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.

Takaki Chapter 8

In chapter 8, Takaki discusses the experience of the Chinese immigrants during the late 1800's. While the discrimination and racism experienced by the Chinese parallels the experiences of many other immigrant groups during the same period, Takaki mentions that some of the hatred and anger the Chinese experienced was due in part because the tremendous influx of Chinese immigrants meant fewer jobs for "native" Americans. I reflected on how this similar theme still plays out today, with racist attitudes towards certain groups developing because of their perceived ability to "steal" jobs that we previously done by a different group. In particular, there is some racism towards some of the Hispanic groups who have immigrated to the US because they are willing to do work at a cheaper rate than other groups. I also reflected on how race, as a social construct, prevents people from seeing that everyone is in the same boat and keeps different groups of people from uniting under one cause.

For a lesson plan, I would have my students read the section of Takaki that discusses the growth of "Chinatown" sections in certain cities. I would then present information that discusses how another immigrant group developed their own section of a particular city (i.e. Greektown in Chicago) and compare and contrast. Finally, I would take a students on a fieldtrip to Chinatown in DC and have them write a report on what they saw and see if it resembles anything that Takaki mentioned. In addition, I would present students with a description of Chinatown in DC as a reference in which to develop their ideas.

Takaki Chapter 7 and Wineburg Chapter 4

To spice things up a bit, I will do my reflection on Wineburg. Continuing in much the same fashion as when Takaki, I underlined what I thought were key points, read the cover of the book to get the author's viewpoint, and asked myself questions as I read. With Wineburg's chapter, though, I found myself doing something a little different. Instead of asking myself superficial questions such as "how can I relate this material to my students" or "what issues would be beneficial for my students to investigate," Wineburg's discussion on how to properly contextualize history inspired me to ask more salient questions such as "what do my students know about contextualization" or "how can I even approach to teach my students about contextualization?" I continually found myself drifting off and asking myself the question "if you were an administrator or consultant designing a curriculum, would you continue down the road most schools take when designing a social studies curriculum, or would you develop something that would allow students to contextualize more?" In essence, I was contextualizing Wineburg's discussion by considering the viewpoint of students, teachers, and administrators.
One of the issues I contend with as a new teacher is how to teach the material the way I want to while fulfilling standards. Currently, in the rush to fulfill standards, teaching students to contextualize is difficult because of timing and resources. Is what Wineburg proposing actually doable in most schools? If I were an administrator, how would I try to accomplish what Wineburg discusses? These were some of the questions I was asking myself while reading chapter 4.
I was also disappointed with the history teachers responses to the information Wineburg presented (I noted that with a :( in my book). I felt that the physics teacher did a much better job contextualizing the material, so much so, I wrote questions in my book about discipline training and how much attention should be paid to how teachers are trained and what courses they should be qualified to teach. Once again, I drifted off to my stint as a make believe administrator and pondered whether or not the type of discipline training should be considered when certifying teachers or designing curriculum.

For my lesson plan, I would have students research current immigration policy and some of the reasons why some people have argued that greater control must be exercised over immigration. Hopefully, my students will uncover the argument made by some that America is becoming "less American" because the influx of immigrants, particularly those from Latin America, has had an indelible impact on political, social, and economic issues. In essence, some Americans feel that the US has been invaded by immigrants and that the US is becoming increasingly Hispanic. I would then present Takaki's findings where he illustrates the sentiment of Mexicans living in California when Anglo settlers started moving into California. I would have students compare the two scenarios, asking them what are the similarities and differences and what information can we gleam from Takaki's investigation that might shed light on current immigration issues.

Takai Chapter 6

Takaki Chapter 6 and Wineburg Chapter 3

I found Takaki’s chapter on the emigration of the Irish particularly interesting because I was not familiar with the entire story of the emigration of the Irish and their incredible struggle for political, economic, and social equality. It’s quite moving, inspiring, and dispelled some of the myths or stereotypes that often plague the Irish.

While reading Takaki, I conceptualized the story of the Irish by recalling scenes from Martin Scorcese’s movie “Gangs of New York.” The movie outlines some the struggles Irish immigrants faced while trying to make a new life in New York City, particularly racism, discrimination, poverty, and the riot caused by discriminatory draft policies. As I was reading, I was filtering through the images and story lines of the movie and trying to make connections between the movie and Takaki’s investigation. Not only did using the movie as a reference enhance my conceptualization of Takaki, but it also increased my critical analysis of the book as I constantly questioned where Takaki obtained his research and how the viewpoint of an academic might differ from the viewpoint of a film maker. While conducting this process of referring back to the movie to help me conceptualize, I considered how beneficial this would be for my students and how to better incorporate film in my class.

For my lesson plan, I would divide my class into three groups and assign each group a section of Takaki. Takaki has divided chapter 6 into three sections and I would assign each group a section. Each group will read the section, select roles (i.e. Irish immigrants, landlords, politicians, businessmen) and do any additional research to prepare them for the lesson. To add a kinesthetic component to the lesson, I will require each group to perform a 10 minute skit on their assigned section. The purpose of the skit is to have the students role play the people, struggles, policies, agendas, actions, ideas, etc., that affected Irish immigrants. By performing the skit, the instruction is differentiated and I will be able to assess what the students have learned by gauging what they mentioned/performed in their skit.

Takaki Chapter 5 reflection and Wineburg Chapter 2 Reflection

As I was reading Takaki Chapter 5, I reflected on the some of the material I discussed with my students and came up with some ideas as to how to better present the material for next year. In particular, one of the misconceptions my students had about Southern Whites is that they were all landowners and were supportive of slavery. As Takaki notes, that is not entirely true. I made copies of this chapter and placed it in my "good idea" file so I can use it next year.

As I read Takaki, I'm find myself reflecting on what I have taught my students and how might I use some of Takaki's research for future classes. His approach is vastly different than the approach taking by the county approved textbook. As I come across the differences, I make notes in the book about what they are and how I might incorporate them in class.

Wineburg's examination of teaching social studies in school is particularly fascinating because it raises some poignant issues concerning what we teach students and how the social studies curriculum should be developed in schools. I teach high school psychology and have just finished a unit on the social development theories of scholars like Piaget and Erikson. While certainly interesting and noteworthy concepts, I found myself asking the question "are high school students really capable of understanding such abstract concepts" and "will they even remotely remember these people/concepts after the test is completed?" I personally believe that the book mentions these concepts and names to simply inform students about what/who they are and not to help students construct knowledge. It's as if we simply firehouse students with information so they can succeed on Jeopardy and not because we want them to generate/create content or knowledge.

To apply Wineburg/Takaki in my Psychology class, I would reference Takaki's mention of Dr. Samuel Morton's research on the size of cranium capacities and the impact it has on intelligence/behavior. The science of measuring one's cranium to help determine behavior is called phrenology. Much like Historians who study historiography, my first unit in psychology deals with how psychology has evolved and how psychology used to be studied. I would use Dr. Morton's research to provide contextual evidence to my students about how individual behavior used to be determined and contrast it with how we study behavior today. Dr. Morton's research is a great case study to use because most students, even with their limited knowledge of psychology, would never even consider using cranium size as a determinant of intelligence or behavior.

Takaki Chapter 4 Reflection

As I continue with Takaki, I still utilize the method of underlining key sentences that either highlight his main idea or provide details that support his main idea. I find that more often than not, the main idea/argument the author is examining is located within the first view paragraphs . It is often posed as a question or is phrased in a manner that directly states what the author is investigating in the proceeding pages. The supporting details are often located in the paragraphs proceeding the introduction of the main idea and are used to support the author's purpose. I locate these details by paying close attention to the first sentence of every paragraph because in a well written argument, the first sentence of every paragraph should provide a clear idea of what the following information contains. The supporting details are anecdotes, research notes, statistics, or primary source data that support the author's argument. If I get confused, I will read the supporting details and refer back to the main argument.
Once I discovered what Takaki was investigating, I started to activate my prior knowledge of the removal of the Native Americans by asking myself questions. How were they removed? Who sanctioned their removal? What happened after their removal? I did not write these questions down, but simply held a dialogue with myself. In addition, I was reflecting on what details/topics Takaki discussed in Chapter 4 that may be useful to me in my classroom. I think the letters from tribal chiefs he cited that described what the Native Americans had to endure when crossing the country during winter is extremely poignant and provides a viewpoint of the removal that is not found in most textbooks.

I would use Takaki's discussion on the impact of the railroad to illustrate to students that the railroads did more than connect east and west and stimulate the economy; the railroads forced people to immigrate, migrate, assimilate, increased tensions between whites and other groups, and had other unintended consequences. The rise of the railroad is often celebrated in history books, but as Takaki mentions, the railroad also brought some pain and despair and had far reaching consequences.

Curricular Unit

The unit covers Reconstruction to 1897 and is designed for a 9th grade History class. The unit will be presented in 11 sessions over a period of three weeks and is adjusted for block scheduling.

The unit is meaningful to me because some of the cultural, political, technological, and social elements of the period can be easily related to students (i.e. the invention of the phone, labor rights, voting rights for all male citizens) and some the developments of that period helped lay the groundwork for contemporary ideas towards culture, society, politics, and technology.

Some of the big ideas students should develop an enduring understanding of after completing this unit are:
The political impact of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and their impact on African-Americans
Identify the political, social, and economic impact of Reconstruction
Students will examine the factors of production in order to describe the role of land, labor and capital in the growth of industry
Students will identify the geographic conditions of the Westward Expansions and analyze the societal implications of the Westward Movement on minorities and women
Evaluate the impact of westward expansion on Native Americans and their responses to the destruction of the buffalo, military conflicts, and the Dawes Severalty Act (1887).
Students will examine important inventions of the late 1800’s in order to explain how improvements in technology led to an increase in industry in the late 1800’s
Students will analyze the impacts of the railroads on the economy in order to examine the rise in industry in the late 1800s

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to write essays on the previously mentioned topics and pass a unit test. Throughout the lesson, I will have students write journal entries/reflections in class on the various topics as well as administer quizzes that will reinforce/asses student knowledge on the essential topics. The goal for the unit is to improve the writing ability of students, to illustrate that what occurred over 100 years still has a lasting impact, and to familiarize students with segments of African-American history that are critical to understanding the present.

The essential question of the unit is what were some of the important cultural, political, social, and technological developments during Reconstruction to 1897 and how those developments affect modern day society.

Students will be assessed by having to write essays, complete quizzes, conduct exit tickets, and through oral questioning. Writing essays will demonstrate not only what the students have learned, but will also give notice of the ability of students to write and if they are engaged with the material. Quizzes will assess mastery of content knowledge and how well students are keeping up with the material. Exit tickets and oral questioning done at the end of each period will clue me in as to whether students understand the material and if a review of certain material is required. Finally, a unit test will be administered at the end of the unit.

The knowledge and performance skills need to be sequenced with exit tickets/oral questioning done at the end of each period to check for understanding. Quizzes and writing assignments will be conducted once a week to check for content mastery, writing ability, and whether students can apply knowledge. Spacing quizzes out to about once a week will make certain students are exposed to the material more often, creating less time between the introduction of material and the unit test. Also, having students write once a week will help them refine and practice what they learn. Finally, my unit on Reconstruction will expose students to content they will encounter in the Government class their sophomore year.

Instruction can be differentiated when students discuss inventors such as Thomas Edison, Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, etc. Students can break up into groups and create a poster that contains a picture of what the inventor made, a description of what it is, how it improved American industry/society, and how we see the invention applied today.

I would incorporate cultural resources into the unit by identifying someone in the community who is part of a trade union. During the unit on Reconstruction to 1897, students will discuss trade unions and their importance. I would bring someone from the local community who is part of a trade union to discuss the benefits of a trade union, how one becomes part of a trade union, and the overall importance of a trade union. Also, to bring someone in from the local community who is a member of a trade union will set a sound example for students with regards to furthering education beyond high school as members of trade unions are often skilled workers who received specialized education/training.

The materials needed will be a textbook, notebook, a journal, poster board, markers/crayons, and ancillary resources such as videos and primary sources.

Takaki Chapter 3

(Editor's note: It's been a long weekend. Went to Connecticut for a wedding and between the travel, overdone steak, and the terrible drivers on 295, I am in no mood to be entertaining. You can complain to management, but I doubt that will get you far.)

Chapter 3 in Takaki had a couple nuggets that I could definitely share with my students. First, his examination of how it wasn't just Blacks who were slaves, but the Whites who were indentured servants could also be considered slaves sheds new light on common held beliefs. This is an interesting point as it challenges what most students, and teachers for that matter, believe concerning slavery in Colonial America. To integrate this into a lesson, I would do a "KWL" Chart, first asking the students what they know about slavery and then asking them what they would want to know about slavery. After completing the "KW" part of the chart, I would do a guided reading lesson on Takaki's discussion concerning the indentured servitude of whites. After the reading, I would do the "L" part of the chart and ask the students what they learned from the lesson. Hopefully, the students would learn that it wasn't just Blacks from Africa who served as slaves in the colonies.

Another nugget from Takaki was his investigation of why blacks were selected to become slaves and how the colonies moved away from having whites serve as indentured servants. Takaki mentions that as the landowning elite in the Colonies became more aware of class differences, they decided to create a "scapegoat" that would direct the attention of oppressed whites towards blacks and slavery and away from class differences. With the focus of attention shifted towards blacks and slavery, elite landowners could rest assure that their social and political status would remain undisturbed.

This would be an excellent lesson for my students because this examination begins to reveal racism as a social construct, one that still separates individuals today. To start the lesson, I would provide some employment statistics from my home state...the great state of Ohio. Currently, Ohio is suffering tremendous unemployment and the effects that tend to follow, i.e poor schools, run down towns, limited social services, and limited opportunities. I would provide the statistics without informing my students of the race or ethnicity of the group I am referring to. I would ask the students to guess what group I may be talking about. Hopefully, they will not answer "white" and steal my thunder. By explaining to them that groups of other races and ethnicities suffer the same ills as those in inner cities, students should recognize that certain issues are not just a "white" or "African-American" problems; rather, they are problems suffered by many people and that we tend to classify it as a race issue because if everyone realized that they suffer from the same problems, some people at the government level would have a serious problem on their hand. Race, in short, is a social construct that prevents people from organizing efforts and working towards a common goal.

As noted in a previous post, I tend to underline important information as I read as a method of monitoring how I think. I took the time the other day with my AP Psychology students to do a similar metacognition exercise. First, I described metacognition and why it is important. Second, I modeled what I do as I read to give them a better understanding. I took an opinion piece from the Washington post a few weeks back called "Rose Colored View of All Blacks Schools" written by Mr. Gilmore, legal scholar at Howard University. Mr Gilmore examines school integration and how Washington D.C.'s Dunbar High School flourished during segregation and whether or not contemporary African-American students would flourish under as similar model. I choose this article specifically because it was a topic they could identify with, it wasn't particularly difficult to read, and it could generate some very opinionated responses. I thought using this criteria for the first attempt would help ease my students into the exercise.

I set the parameters by having the students use various symbols to annotate whether the agreed, disagreed, were surprised, or confused by certain information. In addition, I had the students write what surprised them about the article, what new information they learned, and what one question they had for the author.

Overall, the students responded well to the exercise. I'm not sure if it was because it was a break from Psychology related material or because I told them it was an exercise I routinely due in graduate school, but they seemed to be acceptable of the exercise and would like to do another one again. I felt pretty positive about it as well because it helps broke the routine and introduced my students to college level material, which is motivating for some.

Neighborhood Map

I have attached the map of the neighborhood surrounding my school here. In general, my school is located in a suburban area called Oxon Hill, Md. It is located just about a mile from the border of D.C. with the high school being located in a subdivision surrounded by single family homes and apartments. The vast majority of restaurants and other services are located on St Barnabas road, which is also about a mile away from the school. In short, while surrounded by apartments and homes, my school is decent walk from many community services.

If I were to incorporate anything about the local community into a lesson, I would probably focus on the lack of community facilities and a cemetery located off St. Barnabas. First, I would focus on the lack of community facilities to help students question why is it that people such as doctors, lawyers, business owners, etc., often do not provide their services to people living in certain communities. Why should it be made difficult for people to receive certain services because of where they live? (Read: Why is it that people living in poorer communities often have no access to needed services because people are afraid to set up business in their neighborhood?) You think I am wrong...try finding a Giant or Safeway in a poor neighborhood.

The cemetery is also noteworthy as it provides evidence of the "white flight" that transformed the neighborhood from a primarily middle class, Jewish neighborhood to a lower middle class, African-American neighborhood. Most of the markers in the cemetery have a Star of David on them, suggesting the heavy Jewish influence that used to exist in the community. I would challenge my students to question why the neighborhood had changed, how it changed, and how they feel about being segregated. This lesson would serve the purpose of illustrating to students what motivates a group of people to leave one area and settle in another.

Takaki refelection

The first thing I did to prepare myself for reading Takaki was to read the front and back cover of the book to get a better idea about what the book is about. This method helped familiarize me with the book's topic and helped me better establish a framework for dealing with the text. By doing this, I activated my prior knowledge of multiculturalism and created a better contextual basis for reading.

The method of activating prior knowledge is something I do with my students before every lesson. It's called a "warm-up." The first thing my students do when entering the class is sit down and write a response to the warm-up question I have on the board. We then take a few minutes to discuss their thoughts or opinions. I then connect the warm-up question to that day's topic. This method is effective because by activating prior knowledge in students, students may be more engaged, less confused, and have some expectation on what the proceeding lesson will tackle.

After reading the cover, I read the author's note. I do this every time I read a book to get a better understanding of the author's purpose and background. By understanding the purpose and background to the text, I can create a viewpoint which makes the text easier to digest.

As I read Takaki, I paid close attention to the opening paragraphs of each chapter. I underlined the sentences that set up his argument and provide insight into the paragraphs that follow. As I read his supporting paragraphs, I would routinely flip back to his opening paragraphs and re-read the sentences I underlined. This process helped clear up any questions I had and added emphasis to the reading. Finally, I underlined the key sentences in the concluding paragraph to help me summarize Takaki's purpose and to reinforce what he investigated.

Takaki discusses multiculturalism and aims to tell the story of American History through the viewpoint of a "different mirror." Recently, I used the "different mirror" approach with my 9th grade US History students. Prince Georges County Public Schools has outlined the curriculum for 9th grade US History and requires teachers to model their lessons around what they prescribe. As I was starting the unit on Reconstruction, I noticed that the curriculum guide jumps from Reconstruction to the rise of Industry in the late 1800's. Even though the county sponsored text book had a full unit on Native Americans, the curriculum guide does require the unit on Native Americans to be taught. I personally thought that to not teach students about Native Americans was a travesty, so I decided to take a whole period to at least discuss what happened to the Native Americans and, more importantly, teach what obstacles Native Americans face today.

To activate their prior knowledge, I asked the class if someone had ever lied to them to them, and of so, how did it feel? Did they ever trust that person again? After a quick discussion, I played a 15 minute video which recapped the steps the US Government took to remove Native Americans from their land. Following the video, I presented the class with a guided reading excercise that highlighted some of the current issues facing Native Americans. I wanted my students not just to know what happened to the Native Americans, but to also realize the many problems Native Americans face today are due to past policies. Finally, I summarized the lesson by asking students to discuss the current conditions of Native Americans and how their condition might parallel the conditions of other ethnic groups. Did it change the world, probably not, but at least I can sleep easier knowing that I attempted to fix a wrong and exposed my students to a topic they may otherwise never consider.

For all you football junkies next weekend, it's the 0-2 Fighting Irish against the 0-2 Michigan Wolverines. I hate both equally, but even I am dismayed how terrible each team is playing. As an Ohio State fan, I don't win with this game, unless of course, the US Navy decides to drop a bunch of Tomahawk missiles into Notre Dame stadium. A boy can dream....

The Montalicious One

Welcome

My name is James Oakley and I am a Social Studies teacher at Potomac High School in gorgeous Prince George's county Maryland and a graduate student at American University. Teaching rocks.....and this blog will too! This blog will capture the thoughts, opinions, hope, and despair of a first year teacher, a grad student, and the overall greatest man on earth.

For those deviants expecting a Full Monty, I sincerely apologize. Get your kicks somewhere else!

All love and respect go to the prettiest man on earth...US Navy Lt Micah D Murphy. His incessant use of my middle name in a variety of creative forms spawned the name for this blog. To those who said you would never donate something worthwhile to this world, I present you with your sweet justice!

Hi mom and dad....I am on the Internets!

To my Montalicious wife....your effort in supporting all that goes into creating the Full Monty is greatly appreciated and I can't thank you enough!

To my wonderful students at Potomac High School....you are my muse. I hope this blog tells your story because it definitely needs to be shared.

Oh yeah...Ohio State rocks!

The Montalicious One