PART I
Writing Exercise (Taken from http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/resources/activity1.html#
1.Write a list of all your possessions (including things like toothbrushes, underwear, etc.).
2. Write a list, by name, all the people you enjoy spending time with, or people you see regularly (family members and other relatives, friends, classmates, etc.).
3. Describe your daily routine, things you do regularly on a weekly or daily
basis. (What, where, when, with whom do you do these things?)
4. Describe your bedroom. How big is it? Do you share it with anyone?
What is in it?
5. How far is it (minutes/seconds, feet/yards or number of steps, from
your bedroom to: a) the bathroom; b) the kitchen; c) the dining room
or place where you eat?
6. How long does it take you to get something to eat in your house?
Name some of your favorite foods.
7. What do you hear/see/smell outside the front door of your house?
8. Describe your pets, if you have any. Write something funny or
interesting about your pet.
9. What do you enjoy doing?
PART II
Discussion
1. Imagine you were going away-you don't know where, how long or under what conditions. Out of the list you have made (in Question 1 of Part I),take anything you want and need, as long as you can carry them, and they are not electronic.
What would you take?
How would you feel?
Was it difficult/easy to decide what to take?
How would you feel about the things you had to leave behind?
2. Imagine that you will not be able to see any of those special people again
(Question #2).
What would you do?
How would you feel? Who will you miss the most and why?
3. You cannot take your pet with you where you are going.
What do you do with it?
How do you feel?
4. In your new "home" you are cold and you have no privacy. You notice that you cannot get out or leave. What do you do or say?
How do you feel?
5. Your new "home" is one room, where many families must live. There are
only some bed rolls to sleep on, nothing else. How do you feel?
How does your room feel/smell?
How do you feel about living in this room? Think about choosing between using a blanket for warmth or privacy.
6. In your new "home" you cannot do any of the things you do regularly. What things would you miss the most?
7. Imagine getting up in the morning. You have to go to the bathroom, but
you have to walk to an open trough washing into a creek.
8. It's breakfast time, served exactly at 7 am. If you miss breakfast, you must
wait until noon for any food. (You have no refrigerator, nor is there a store
nearby.) You must walk outside your "house" again to the Mess Hall to eat.
You have to wait in line, along with about half of the hundred people who live
in your block of buildings. You have to eat what is served in the Mess Hall. This morning, it is the usual powdered eggs and powdered milk, or oatmeal mush.
What do you choose?
How does it taste?
Please explore these web sites. Please blog and discuss your initial thoughts of the Aleutian Peoples and their forced relocation during WWII. Please post this blog to our class blog before you read.
http://www.apiai.com/history.asp?page=history
http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/HistoryCulture/Aleut/Jones/jonesindex.html
http://www.nps.gov/archive/aleu/home.htm
http://fear-itself.com/faq.htm
Blog about the Aleutian Sparrow experience. There is no specific prompt. I am looking forward to seeing how you craft your responses to the book, our Temple texts, and the additional readings from the web sites. You may choose to think about the following:
As you read this book, think about how you, as an educator, can help your students to recognize the racial bias and prejudice that many Americans have experienced. How can we help students grasp the reality of these historical events? Do you believe that by helping children to recognize injustice, that we can empower them to initiate change? How can we help our children become more empathetic and compassionate? What does it mean to understand/recognize that other’s lives may be outwardly different but inwardly similar to your own? Is this important?
Courage empowers the search for freedom. As teachers, we strive to cultivate ethical respect for others as well as highlight the commonalities inherent in all peoples, despite our outward differences. After all, each of us experiences love, loss, achievement, fear, family, friendship, adolescence, etc. What do you think? Think about other books we have read and feel free to make connections.
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