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Erin
Fairbrother
09
Project
Summary
Elmira City Schools
1. General Overview of the Proposed
Project:
I am proposing to have my students create
an informative documentary comparing and contrasting the Japanese
Internment Camps with the Nazi Concentration Camps, because so many
students leave school without any real working knowledge of the
Japanese Internment Camps. They only seem to recognize or think of
the Nazi Camps, when also they should know about what happened in
their own country during the same time period.
2. Clear Purpose and Objective:
For students to gain working
knowledge/understanding of injustices committed here in the United
States against US citizens during WWII after the attack on Pearl
Harbor. Then to apply that knowledge to what they already know
about the Nazi injustices and compare and contrast the two.
3. Stakeholders: grade level, who will
benefit, who will participate in this project.
Global History and Geography II Honors
students.
4. U.S. History Content Area
The United States after the attack on Pearl
Harbor and our internal response to “protect America” by instituting
the executive order 9066 under FDR.
5. Outline Describing Content
Students will start at the beginning with
the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Executive Order 9066 by FDR, the
Camps themselves, the conditions of and effects of the camps on the
Japanese people, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, health impacts on
the Japanese who were in the camps.
6. Software to be used, internet
materials, contacts, etc.
Movie Maker software, pbs.org, sfmuseum.org,
geocities.com, lcweb2.gov, other valid websites and information that
is found by my students.
7. Level of Student Involvement
I will facilitate and oversee the project
but it will rest completely in their hands as groups.
8. Evaluation process (include students
when possible)
I will create checkpoint evaluations to be
handed out throughout the duration of the project. I will also
create a final evaluation form for each group to evaluate themselves
and one for each of the other groups. Therefore, feedback will be
given by myself and by all groups to each of the individual groups.
9. Timeline: how you envision the
project being carried out between start up and conclusion
I think I will introduce the project
between the units on WWI and WWII, that way kids can get settled
into their groups and can get a feel for the topic and can start to
get an idea of how they want to set up their documentaries. They
will continue to work on the project inside and outside of class
through the end of the unit on WWII. The documentaries will be
shown at the conclusion of the unit.
10. Comments or Questions:
I am thinking of doing this as a challenge
among all of my classes with prizes for the top two documentaries.
Erin Fairbrother
Elmira City School District
Elmira Free Academy
Global II
1. General overview of the project
The students worked continuously on researching the topic
of the Japanese Internment Camps in order to condense and create a
short awareness ad comparing the camps in the US with the Nazi
concentration camps during class and on their own. There is
extensive information available on credible sites such as pbs.org;
geocities.com; lcweb2.gov and sfmuseum.org. Once I posed this
project as a challenge among my three classes with a prize for the
top awareness ad the students were very intrigued and excited to
start.
2. Clear Purpose and Objective
Many of my students were really surprised at the
information they found on the internment camps. Most of my students
had no real knowledge of these camps before we started the project.
I really believe this project opened the eyes of my students to the
injustices that happened in their own country. Some of the
responses from my students were heartfelt and many walked away very
disturbed at what they discovered. I felt that the project helped
to keep the topic serious but enlightening and engaging at the same
time. When we first began the research the kids still were more
focused on the Nazi Camps but as they began to read and see the
faces they opened up to the camps in the United States freely.
3. Stakeholders
The project worked very well with my global students,
although they are 9th graders they really stepped up to
the plated and delivered great research, ideas and empathy. This
project would work well for 10th grade students as well
as 11th grade students in both Global History and US
History classes.
4. U.S. History Content Area
The time period after the attack on Pearl Harbor during
WWII, and the initiation of the Japanese Internment Camps in the
United States.
5. Outline Describing Content
The research of the project centered around the students exploring
the Internment Camps in the U.S., why they were created, how the
people were placed in the camps and the effects of the camps on
those placed in the camps and also the American public’s views of
the camps. The students did a really great job with researching the
information surrounding the camps. They had to condense their
information so they could create a 5 minute awareness ad on the
camps. This was the hardest part of the project because they wanted
to include everything that they found. They became so emotionally
involved that there was a lengthy period of editing that was needed
to force them to pull out what they felt were the most important
ideas, information and facts. They had to then compare at some point
in their ads the Japanese Camps with the Nazi Camps. This required
much cooperation among group members to rationally decide what they
would keep and what they would get rid of. This was challenging
with 14 year olds but with a little guidance from myself they worked
most of it out together as groups.
6. Software to be used, internet materials, contacts, etc.
This is where the tough times began. The moviemaker
program is not as easy as it looks. I am not all that knowledgeable
in this area so it probably would have been helpful to have had some
practice on it before we started the project. I would next begin to
use the program with smaller projects earlier in the year so that
the kids became familiar with it and all that it can do. We ended
up just videotaping the ads which meant no footage other than the
students talking on camera. This was very disappointing but a
lesson learned. I have high hopes for this project with future
groups. Technology obviously can make or break a lesson/project.
7. Level of student involvement
There were really only a few times that I need to get
involved with the groups which I was very pleased with. The times
were helping them to condense their information and with the
problems with the moviemaker program, to call in help on that and by
then we were way over on time and had to rap it up and use what we
had. Overall, student ran the projects themselves and did a great
job with it.
8. I created a simple rubric from one that I found online. It
looked at individual participation, factual knowledge, creativity,
level of comparing the two camps and contrasting the camps.
9. Timeline
This was tough, we started on block schedule this year so
everything was off kilter. I did not take on the project until
second semester because I wanted to get a feel for the new schedule
before I took on a huge project. Unfortunately, WWII does not come
until late in the class so I realized too late that we would be
pressed for time but we managed just fine. If we hadn’t had the
problems with the software the projects would have been completed
sooner and would have been outstanding. We all would have been a
little more relaxed throughout the project if we had more time. I
think next time I will introduce the project much earlier on in the
semester and start the research earlier as well so we are not racing
to the finish line.
10. I posed this project as a challenge between my classes which
was great to get them interested and to keep them motivated but in
the end it was so hard to choose a top awareness ad that each class
was given a prize. Overall, everyone won because they all had a
party and walked away from the project with an emotional tie to a
new topic.
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