Lesson Plans for Teaching about the Internment Experience

Elementary

• I’m American Too – A Story from Behind the Fences – From Elk Grove USD and the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium. Appropriate for grades 5-8.
• In Response to Executive Order 9066 – From Elk Grove USD Technology Services and the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium. Lesson invites students to create a letter poem to commemorate a first-hand account from our TOR WWII archives. Although the lesson is aligned to 8th grade CCSS, it is appropriate for and adaptable to younger students.
• Writing for Redress – Created by Elk Grove Unified Teacher Melanie Allen (Raymond Case Elementary School)
• Taking a Stand – Created by Elk Grove Unified Teacher Virginia Herte (Mary Tsukamoto Elementary School)
• Don’t Be Afraid to Speak Out (Once on the Korematsu Institute website, click on the “Online Curriculum” link at the top of the  page) – From the Fred Korematsu Institute, this  curriculum packet is for elementary students to learn about one man’s courage to speak out against the injustice of the forced removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.
• Fred Korematsu: All American Hero – A graphic novel to accompany the above Don’t Be Afraid to Speak Out lesson.

Middle School

• In Response to Executive Order 9066 – From Elk Grove USD Technology Services and the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium. Lesson invites students to create a letter poem to commemorate a first-hand account from our TOR WWII archives.
• Japanese American Internment – From Stanford University’s Reading Like a Historian curriculum.
• A Date that Will Live in Infamy – From the National Archives’ Teaching with Documents series.
• I’m American Too – I’m American Now – From Elk Grove USD Technology Services and the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium. Lesson invites students to compare and contrast interviews from WWII and the Vietnam War.

High School

• In Response to Executive Order 9066 – From Elk Grove USD Technology Services and the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium. Lesson invites students to create a letter poem to commemorate a first-hand account from our TOR WWII archives. Although the lesson is aligned to 8th grade CCSS, it is appropriate for and adaptable to older students.
• American Justice on Trial – A problem-based lesson that revolves around a preparing for and holding a mock trial.
• What Happens When You Look Like the Enemy – One of a number of excellent lessons and resources from the Densho Project.
• Voices of Japanese-American Internees – From the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), lesson taps into the Pyramid of Hate and introduces students to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.