Teaching Team: Lesson Topic/Title:

Anna Mazac, Grace Potter, Chris Brand , Greta Daniel, WW2 American POWs in Japan
and Hank Sauer
Date(s):
Subject Area/Grade Level:
American POWs

Objectives/Standards (refer to specific TEKS):

Our objective is to teach the students about prisoners of war, give some background of WW2, give some
perspective of how prisoners of war were treated in different countries, including Japan and the US.

(B) considers and responds to the views of others and anticipates and answers reader concerns and counter-
arguments - We will demonstrate this TEK during the simulation by having the students discuss what action they
want to take, and hear the counter arguments of the opposing simulations side.

(A) listen to and interpret a speaker's purpose by explaining the content, evaluating the delivery of the
presentation, and asking questions or making comments about the evidence that supports a speaker's claims-
This TEK will be shown during our closing when we have the students play a modified game of silent ball,
where we will have them tell us what they have earned during our lesson.

B) identify geographic factors such as location, physical features, transportation corridors and barriers, and
distribution of natural resources that influence a society's ability to control territory- We will have this TEK
present in our introduction, where we will have the students point out Japan on a map and call out significant
geographic features around Japan, and why those features are significant.

(E) analyze the similarities and differences among various world societies- This TEK will come up when we
have the students respond to our final ending simulation question, where we will have them compare the
treatment of American and Japanese POWs, and what cultural aspects affect this treatment.

Essential Learnings (What do you want the students to learn about your culture?)

We want the students to learn about the treatment prisoners of war were treated in different cultures, and
how the POWs were viewed in those societies. We want them to realize the effects war has on people and
how the differing situations have different effects on the people.

Activities:
What will the students be doing? Create a step by step list
of activities that will appeal to a variety of learners:
Passing around fake newspaper article and sign name on it
without any one of the teachers seeing it, connecting to the
simulation that will come into play later in the lesson
point out Japan that will be on blank map we have on our
powerpoint and call out significant features such as its an
island, this may be a weakness, exc.
What will the teachers be doing? How will
you check for understanding or assess
learning?
pulling a powerpoint with map, and recording
answers of significant geographic features
around Japan
present slide on cultural behaviors of
Japanese after they finish learning about the
geography of it
SIMULATION TIME SIMULATION TIME

move into small groups based off of how the given classroom split the room in half, into American POWs
is set up and Japanese POWs, and 2-3 small groups
get our paper to respond to events on within each side

read each event and respond to given action, the select one
group member to read out what they chose to do
(all events are written out in a separate google doc to be
printed and handed out)
write a response to the final question given based off what
they saw happen during the simulation.
hand in simulation and final question response to one of us
move to the edges of the room to prepare for what you
learned game
hand out envelopes with event cards and
special resources cards
Read out each event and have students write
response
slowly kill of students, based off the group's
choice of action from the given event
deliver final question that they must respond
to How did the treatment of the Japanese
POWs compare to the treatment of the
American POWs and what cultural difference
may have an effect on this?

Explain final part of the lesson where we play

a version of silent ball where if they catch
the ball they say something they learned
during the lesson

Interdisciplinary Connections: (What part of your lesson involves English? What types of activities relate
to Social Studies?)

The written portion of the lesson involves English, the students ability to respond to events and decide on an
action. Formulating what the difference is between two different cultures, and forming an opinion based off
former knowledge of the given cultures also connects to an English mindset. History is present throughout the
entire lesson with our WW2 prisoners of war simulation. The geographical aspect in the beginning of our
lesson connects back to social studies, and the cultural information given on the geographically chosen
country also connects back to history class.

Levels of Thinking in Lesson: Closure:

The concluding section of our lesson will be
_____ Knowledge (Remember) composed of us playing a revised version of the
_____ Comprehension (Understand) middle school game silent ball, where we will have
_____ Application the students throw a ball around and if they catch it
_____ Analysis that will have to realy something they had learned in
_____ Evaluation (Critique)
_____ Synthesis (Create)
our lesson.

Teaching Team Roles and Responsibilities: (Who will teach which aspect of the lesson? What is each
person responsible for preparing/bringing/researching/creating?)
Hank- Introducing us and our project
Chris- opening lesson / warm up
Hank- background info
Anna & Grace- run the simulation
Greta- ending simulation question
Hank- wrap up / what they learned