ERIC Number: EJ1041740
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 4
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1056-0300
EISSN: N/A
The Voices of Children: Re-Imagining the Internment of Japanese Americans through Poetry
Frye, Elizabeth M.; Hash, Lisa A.
Social Studies and the Young Learner, v25 n4 p30-33 Mar-Apr 2013
In this article, we describe just one activity from an interdisciplinary social justice unit taught to two fifth-grade social studies classes with the use of Cynthia Kadohata's multicultural historical fiction novel "Weedflower." Often, our younger students feel their voices are silenced...their messages are not heard. Like many of our fifth-grade students, the main characters in Kadohata's novel are marginalized peoples whose voices were kept silent during a time of war hysteria. In this historical novel, Sumiko, a young Japanese American girl and her family are forced to relocate to Poston Internment Camp after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Poston, located in southwestern Arizona, was the largest of the ten internment camps (or "prison camps," as many of its former residents called it) operated by the U.S. government during World War II. While at Poston, Sumiko befriends Frank, a young Mojave Indian who lives on the neighboring reservation.
Descriptors: Japanese Americans, United States History, Social Justice, Social Studies, Fiction, Didacticism, Heritage Education, War, Social Experience, Poetry, Reading Programs, Collaborative Writing, Student Participation, Teaching Methods, Elementary School Students
National Council for the Social Studies. 8555 Sixteenth Street #500, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Tel: 800-683-0812; Tel: 301-588-1800; Fax: 301-588-2049; e-mail: membership@ncss.org; Web site: http://www.socialstudies.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A