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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Giving voice to history

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-6-8/Giving_Voice_to_History.aspx

A lesson plan for grades 5–8 English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Theater Arts Education

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In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students explore a somber period in American history. During World War II the U.S. government ordered more than 120,000 Japanese Americans to detainment camps. Drawing upon research and analyzing a variety of sources, including the historical novel The Journal of Ben Uchida, firsthand accounts, government documents, and select portions of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, students will write dramatic monologues that testify to some of the injustices of this period.

Students will:

  • conduct research and analyze primary and secondary historical sources as background for script writing;
  • work in groups to discuss topics with others in order to help clarify and define to their own opinions; and
  • write theater scripts based upon actual people, places, and events.

ARTSEDGE provides detailed instructions for completing the lesson, a supply list, suggestions for assessment and extension activities, and links to related web resources, student handouts, and an assessment rubric.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 6

  • Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives drawn from personal or related experience.
    • Objective 1.01: Narrate an expressive account (e.g., fictional or autobiographical) which:
      • uses a coherent organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.
      • tells a story or establishes the significance of an event or events.
      • uses remembered feelings and specific details.
      • uses a range of appropriate strategies (e.g., dialogue, suspense, movement, gestures, expressions).

Grade 7

  • Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives in response to personal, social, cultural, and historical issues.
    • Objective 1.01: Narrate an account such as a news story or historical episode which:
      • creates a coherent organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.
      • orients the reader/listener to the scene, the people, and the events.
      • engages the reader/listener by establishing a context and creating a point of view.
      • establishes the signficance of events.

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives through analysis of personal, social, cultural, and historical issues.
    • Objective 1.01: Narrate a personal account which:
      • creates a coherent, organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.
      • establishes a point of view and sharpens focus.
      • uses remembered feelings.
      • selects details that best illuminate the topic.
      • connects events to self/society.

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 5

  • Goal 3: The learner will examine the roles various ethnic groups have played in the development of the United States and its neighboring countries.
    • Objective 3.02: Examine how changes in the movement of people, goods, and ideas have affected ways of living in the United States.
  • Goal 4: The learner will trace key developments in United States history and describe their impact on the land and people of the nation and its neighboring countries.
    • Objective 4.05: Describe the impact of wars and conflicts on United States citizens, including but not limited to, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, and the twenty-first century war on terrorism.

Theatre Arts Education (2001)

Grade 5

  • Goal 1: The learner will write based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history.
    • Objective 1.03: Describe lessons related through multicultural literature.
    • Objective 1.07: Apply playwriting skills by writing monologues, dialogues and short scenes.

Grade 6

  • Goal 1: The learner will write based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history.
    • Objective 1.02: Create monologues, dialogues and short plays in response to interdisciplinary prompts, ideas, pictures and other stimuli.
    • Objective 1.05: Identify themes and plots from multicultural literature.

Grade 7

  • Goal 1: : The learner will write based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history.
    • Objective 1.02: Write dramatic material inspired by interdisciplinary prompts, ideas, pictures and other stimuli.
    • Objective 1.05: Write dramatic material inspired by personal and historical events.

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will write based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history.
    • Objective 1.02: Create written dramatic material based on original or established interdisciplinary prompts, personal experiences and historical events.