The KKC Fellowship and My Future Lesson Plans on Japan

Terry Hunt September 26, 2004

Students in the intellectually gifted program at Isable Elementary School in Jackson, Mississippi will be embarking on a yearlong in-depth study of Japan through a project called Journey to Japan. Journey to Japan begins with building background knowledge of Japan and the Japanese culture through books, videos, web sources, guest lectures, pen pals from Saitama Municipal Nakajima Elementary School, games, fieldtrips and materials collected from trip to Japan through the KKC fellowship. Next, students will demonstrate and presenting knowledge to various communities in the school and local community through innovative and stimulating medias. The aim of Journey to Japan is to broaden the student’s concept of the multifaceted culture of Japan and gain a deeper appreciation of the connections between United States and Japan. Phase one begins with basic knowledge of Japan. Junko Tokuda, visiting lecture from Japan, and myself are constructing teaching materials using digital photographs, video tapes, and journal notes taken during the two week Keizai Koho Teacher Center Fellowship Program this past summer as well as materials from other resources to provide students accurate information pertaining to modern Japan. Students will pretend they are anthropologist with an assignment from the head of their department, instructor, to keep a Journey to Japan Journal with accurate data they have collected about Japan. The journal will be divided into different sections, each section will reflect the National Geography Standards and the objectives within the standards such as the Japan’s culture, people, places, environments, global connections, government, economics, and physical characteristics of Japan topography. Students start by constructing Journey to Japan Journal to keep data they will be collecting. Digital picture of the students will be placed in the journal along with a passport page. Next, the student will create an itinerary of a weeks travel in Japan with information collected from travel Japanese brochures and travel websites. Students will design airline tickets with arrival and departure times along with the cost of the ticket. Airline tickets from Keizai Koho Teacher Center Fellowship Program this summer will be available to use an example. This will be a fun way to explore time zones, geography, and travel options. Section one, Geography of Japan, will start with basics information. After a briefing from the department head, instructor, students will use a map of the world, a globe, the interactive website Kids Web Japan and handouts to complete the objectives for section one. Once all data is collected it will be recorded in the journal along with appropriate illustrations. Places to See in Japan is the next section. The department head (instructor) and her assistant (Junko Tokudo, visiting lecture) will present a slide show of the beautiful places they (department head and visiting lecture) have been in Japan. The slide presentation will include digital pictures from the KKC Fellowship trip. A video with the Mr. Kiyoshi Hayashi from Japan Travel Bureau Foundation and the book, Beautiful Japan, Mr. Kiyoshi gave Keizai Koho Teacher Fellowship Program will be a resources for the students. Using the slideshow, video clips, books and websites relating to Japan’s landscapes, historical sites and popular tourist areas, students will gather data on Japan’s topography and climate as well as transportation systems and accommodations in Japan to design a six day trip to places they would like to vacation in Japan. The next stop in the Journey to Japan project will be the Japanese Industries Section. Again information, video clips and digital pictures collected from the KKC Fellowship tour of Japanese companies, Toyota Motor Corporation, Shimadzu Corporation, Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, Mori Building Co., Ltd., Omron Kyoto Taiyo Co., Ltd, Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd, Shimadzu Corporation, and Toyota Motor Corporation, will be part be used to introduce students to industries in Japan. Students will visit the Japanese owned Nissan automobile plant near Jackson and complete a survey of products they used at home and school that are produced by Japanese companies. Discussion groups will address the topics of global market place. Students will design advertisements these products and put in their journal. Food for Thought Section will electrify the palette with experiences of traditional Japanese food. Eating is one of the great joys in life, especially if someone else is preparing the food, as was the case this summer during the KKC stay in Japan. Students will explore the tradition foods eaten in Japan, visit a Japanese restaurant and Asian grocery store and then make some simple dishes for their class. Digital pictures and student’s reflections will document their food section along with a comparative study of the cultural differences between Japanese food and American food. Tell Me A Story will introduce students to the well-known Japanese folktale The Crane That Returned A Favor. After reading the story students will work in small groups and answer questions on the handout, The Crane That Returned A Favor. The handout will be placed in the Journey to Japan Journal. After that the groups will research traditional Japanese puppetry, Bunraku, and kamishibai. Groups of six students will use a traditional Japanese folktale and present it either by a puppet show or kamishibai. A fieldtrip is planned in December to see an Asian folktale performed by the Mississippi Puppetry Guild. Contemporary Issues in Japan section investigate the issues in Japan such as recycling, drop in the birthrate, changes in educational emphasis, problems in schools, and other topics addressed in the lecture by Ms. Mariko Fujiwara, Research Director at Hakuhodo Institute of Life & Living Inc. Students will explore the complexities of a Japan’s changing culture and compare theses to our own culture. Pen Pals From the East to the West will connect students from Isable Elementary School to students at Saitama Municipal Nakajima Elementary School. As pen pals, students will share information about themselves, their schools, families, city, and other parts of their lives through authentic interactions with children their own age. These exchanges will be kept in their Journey to Japan Journal Students individual research projects will be the follow this section. Topics and resources from a varied to areas will be available for the students. During the trip to Japan with the KKC I collected artifacts, pictures and videotapes for the students to use as they conduct their research. The second phase of Journey to Japan is centered on presentations of acquired knowledge. Research will be presented to parents and school community during the spring Open House at Isable. Students will also help develop a Japanese Festival for all grades of Isable Elementary. The festival will be an accumulation of lessons, art, research that the students have learned throughout the Journey to Japan project. Presentations on Japan will also be made at the Jackson State University International Fair and at the Japan- American Society of Mississippi. A group of my techno-savvy students will work with students from the School of the Arts to create an animated film of Japan. This film will be submitted to the Cross Roads Film Festival in the spring of 2005. The meeting the Keizai Koho Fellowship attended with the Mayor of Hiroshima City, Mr. Tadanori Akiba, made an enormous impression on me. It was clear to see that the devastation of the atom bomb was a moving force for him and his dedication to peace. I was also fortunate to visit a local elementary school in Hiroshima the day they had their annual peace ceremony. I videotaped the ceremony so I could share this with my students. Another part of my visit to Hiroshima that moved me was the Chinese Parasol Tree at Peace Park that was burned to the heart, or core of the tree, when the atomic bomb was dropped and was assumed to be dead. In the spring it grew new foliage and flowered. Since this time off shoots of this tree are planted at schools all over Japan as a reminder that people, places, and environments can heal. The ending of the project Journey to Japan will be a ceremony much like the one I attended at Hiroshima Municipal Suzugamine Elementary School. Students will watch the videotape of the peace ceremony from the Hiroshima Municipal Suzugamine Elementary School. Junko Tokudo will read the book read during the ceremony about the dropping of the bomb. A small discussion will occur about peace using the book Peace Begins With You by Katherine Scholes. Students from Isable Elementary School will invite Mayor Harvey Johnson to attend the Planting Peace Ceremony were the students will plant a Chinese Parasol Tree at Isable Elementary School. This will be the end of our Journey to Japan project.

The project will be placed on our school’s website!