A Source: A Lesson Plan

Gail Desler, a grade school teacher in California, has published her lesson plan concerning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II on the Library of Congress website. This lesson plan is an example of many similar curricula on the site that share goals of historical understanding and empathy, and publication on the Library of Congress indicates government approval as well as provides other teachers nationwide with access to these plans. Desler’s curriculum involves a study of primary source documents (which are linked to the website) including a speech from President Roosevelt, interviews with internment survivors, and photographs of the camps by Dorothea Lange; and the students are asked to complete such activities as write a poem for two voices that looks at multiple perspectives of Japanese internment and write a newspaper article about one of Lange’s photographs. These activities are comparable to German teaching methods stating in the German Education Report on holocausttaskforce.org and in the Synopsis from History Lesson Plans.

Desler, Gail. "Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself." The Library of Congress. 16 Dec. 2002. Elk Grove Unified School District. 8 Jan. 2008. http://memory.loc.gov/learn.

You can find a copy of Desler's lesson plan with further links to her resources, primary sources, and worksheets here.