PBL Number Four: Japanese Internment: Life Behind Barbed Wire Robert F.

Bumpus Middle School Lesson Objective:

Ms. Molly McCollum 6th grade Social Studies

Given instruction and information about the period of Japanese internment in the United States during WWII, the 6th grade Social Studies students will collect research and interpret their findings about the period of Japanese internment and the conditions of everyday life in the camps in order to create a suitcase-like product that will contain pertinent artifacts relating to what they would have carried with them to partake in life in an internment camp. Students will create and compile their artifacts in their shoebox suitcase and present them to the class. The students will also include a one page summary of what their day would have looked like if they had been a Japanese American student living in a relocation camp. Students will: Knowledge: Identify and state information relative to the conditions and circumstances of Japanese Americans living in internment camps from 1942 to 1945. Comprehension: Be able to describe, explain, and relate information regarding their research on the relocation camps and provide a basic summary through the presentation of their products. Application: Report finished products to classmates as well as demonstrate their knowledge by being prepared to explain why their artifacts in the product were relevant in addition to demonstrating that they understand and can illustrate the different information represented by each artifact. Analysis: Organize information and distinguish what is important or essential for the final presentation of their respective products as well as categorizing and organizing the different information into a product form. Synthesis: Create, design, and produce a shoebox suitcase that will contain different artifacts that they would have carried with them to an internment camp if they had been Japanese American students in addition to imagining what a typical day would look like in the camp and composing a summary of what their life would have looked like from day to day.

Pre-instructional Activities: Students will be introduced to basic information about Japanese internment via a short PowerPoint presentation in addition to being shown a ten minute clip of government funded propaganda created in the era of interest in regards to the Japanese relocation. Instructional Procedures/Strategies: Group Formation: For the development of the product, students will be working on an individual basis but are encouraged to brainstorm with one another in unofficial groups on the first day.

Problem Analysis: What do we know?

The students know that they need to create or find artifacts of relevance to place in their suitcases. Students know that they will have to explain how their items relate to or identify them and explain how their lives would have been in an internment camp. Students know they will have to create a shoebox to present to the class. Students know they will have to imagine what a day would look like in a camp for them, based on research, and share it in a one page summary with the class. Students know basic information about the Japanese internment program.

What do we need to find out?

How many items need to be in the shoebox? What kind of items can be in the shoebox? Where do I find my items?-Can I make them? How do I explain the items in my shoebox? Where do we find more information about Japanese internment? What did a regular day look like, would I be in school?

What do you think is happening here? Students will brainstorm possible solutions to the prior concerns about what to
place in their suitcases as well as how to explain them.

How shall you conduct your inquiry?

-Students will need to use their textbooks in addition to participating in research outside of class to gain more information about the Japanese internment. Having done that, students will then need to collect items and create a shoebox suitcase to bring to class for presentation on Monday.

Problem Solving:

On the first day (Wednesday), the students will be introduced to basic information
about Japanese internment via a short PowerPoint presentation in addition to being shown a ten minute clip. After the content is covered, students will be introduced to the problem. The introduction and overview of the problem will consist of the group working through the problem analysis model after having already gone through general instruction and expectations of the problem. The remainder of class time on the first day will be devoted to answering whatever questions that may arise in addition to the students beginning to brainstorm or create what will go in their final product. Homework: Complete research and finish creating or collecting items to go in box. Also create shoe box to be presented on Monday. Think about how your items are important.

On the second day, students will work in class to complete writing their summaries of their day in the camp. After their summaries are complete, students will be

divided into groups to present their final products with one another. The oral presentation in the small groups will not be graded. The final grade is an assessment of the product and the relevance of the items within it. After all the products are shared, the class will come back together to participate in problem follow-up.
Problem Reporting/ Closure: Closure will be brought to the problem at the conclusion of the students presentations within the groups where the students will have thoroughly covered and discussed different elements of life as a Japanese American living in an internment camp. Further closure will be brought by going through the problem follow-up process as well as selecting a member from each group of students to share their product with the whole class.

Assessment: Students will be assessed by the quality of their final product in addition to the information gleaned from research and several other elements that relate to the product itself. (See Criteria Sheet) Bibliography: Resources for student use: Resources for teacher use:
http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=13499&title=Historical_Propaganda___Japanese_Internm ent_WWII < Propaganda video, PowerPoint presentation, textbook

History textbook, internet search engines, library