Spark

Lesson 1: “Before Pearl Harbor”/“Daily Life on the Homefront”

California CCSS: Focus Standards

Engage with an article and photo collection that provide context for the wartime experiences of Japanese Americans and people on the home front generally. The photos also provide a way to introduce Dorothea Lange, one of three photographers whose work at Manzanar is covered in Seen and Unseen.
Build historical context by describing and interpreting details from an informational article and a photo collection, using observation and interpretation verbs (depicts, represents, suggests) and the sentence starters “I notice...”/“I wonder...” to explain how perspective and bias shape what gets remembered about Japanese American life before World War II.
Learn the meanings of perspective and bias, two words fundamental to understanding both the anchor text and the history of Japanese American incarceration.