Final Final Takaki post

For my final teaching method, I would have students read his description of the response taken by the United States towards Japanese Americans during WWII. In particular, I would have students focus on the placement of hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans in internment camps and the general racism directed towards Japanese Americans. I would then have students read articles describing what Arab/Muslum Americans experienced during 9/11 . After reading the accounts from Arab/Musum Americans, I would have students compare/contrast the expereinces between Japanese Americans during WWII and Arab/Muslum Americans after 9/11. I would then have students answer the question about do Americans, in general, act with such racism during horrific events and what, if anything, can be done to prevent further episodes.

Final Takaki post

For advanced students, I would have them read Takaki’s description of African-American leaders such as Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Dubois. In particular, I want students to focus on the policies that Garvey and Dubois advocated with regards to the advancement of African-Americans. After the reading, I will hold a discussion with students about what they feel about the current status of African-Americans and if there are any connections between what Takaki discusses and what students currently notice. Finally, I want to students to write a paper on whether the policies Dubois and Garvey could assit African-Americans today, and if not, what policies would they support.

For special education students, I would have them read (or I will discuss the section with them depending on the IEP) Takaki’s discussion of how/why African-Americans moved from the south to the north. After the reading/discussion, I would divide the room in half and have the students all stand on one half of the room, which would represent the south. The other half of the room would be marked with areas that represented northern cities. To illustrate Takaki’s discussion, I would have students move from one half of the room and stand in the areas marked as northern cities to represent to population shift from the south to the north.

For students who have difficulty reading, I will show them a video that details the Harlem Renaissance. After showing them the video, I will have students draw a four page flipbbok with pictures that reperesents what they think of the Harlem Renaissance to be.

Daily Instruction

Learning objectives: In addition to the content standards listed below, I will be addressing skill based standards such as note taking, writing, and summarizing.
1) Evaluate the social and economic effects of sharecropping, tenant farming and Freedman’s Bureau in the post Civil War South.
2) Analyze the practices, policies, and legislation used to deny African-Americans’ civil rights, including black codes, lynching, the Ku Klux Klan, voting restrictions, Jim Crow Laws and Plessy v. Ferguson.
3) Examine African-American responses to the denial of civil rights such as the rise of African-American churches, African-American newspapers, historically black colleges and responses of individuals, such as Ida B. Wells, W.E.B DuBois, and Booker T. Washington.

• I will begin the lesson by asking the students the question "what do you think of when you here the phrase "separate but equal?""



• I will introduce the topic of the lesson do doing a mind map on the board.

I will write the term "Reconstruction" on the board and discuss how the objectives connect

Students should be copying the map off the board.

I will pause during the discussion to check student work


• After mind map, I will give the attached handouts to read


• After reading the handouts, I will ask students to respond to the following four questions:

1) What services did the Freedman's Bureau provide?

2) What is sharecropping?

3) Provide two examples of how African-Americans responded to denial of civil rights

4) Provide two examples of how African-Americans were denied civil rights

• I will check student responses to the questions verbally


• I will then have students write a summary paragraph describing what material was covered


• This lesson connects with other lessons because it looks more deeply at the social, economic, and political impact of Reconstruction by analyzing specific attitudes, policies, and responses....particularly among African-Americans. In addition, it helps lay the groundwork for future lessons on civil rights.

• I will differentiate instruction by utilizing the mind map. The mind map will assist visual learners by allowing them to visually connect how events are related to each other. Also, by having students provide a written summary of the lesson, students who either do not respond well to verbal Q and A and/or enjoy writing will be engaged with the material.


• The assessment I will use are a summary paragraph of the lesson, the mind map, and a quick question and answer. The question and answer will let me know if the students can recall essential facts and the summary paragraph will let me know exactly what the students took away from the lesson. In addition, the summary paragraph will assist in developing writing skills. The mind map will help assist in the ability to take notes.


• Homework will be Critical Thinking Skills Activity 18 "Predicting Consequences" worksheet

Bibliography of readings:

African-Americans in US History, 1877 to the Present: Vol 2: Globe Book Company; Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1989.

Takaki Chapter 12

Takaki Chapter 12 discusses the immigration on Chicanos from Mexico the United States. Takaki mentions that it was the belief of some Anglos that Chicanos were better suited than whites to work in the fields as Chicanos could more easily bend over. I wrote in the margin "Oak Harbor," or the name of my hometown. I wrote the name of my hometown because as a child, I vividly remember the Mexican immigrants who flooded my small, rural town to work in the fields during the summer. At the time, I didn't think much about the existence of the immigrants. My mother, in fact, taught them during summer school, spending a tremendous amount of time and energy working with them. What I realized later, though, is that the immigrants worked long, hard hours in the fields (whenever I acted up, my mother always threatened to put me side by side with them in the fields to teach me a lesson) and were paid very little. It was, in essence, glorified slavery. Takaki's discussion not only reminded of my past, but I wrote questions in the margin such as "has their position in society changed much" and "have immigrants just replaced fields with other forms of manual, low paying labor?" In short, I was reflecting on the current status of immigrants and if anything has really changed.



For my lesson, I would have my students read Takaki's discussion on how easy it was for Chicanos to cross the border and compare it to what immigrants crossing the border experience today. I have a friend who is a Border Patrol Agent in Yuma, Arizona who possesses video clips of what exactly occurs on the US/Mexican border. The clips I have seen contain acts of violence, drug smuggling, gun toting, and other shocking footage which illustrates how dangerous crossing the border has become and to what extreme immigrants are willing to go to fulfill their dream of entering the US. I would then follow up the footage by presenting arguments made by presidential candidates about how to operate the border and ask students to write an essay on what they would do to solve the border crisis.

Takaki Chapter 11

Takaki Chapter 11 focuses on the Jewish immigration experience. One of the components of the Jewish immigration experience that Takaki investigates is when many Jews decided to move from Manhatten, the lower east side in particular, to Brooklyn. I found this to be interesting as Brroklyn is commonly viewed as a neighborhood dominated by African-Americans. When did the Jews decide to leave Brooklyn? Why did they leave? I asked myself these questions becuase as someone who teaches in a neighborhood currently dominated by African-Americans that was once dominated by Jews, I question why the Jews left the neighborhood and why did African-Americans decide to settle there.

For a lesson dealing with spatial learning, I would have my students read Takaki and then have them draw a series of sketches that help them tell the story of the Jewish immigrant experience. Having students draw sketches of what they read will help visual learnings as well as those who do not learn in sequence. Takaki's chapter on the Jewish immigrant experience, with his descriptions of pogroms, life in the lower east side, and conditions in garment factories, would provide tremendous material for students to draw inspiration from.

Takaki Chapter 10

A belated post, but in Takaki Chapter 10, he discusses the Japanese immigration experience. A lesson I would devise for my students would be to have them read Takaki and then complete a worksheet that details the path Japanese immigrants took and the numbers of immigrants involved in the migration. The worksheet would detail the path the Japanese immigrants took from Japan, to Hawaii, then to California. This would help with geography/map reading skills. To develop their ability to read a graph, the worksheet would use graphs to illustrate the amount of Japanese immigrants that existed before and after a determined date. While not terribly sexy, map skills and the ability to read a graph is lacking in most students.

Takaki Chapter 9

I'll start the reflection by thanking the wonderful public library in Alexandria, Va. Without having Takaki's book in circulation, I would have never completed this reflection as I left my book in class last week. Oooppppssss!!!!



Without having my copy to write notes in the book, I had to improvise and write my notes down on a separate sheet of paper. Not a terrible inconvience, but a slight annoyance none the less.



As I read the description of Wounded Knee, I was trying to imagine the encounter in my head. I made a note as to how well Takaki paints the picture of the battle with strong, vivid language, and how real the encounter appeared. I also thought back to how the battle was introduced to me as a student and how the instruction I received lacked the passion, energy, and pain Takaki's discussion presents.



I also reflected on how the "Native American" question is presented in schools and how, for whatever reason, it receives none of the focused attention it deserves. I also reflected on how I can present the lesson better next year, making notes on paper about what I can add to the lesson, such as Takaki's description of Wounded Knee and the picture of the death of Big Foot.



For my lesson, I would have my students read what their current text book mentions about the battle of Wounded Knee and then have them read Takaki's decription. Usually, I would have my students compare each piece of literature and discuss their differnces and why the authors may have choosen to present the story as they did. While this method is an effective technique in teaching social studies, I would like to spice things up a bit and focus on teaching writing style and how the style of the textbook and Takaki are draqstically different and how writing style can impact how an event is understood.

Style, for lack of a better term, means voice. When comparing the textbook to Takaki, the voices used by the authors differ significantly. I would have my students make note of how the styles differ and ask why did the author choose that particular style to tell the story. In addition, how do the different writing styles impact your interpretation of the event? After comparing the two pieces, I would present students with primary source documents of Wounded Knee and have them write a newspaper story describing what they read.