Using This Guide
We recommend the teaching strategies below to engage all kinds of learners throughout Teaching Farewell to Manzanar.
Contracting
Develop a classroom contract to create a community of mutual respect and inclusion.
Journals in the Classroom
Create a practice of student journaling to help your students critically examine their surroundings and make informed judgments.
Exit Tickets
Use exit tickets to assess students’ understanding, monitor their questions, or gather feedback on your teaching.
Color, Symbol, Image
Invite students to nonverbally communicate something they have read or watched, using a color, a symbol, and an image.
Gallery Walk
A gallery walk activity gets students moving as they explore a range of documents, images, or student work displayed around the classroom.
Defining Identity and Justice
These are the resources we recommend using in this section of Teaching Farewell to Manzanar.
Identity Charts
Use identity charts to help students consider the many factors that shape their own identity and that of groups, nations, and historical and literary figures.
The Hangman
Explore bystander behavior and the challenges of speaking up with Maurice Ogden's poem “The Hangman.”
And Then They Came for Us
This history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II is retold in this documentary from Abby Ginzberg and Ken Schneider. It also follows Japanese American activists today as they speak out against the Muslim registry and travel ban.
Re-Entry
These are the resources we recommend using in this section of Teaching Farewell to Manzanar.
My Part of the Story: Exploring Identity in the United States
Help students understand that their voices are integral to the story of the United States with six lesson plans that investigate individual and national identity.
Holocaust and Human Behavior
Explore the digital version of our core resource on the Holocaust. Find classroom-ready readings, primary sources, and short documentary films that support a study of the Holocaust through the lens of human behavior.
The Bear That Wasn't
This clip is a video adaptation of the illustrated book, The Bear That Wasn’t.
The Bear That Wasn't
Explore identity, conformity, and authority with this modern fable about a bear forced to navigate society's perception of who he is.
