Spark

Lesson 3: “In Response to Executive Order 9066”

50 min

California CCSS: Focus Standards

California CCSS: Supporting Standards

ELD Standards

Student Lesson

Lesson 3: “In Response to Executive Order 9066”

Student Learning Objectives

Content

Students will read Dwight Okita’s poem “In Response to Executive Order 9066” and compare its portrayal of Japanese American incarceration with Dorothea Lange’s photos from the period.

Language

Students will interpret how Okita’s poem and Lange’s photographs bear witness to Japanese American incarceration by using comparative language (both, similarly, unlike), academic interpretation verbs (reveals, highlights, emphasizes), and source-transition language (In the poem..., In the image...) to connect imagery and visual details to the historic facts and impacts of Executive Order 9066.

Foundations

Students will consider the different meanings and parts of speech that the word witness can have, choosing the most relevant meanings to discuss Japanese American incarceration.

Essential Question

How do historical records—texts, images, and testimony—shape what is remembered about the past?

Connections to

Knowledge-Building:

The items in this lesson’s Resource Set illustrate specific aspects of Japanese American incarceration, such as the issue of determining who was a “loyal American” and the effect of the policy on children and families.

Enduring Understanding:

Remembering events after the fact and ensuring they are not forgotten is one way of bearing witness to injustice.

Future Lessons:

In Lessons 4 and 5, students begin exploring the anchor text, Seen and Unseen. These lessons will provide further historic context to help students fit together the events they have read about in the Spark Resource Sets.

Unit Performance Task:

Although Okita’s poem is a reimagining of Japanese American incarceration after the fact, it raises questions that students will bring with them as they read firsthand and eyewitness accounts.

Lesson Pacing

Lesson Flow	Purpose of Learning Experience
Launch10 Minutes	Students will explore definitions of the word witness in order to build an understanding of what it means to bear witness.
Learning in Action35 Minutes	Part A: Executive Order 9066 (RI.7.6, RL.7.7) Students will learn about the content and effect of Executive Order 9066. They will read and analyze a poem and examine a set of photographs showing how the order and resultant incarceration policy affected Japanese Americans. Part B: Compare Media (RI.7.2, RI.7.6, RL.7.7) Students will reflect on the poem and photos in terms of their perspective and purpose. They will discuss who is “seen and unseen” in these works.
Look Back5 Minutes	Students will complete a Check for Understanding question that applies the concept of bearing witness to the photos and the poem they have just explored.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary Addressed in Lesson

Bear witness:: to show or state that something is true
Incarceration:: imprisonment; being confined in a prison or a prison-like place

Material List

Student copies of “In Response to Executive Order 9066” (Spark Resource Set #3)
Student or display copies of “Exposing Injustice” photo series (Spark Resource Set #3)
Key Terms and Topics graphic organizer (from Lesson 1)
Venn Diagram graphic organizer (optional)

Routines