Inspiration Report: Proposal for Program Enrichment Supporting 8th Grade Lessons from Japanese American Internment
I recently visited the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California when a cousin was in town. I have been to this park a number of times over the years and always learn something new when I go. On this visit we watched a documentary about the Japanese American community of Richmond that was torn apart during World War II due to the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans at that time. Although I have some knowledge of the camps and have friends whose parents were interned, I was unaware of the stories of the community in Richmond.
After the film, we learned from the docent that some of the survivors are still alive and occasionally speak at the park’s visitor center. I started thinking that it would make a great field trip for the 8th grade students at the middle school where I work as a natural tie-in with their reading of Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir about time spent in the camps by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. What an impact it would have on their reading experience if they could hear first hand stories from actual survivors of the camps!
Applying these thoughts to our study of Hyperlinked Libraries led me to create a proposal for the administrative team at Montera Middle School to bring our students to the park and learn about the power of stories as they work through their assigned curriculum. Although this proposal was created for this assignment, I have already spoken with my principal and the lead English teacher about the general plan and will be presenting the proposal to them as we plan for next year’s programs. Because I wanted to keep the proposal authentic as a presentation, I did not include some of the tie-ins to the course that I would like to highlight. So I hope you will indulge my wordiness here and allow me to elaborate in this space.
I believe that one of the key elements of the Hyperlinked Library is that learning does take place anywhere and everywhere. Libraries can be anywhere and everywhere (Module 8: New Models). We don’t need to limit our perception of services to just a building and books. I want to be the school librarian who leads a field trip to a local national park so students can benefit from the stories told by others. As I think about how to reach my library’s non-users (Module 5: Hyperlinked Communities), I think of the students who routinely tell me that they hate to read books. When they are in the library and they tell me this, I usually pull out a Where’s Waldo book and they laugh and get busy. But imagine those students who are required to read a book in their English class when they meet a real live person who has a story to tell that relates to the book they are reading. I’m hopeful that the power of that story will help them understand the importance of what they are required to read.
Thanks for indulging me. I hope you enjoy the program presentation.
Proposal for Program Enrichment Supporting 8th Grade Lessons from Japanese American Internment
17 Comments
Emily Mizokami
Maggie,
Congratulations on a job well done with your inspiration report! I found it to be visually engaging and very well thought out. You thought of every detail! I recently had an unfortunate exchange with a friend much younger than myself and I realized she knew almost nothing about the Japanese internment camps during World War II and from this ignorance stemmed the inability to grasp how these types of government programs (holding centers at the Mexican/American border) will continue happening if not enough Americans are properly educated about their own country’s past. Perhaps if this person, who has now been relegated to an acquaintance, had participated in this program you have designed she would have had the building blocks necessary for understanding her country’s past wrong doings and how they affect programs and attitudes today.
Beautiful presentation!
Emily Mizokami
Sorry forgot to tag you in my previous comment @maggierogers. Please check out my comment on your awesome project!
Maggie Rogers
Thanks so much @emmizo! Sorry for my late reply — I’ve been traveling and had trouble logging into my site. I’m so sorry that your friend has become an aquaintance now. I lost a friendship recently for a similar reason and it’s still troubling me. I feel like I have much to learn from that experience.
In reference to the internment camps, I hope for the future that there will be educational centers at each camp location so we can all learn more about them. I admit that I haven’t done my research to see if any of them do exist. But years ago I drove past Manzanar and think there was just an historical marker and I think maybe a small center at Tule Lake in Northern California. These locations are quite remote, so it makes sense to have the education available at sites where more visitors can be reached. So I’m grateful for the learning that can take place at Rosie the Riveter!
Again, thanks for your insightful comments (as usual!).
Roya Koutchekinia
@maggierogers This is so good! I live in El Cerrito, and have been meaning to pay a visit to the Rosie the Riveter park. I think a field trip to get first hand stories of Japanese internment camps is such a powerful way to connect real life experiences with the school curriculum, and is a wonderful way to increase empathy amongst the students. I am looking forward to checking out the documentary in your report, and paying a visit to the site. Thank you!
Maggie Rogers
Thanks so much @royaflin! I’m in absolute agreement about increasing empathy. I do hope you get a chance to watch the documentary (the film itself is only 18 minutes long, even though the video I link to is longer). The stories are so compelling, as are the people involved. It’s a bit of a spoiler but I was pleased to learn that some families were able to get their homes and businesses back because they had friends who kept good care of them on their behalf until the families returned.
Thanks again for your thoughtful comments! I always enjoy learning what you have to say.
Jeanna
Congratulations! This is lovely! I was at the opening ceremony of that park eons ago, but I haven’t been back since. Looks like it might be time for a review!
Maggie Rogers
Thanks so much @jeanna! How fun to have been at the opening of the park! I think it’s a hidden gem in the Bay Area. Great views too!
Matilda
@maggierogers I absolutely love this project! Particularly for the subject matter but also for the thought you put into it and the graphic design of the presentation. I highly recommend the Japanese American Museum of San Jose as a resource for anyone in the Bay Area who wants to teach youth about the Japanese American experience. https://www.jamsj.org/
They have amazing exhibits and include replicas of actual barracks for visitors to experience. I also found the other night that they have a wonderful online exhibition of oral histories that are an incredible resource. https://www.jamsj.org/manabu
Well done!
Maggie Rogers
Thank you so much @matilda! Although the subject matter is not pleasant, I enjoyed the discovery aspect of looking for supportive resources. So thank you for sharing some more amazing resources! Looks like I need to make a trip down south to JAMSJ — both in person and now online.
Troy
Hi @maggierogers, This was a really good presentation. Great idea to link the history of Japanese American internment with your school’s reading program through a field trip! This brings history to life for the students and shows that learning can happen anywhere, not just in a library or classroom. I’m excited to see how this helps students enjoy their reading and learn more about history. I hope this is a project you are able to get off the ground.
Maggie Rogers
Thanks @troy! Bringing history to life is yet another way we can hope that lifelong learning will stick — for adults and youth! I’ve already spoken with my principal and the lead English teacher at my school, so I’m hopeful it will actually happen next school year.
Ciera
@maggierogers this is such a fantastic report! I admire how much attention you put towards creating a developmentally appropriate and curricula aliagned lesson that brings in so many rich sources. I hope this lesson happens, because I think it will spark a great critical conversation and lots of inquiry!
Maggie Rogers
Thanks @cedudly! I’ve been looking for ways to collaborate more with the teachers at my school and think this is a fun and relevant way to do that. So far, my initial ideas have been met with positive responses from my principal and the lead teacher. I’m excited to get started!
christine
This was absolutely wonderful. You did an amazing job. I liked how you tied everything together, it flowed really nicely. You captured all the highlights of this exhibit. I went there last summer with my daughter. It is the perfect place to learn about the history of the shipyards and the heros who worked there. I can’t see why your 8th grade class shouldn’t be able to go!
christine
@maggierogers This was absolutely wonderful. You did an amazing job. I liked how you tied everything together, it flowed really nicely. You captured all the highlights of this exhibit. I went there last summer with my daughter. It is the perfect place to learn about the history of the shipyards and the heros who worked there. I can’t see why your 8th grade class shouldn’t be able to go! (whoops forgot to tag you!.)
Savannah Polizzi
@maggierogers As so many have mentioned before me – this is both a beautiful and informative Inspiration Report! Such a phenomenal idea! As a former history teacher, I’m always looking for ways to integrate history programming into the library – and I like that you also paired it with your school’s ELA curriculum. Recently in my high school library, Humboldt Asian and Pacific Islanders group (HAPI) loaned us a display on Japanese American incarceration. They have 10 banners available to showcase around the county, and one of our U.S. history teachers worked with HAPI to bring them into our library for our history students to view. (Link to information about the banners: https://www.hapihumboldt.org/past-projects/americas-wwii-japanese-concentration-camp-banners) It was a pleasure collaborating with HAPI, and it sounds like they’re working to put together an assembly to hear from a survivor this October.
Maggie Rogers
Thanks @savannahpolizzi! Wow. Those banners are amazing. I wonder if HAPI would let them travel out the county at some point? Oakland isn’t too far away. 😉 How wonderful that you were able to bring them to your library. In a different school where I started my library work, we were lucky enough to host a program from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam with similar banners, extensive training for student docents, and a visit with a Holocaust survivor at another related event. Our students gained so much from this educational experience, as did I. I feel fortunate to have learned early in my library career how impactful it can be to work closely with our teachers and external partners to provide unique and memorable programming.
Thanks again!