC protocol, Save the Last Word, as a means of structuring the group discussion.
Group sessions with mixed characters. Involve students in role playing and if there is resistance include an adult in each group. Adults role play as last resort. This will help to bring the text and content of the subject matter alive for the students.
Students will participate in a carousel from time to time to review the evidence that is being collected and the class will then have intermittent full class discussions about the evidence being collected.
Before beginning the process of writing, at least one to two days would be dedicated to reporting out the impact that the war and internment had on each character. It would be at this time that charts kept by each group would be shared and the class as a whole could contribute additional evidence or debate the evidence listed.
Before beginning to write the response, the teacher would share a strong example of a response to literature juxtapositioned with a weaker example. It will be important for students to note the differences in quality and what makes up that difference. I would avoid showing a model that relates specifically to the text itself so I will likely write a model using the text So Far From the Bamboo Grove which provides a similar World War II context.
Teacher and student will write the introduction that will also make use of their content knowledge to set the context of the story. This will get students off to a strong and focused start, leaving them responsible for the development and the conclusion.
Chunking the assignment. Students will write section by section and conference with a peer or small group at the conclusion of each section. Necessary revisions can take place as the piece is unfolding rather than at the end. The teacher will find a willing student with whom to conference with the class looking on in order to model conference techniques. Students will also have a copy of possible categories of feedback during the conference.
As students are writing, the teacher will circulate to provide feedback as well. She will also ask students to share writing that illustrates an effective craft, strong evidence, effective elaboration, etc. while students are writing.
Before students begin the conclusion, once again some examples of strong models of conclusions alongside conclusions that are less so will be provided. It is important for students to note the differences in what the writer has done to make a piece stronger and more powerful.
Students will then be asked to work in small groups of three to generate some ideas about what could be included in the conclusion. These ideas will be shared out in class and recorded as public notes. The teacher would move from group to group having students “talk” about their ideas. Using clarifying and probing questions will serve to focus or expand their thinking. This opportunity “to talk” is giving them the opportunity to think aloud with support (Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development) and is really a form of drafting.
Students will then be asked to write their final concluding paragraph which they will then share with a small group of fellow writers for feedback.
I would conclude the writing assignment with students self-assessing their piece.
Lesson Sequence
Day One- I will introduce students to the text they will be reading, When the Emperor Was Divine. I will explain that although this is a fictional account, it is based on actual events that took place in our country. I will further explain that in order to have a better understanding of the characters and the events, we are going to spend approximately the next four to five days learning about World War II. Students will be asked to give thought to want they know and understand about that period of time.
Day Two- Students will work in groups of three to discuss and record what they know about World War II. I would also invite any questions they might have as well. I would make use of the K/W/L graphic organizer. Students would share out their knowledge and any misinformation would be addressed immediately and throughout the next few days. Students would then be showed the video, Pearl Harbor Remembered. It is powerful and will generate many questions that will sequay naturally to the prepared timeline.
Day Three- Post the full size timeline in the classroom and provide student with their own personal copies. Teacher will then begin to “tell the story” that built up to Pearl Harbor. Students will be given the assignment of going home to tell the story to a member of their family (with the use of the timeline) and will then have the opportunity to retell the story the next day to a classmate. This oral rehearsal is important in committing this period of history to memory. Primary text material including copies of actual bulletins and posters of the time period and copies of articles from the San Francisco News in 1942, along with information from the War Relocation Authority will be used in conjunction with the timeline. All students will have a piece of primary text to read and report out on that relates to the timeline.
Day Four- Using the Frayer Model of really getting to know the word, students will reach the definition of the following terms: internment, prejudice, and censorship. These words and their meanings will then be used as an introduction into the text, When the Emperor Was Divine. Students will be given the focusing question and also select the individual character they will represent when writing diary entries. The teacher will begin by reading a good portion of the first chapter and assign the remaining part of the chapter to be finished for the next day.
Days Five through Ten will entail reading the text, writing diary entries, and participating in book discussion groups with intermittent whole class discussions of public notes and questions that arise. The teacher will also encourage making connections between what is happening in the text with the content knowledge that was frontloaded in the beginning.
Day Eleven- Teams representing the four characters will share their public notes and collect further evidence volunteered from others in the class. These additional contributions will be added to these public notes. Students will then work with the teacher in creating an introductory paragraph that everyone can use.
Day Twelve through Fifteen- Students draft their Response to Literature in a “chunking” method with conferencing and revision happening throughout the process.
Assessment:
Assessment model would incorporate the rubric from the State Portfolio System with the teacher recording the strengths of the piece and proposed next steps for the next writing assignment. Next Steps: Gradual Release of Responsibility
Students would self-assess their own response and complete a reflection that would ask them to identify the strength of their piece including what they saw as most effective. The reflection would also include what they saw as next steps.
This is a fantastic plan!
ReplyDeleteThe idea to include a K/W/L activity early on is wonderful and you might be surprised with how much some of your students already know and can teach each other about WWII. It's also a great way to clear up misconceptions early on.
You have allowed a lot of time for students to absorb content about WWII and Japanese internment before launching into the brilliant idea of reenacting the internment experience. I think that the idea of using a timeline to build suspense and fear is a good one; there are some great resources online which suggest that the U.S. should have anticipated the Pearl Harbor attack, since for at least 10 years prior to the attack, we knew that Japanese naval academy graduates were asked to plan the attack as their final exam. For your visual learners, using the Lange and Adams photos should be really helpful. You note that you might find Roosevelt's speech after Pearl Harbor, and I believe I have found it on YouTube. You might also want to ask students to consider why the U.S. did not establish camps for German-Americans once we joined the war against Hitler's army.
I wonder if it's potentially limiting to include the word "damage" in your focusing question. For middle school students, they may not need a prompt that is so leading. I think I would ask students to explore how the experience 'changed' the interned. With a prompt that is more open ended, I expect that students will still see the 'damage' but might be open to other aspects of the experience as well.
If time permits, your students might appreciate an incredible documentary called "The Cats of Mirikitani" (perhaps misspelled!) which recounts the story of a Japanese-American artist who was interned, and has spent the rest of his life recovering from and and responding to the experience. It also ties that experience to the Sept. 11 attacks, as Mirikitani is a homeless artist on the streets of NYC during those events, and he bears witness to the parallels between WWII and the 2001 attacks.
I hope all goes well with this wonderful plan!
Sue, I am so glad to have your plan for this book-I have never taught it, but would like to, and your approach is really wonderful. The book presents kids with such a personalized understanding of a chapter of America's recent past that was totally ignored when iw as in school, and is so important for kids now to understand, as we move farther and farther from the old "melting pot" idea of how members of various cultural groups experience this country. I thnk using the videos to engage personal response is a really great step to take early on it will change the way they read and respond, because their emotions will already be involved. The book had such a quiet tone that it could slip past them without this sort of priming. I also really like the idea of a timeline and primary sources for clarity and that sense of reality that makes things more meaningful. I once did a timeline (when doing a really fractured narragtivde, Into the Wild) with kdis finding photos online of each place mentioned in the journey the book recounts; then our timeline also had aa visual component, with each date and place name accompanied by a photo. I wonder if theres a way for something like that to work with your timeline.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of physically recreating the internment cell in a basement near your school is absolutely brilliant! I plan to fid a way to use that idea somehow, in some unit. (The closest I've come is a long banquet table for the Banquo's ghost scene in Macbeth.) I also really like the teams representing c haracters as a wya to help kids build their knowledge and understanding before writing.
Sue, your kids are in for a treat! Thanks for sharing your plan--I will borrow shamelessly!
Nancy D.