Diversity Lesson Stacey C. Burgess ED Farewell to Manzanar—Ethnic diversity

Book: Farewell to Manzanar By:Jeanne Wakatsuki Huston & James D. Huston This lesson is geared towards 10 th grade students. This lesson teaches racial tolerance

Quick summary For those who are not familiar with the novel, it is a true account of the Japanese interment camps during WWII.

Objectives The objective of this lesson is to demonstrate racial tolerance.

Web links

Asian American Literature : History, Classroom Use, Bibliography & WWW Links This site caught my attention with this quote, “Fiction books can be multi cultural, cross- cultural, or parallel-culture. Developing a relationship through a fictionalized character could be transferred to different culture.” I believe that this is a very true statement. Students are often afraid to ask questions about another culture and this is a perfect way to address some of their questions.

The Japanese American Internment This gives more of a historical take on the internment. Also, it provides very interesting photographs that validates the author’s story.

SCORE: Farewell to Manzanar- Teacher Guide A nice detailed teaching guide for the book. Also includes the theme of racism.

ML Literature Connections: Teaching Guide Very good resource for paper ideas and research proposals.

Japanese-American Internment in WWII Photographs Exhibit, Univ. Utah This might be useful to supplement the author’s account of her particular camp with others who weren’t interred with her.

Lesson plans/Activities This lesson would have to stretch on for as long as it takes to read the novel. During the course of the novel certain activities could be done to aid in their understanding of what happened during the time era and why the camps were instated. Diversity/racial tolerance would be the theme that I would be teaching for the entire course of the novel.

Activities

Materials Materials would very. Video Book Web site material

One activity that would be great for the visual learner would be to watch such videos as: Beyond the Barbed Wire, a portion of Bitter Memories: True Lake, or Challenge to Democracy.

I would ask students to freewrite after they have read the novel to tell me their feelings on how the Japanese were treated during this time in history. Freewrites allow students to get out their feelings without worrying who is reading. Class discussion would be encourages after they have written.

If possible, invite a speaker (If possible a survivor) to talk to the students about the experience and possible ways for that kind of treatment of a specific race to happen again in the United States.

Suggested Essay 2.Ask students what they would consider a fitting tribute to those who suffered and died as a result of their experiences in the internment camps. Challenge them to design a memorial, with sketches and notes outlining their ideas and their reasons. The memorial may be a physical structure; a work of art, literature, or music; or a program to be implemented. ML Literature Connections.

Essay Ideas Write a brief essay relating the treatment of Arab Americans after September 11 to how the Japanese were treated during WWII. Were there any similarities? What was the big differences?

Poster Create a poster. A poster that depicts what happened leading up to the interment and possibly pictures from the internment camps. (This is where one of the web links becomes helpful). By doing this poster the students have to see what happened to the Japanese, Japanese that were citizens.

Fictional poem After reading the book have students write a quick Where I’m from poem from the main characters point of view and in small groups read poems aloud.

Fictional paragraph Distribute pictures from website and have students write a fictional account of what happened based on the pictures This teaches the students how to think about other’s feelings. It takes them away from their culture and forces them to think about someone else.

Works Cited Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki &James Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. New York: Bantam, 1995.