Teacher Overview
This two-week unit is designed to introduce middle school Arkansas history students to the experiences of Japanese Americans and Arkansans during World War II. It is based around an essential question, “What impact did World War II have on Arkansas?” which students should be able to answer in detail by the end of the unit. This type of curriculum unit, advocated by educators like Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Grant Wiggins, emphasizes coordinated student learning activities designed to match up with curriculum frameworks and historical content, while at the same time allowing students to connect learning with their own experiences. The unit culminates in a research project, which demonstrates mastery of the essential and guiding questions and is presented in a format chosen by each student. All documents and student activity sheets needed for the lessons are provided at the end of the lesson. A CD-ROM containing additional primary sources is available by emailing Dr. Kristin Mann at kdmann@ualr.edu.
If time is a concern, each lesson is designed both to be part of the larger unit and to stand as an individual lesson. Teachers wanting to present a short version of this unit may wish to take activities from the lessons that address the same guiding questions and try combining them into one lesson per guiding question.
