Japanese Internment
Inquiry Based
Goals and Objectives
Goal: Students will form an empathetic understanding of what it might feel like for your own government to treat you as less than a valid citizen deserving of rights and processes of law.
Objective: Students will be able to explain the purpose of Executive Order 9066 and the ways in which it was used during WWII. They will also be able to read primary source documents for meaning and impact.
Objective: Students will be able to explain the purpose of Executive Order 9066 and the ways in which it was used during WWII. They will also be able to read primary source documents for meaning and impact.
Content and Common Core Standards
Content
11.7 Students analyze America's participation in World War II.
5. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans (e.g., Fred Korematsu v. United States of America) and the restrictions on German and Italian resident aliens; the response of the administration to Hitler's atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles of women in military production; and the roles and growing political demands of African Americans.
Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5 Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
11.7 Students analyze America's participation in World War II.
5. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans (e.g., Fred Korematsu v. United States of America) and the restrictions on German and Italian resident aliens; the response of the administration to Hitler's atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles of women in military production; and the roles and growing political demands of African Americans.
Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5 Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
Anticipation Set
As students walk in they will be asked to leave their backpacks at the door. When they ask why they will be referred to a poster stating the new school rule: "For the safety of all students no one may bring into the classroom anything that could be considered a physical or psychological weapon (this includes cell phones, pencils, pens, rulers, staplers, and index cards)"
Students will discuss why this is not "fair", then compare their feelings to those of Japanese Internment victims at the beginning of WWII.
Students will discuss why this is not "fair", then compare their feelings to those of Japanese Internment victims at the beginning of WWII.
Vocabulary
Add new vocabulary words to the unit Travel Dictionary as lesson activities progress. Words from this lesson will include: internment, alien, contraband, and discretion. As words are encountered in the reading they will be added to the Dictionary by the students.
Content Delivery
All students will receive a copy of the Japanese Ancestry Internment Order and a copy of Executive Order 9066.
Students will also be provided with a secondary source examining the events before, during, and after the period of Japanese internment. They will examine this document for bias, voice, and reliability.
Students will read the documents to themselves before reading them aloud to one another in small groups. Then all group members will take at least 9 bullets of notes (3 for each piece of writing) highlighting the main points of both documents and the secondary source, and determine how they relate to each other.
Student Engagement
Timed writing: Using the notes taken in groups students will independently write a three paragraph history essay in 25 minutes, using at least three quotes or references from either document.
Prompt: Why did President Roosevelt sign the Executive Order? Why was the order interpreted to include Japanese internment? And how were other minority groups in America affected during this time?
Prompt: Why did President Roosevelt sign the Executive Order? Why was the order interpreted to include Japanese internment? And how were other minority groups in America affected during this time?
Assessment
Writing assignments will be graded for quality of sentence structure, use of major themes, and original analysis.
Closure
Compare and contrast, in a Venn diagram, Executive Order 9066 and the Patriot Act of October 26, 2001
Accommodations
Resource students, English learners, and struggling readers will receive a handout that explains the relevant parts of both primary sources. Expectations for the writing assessment will be limited to use of appropriate vocabulary, sentence structure, and evidence of thought about the documents and their meaning.