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Lesson 11: Seen and Unseen
50 min
California CCSS: Focus Standards
California CCSS: Supporting Standards
ELD Standards
Student Lesson
Lesson 11: Seen and Unseen
Student Learning Objectives
1
Foundations
Students will distinguish and apply multiple meanings of the word record in practice sentences and within Seen and Unseen.
2
Content
Students will learn about Toyo Miyatake, a photographer imprisoned at Manzanar, and analyze his motivation to create a photographic record of camp life.
3
Language
Students will explain how perspective shapes what gets recorded and remembered by using analytical verbs (documents, records, emphasizes), evidence-based explanation (“the text shows . . . ,” “the photos suggest . . .”), and synthesis transitions (similarly, in contrast) when discussing Miyatake’s work in Seen and Unseen and the photojournalism article.
Essential Question
How do historical records—texts, images, and testimony—shape what is remembered about the past?
Connections to
Knowledge-Building:
Students learn about Miyatake's clandestine photography and his unique perspective as an incarcerated community member.
Enduring Understanding:
People experiencing injustices need tools to record and share their own perspective.
Future Lessons:
In future lessons, students learn further details of Miyatake’s story and compare Miyatake’s perspective with that of other incarceration camp photographers.
Unit Performance Task:
In learning about Miyatake, students use Miyatake's photography as an example of how accounts from within an incarcerated community complicate and enrich historical records.
Lesson Pacing
| Lesson Flow | Purpose of Learning Experience |
|---|---|
Launch5 Minutes | Students will discuss the responsibilities of photographers and writers in portraying people and documenting events. |
Literacy Lab10 Minutes | Students will learn two related meanings of record. They will relate these words to conditions in the incarceration camps and discuss the importance of accurate word choice in a nonfiction narrative. |
Learning in Action30 Minutes | Part A: Read Analytically (RI.7.6, SL.7.1.a) Students will closely read and analyze the opening pages of the anchor text section on Toyo Miyatake. They will analyze the unique circumstances he faced as a prisoner-photographer and consider his self-appointed mission to “record everything.” Part B: Compare Perspectives (RI.7.6, RI.7.9, SL.7.1.a) Students will compare the points made in the article “A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Why Photojournalism Matters . . .” with the description of Toyo Miyatake’s work and aims in Seen and Unseen. They will discuss the limitations and responsibilities that condition a photographer’s efforts to record history. |
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Addressed in Lesson
- Record:
- (v.) to create written or other evidence of something so it will be remembered; (n.) a document or other work that shows past events
Material List
- Unit 2 Lesson 11 Student Edition
- Key Terms and Topics Graphic Organizer
Routines
- Think-Pair-Share
- Generating Situations, Context, and Examples
- Collaborative Idea Board
- Check for Understanding
Lesson Sequence
Lesson Texts
Short-Form Text
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Why Photojournalism Matters Now More Than Ever
Justin Aitken, Photography Tutor at The Photography Institute
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