Alabama Department of Archives and History
Birmingham: The Magic City
Why is Birmingham known as the magic city? A comprehensive lesson plan provides hands-on activities, group discussion, and writing exercises to teach young historians about the importance of the city of Birmingham. Scholars learn the...
Curated OER
American and Japanese Cities
Learners compare different cities within Japan and within the United States, as well as Japanese and American cities with each other. Students research cities and then write a short essay comparing them.
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Evacuation: The Japanese Americans in World War II
Students examine Japanese internment camps of World War II. In this World War II instructional activity, students use primary and secondary sources to research the evacuation process and life within the internment camps. Students discuss...
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Big Business & Industrial Cities
This is a true gem. This PowerPoint is well-organized, has bullet points you control (which gives you time for discussion), has sound effects, and covers several aspects of American industrialization after 1900. The presentation begins...
Digital Public Library of America
The American Whaling Industry
When thinking about the American whaling industry most imagine Moby Dick and Nantucket sleigh rides, harpoons and scrimshaw, whale-oil lamps and baleen in women's corsets. But it may come as a surprise that the industry was also...
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The Homefront: America and WWII
Young scholars are introduced to the experiences of various groups of Americans at home during WWII, highlighting race, gender, and ethnicity. They improve their ability to analyze and interpret historical documents and images.
Stanford University
Nagasaki
After mere minutes, the atomic bomb in warfare changed the world forever. Pupils use their knowledge of primary sources to complete a written assessment. The assessment requires learners to identify the event and to explain in...
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Locke and Walnut Grove: Havens for Early Asian Immigrants in California
Students use readings, maps and photos to examine the life of Japanese-American immigrants in Locke and Walnut Grove in the early 1900s. They discuss their research findings, role-play the lives of immigrants and write responses.
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Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Third graders explore their culture in comparison to Japanese culture by reading the book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. They identify islands of Japan, create a Venn diagram comparing Japanese culture to American culture, and...
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Flawed Democracies
Ninth graders examine the struggle for equal opportunity. For this American Government lesson, 9th graders create a timeline outlining various groups' struggles for equal opportunity. Students research and construct a timeline to...
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Building Awareness of the Japanese American Wartime Experience
Students research the Japanese American World War II Camp Experience. They discuss the experience in the context of civil rights and the Bill of Rights.
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Arab Americans: In the Aftermath of the Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.
Students examine the effects of the terrorist attacks in 2001. In this instructional activity on discrimination and the dangers of stereotyping, students will expand their understanding of stereotyping in contemporary society and compare...
Japan Society
Popular Culture and Japan’s Gross National Cool
From Manga to Godzilla and Pokemon, Japanese pop culture has been taking the globe by storm. This phenomenon is called "soft power." Learners will examine the differences between hard and soft power, as well as learn the historical and...
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Japan and America
In this Japan & America worksheet, students work together to write sentences about Japanese and American lifestyles. Students alternate reading one fact and write their partner's fact.
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Good Prevails
Students write descriptive paragraphs of characters after reading a Japanese folktale in which characters represent by good and evil.
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Life in the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Prints And the Rise of the Merchant Class in Edo Period Japan
Learners examine famous woodblock prints of artists such as Hiroshige and Hokusai as primary documents to help them gain insight on Japanese history. They relate the woodblock images to the social hierarchy of the period.
Curated OER
Japanese Manners and Life Style
Pupils continue their examination of modern Japan and its culture. Using a map, they locate various cities and landforms in the country and watch a video on related topics in which the make a timeline of key events. In groups, they...
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World War II
Sixth graders read Under the Blood Red Sun (UBRS), V is for Victory (V), and Number the Stars(NS). They examine WWII through the eyes of Japanese, Danish, and American students and complete at least two projects: a radio broadcast and a...
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Isolation or Intervention?
Young scholars research the attitudes and politics of pre-World War II America. They become isolationists or interventionists and present their points of view during a simulated city council meeting.
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Chinese, Japanese, & Korean Immigration to the U. S.
Students study immigration of people from Southeast Asian countries to the United States. Pupils create maps and geographically illustrate the immigration. Using the internet, students research an assigned topic. They write an essay...
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American Political Thought: Minority Influence
Sixth graders brainstorm the reasons why people would want to leave their homeland to live in the United States. In groups, they research the political representation of the Board in New Haven, Connecticut. They also write a paper on...
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The Art and Writing of Estelle Ishigo, Heart Mountain Internment Camp, 1942-1945
Pupils view images of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp created by Estelle Ishigo. They discuss the time and place portrayed in the images and create a timeline recording events related to the internment of Japanese Americans.
Curated OER
Stirring the Melting Pot
Students consider the interrelationships among race, ethnicity and culture. After reading the article, Young Japanese-Americans Honor Ethnic Roots, they examine ways in which they identify with and celebrate their own ethnicities.
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Japan: A Pacific Rim Neighbor
Students descirbe everyday events typical in the lives of contemporary, young, Japanese school-age children and understand some of the underlying reasons for various practices. They see that Japan and the state of Washington have many...