Diversity Lesson

Stacey C. BurgessED 301-02

Farewell to Manzanar—Ethnic diversity

Book: Farewell to ManzanarBy:Jeanne Wakatsuki Huston &

James D. Huston• This lesson is geared towards 10th

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.