Night/Sadako/White Light Black Rain #2

Activities

Focus Activity Ideas.
MOTIVATION
1) Schindler’s List CD#1: Track 8 during Walk-in

2) Stand and Greet: Remind students that each day offers an opportunity to become a better person, better student, better brother, sister, son, daughter, friend. “While there is life, there is hope.” “Nil desperandum”(never despair). Getting 100% present. 20 seconds of silence in preparation for the class.

GETTING THE BASIC FACTS
1) Listening Comprehension on Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. (NYS Regents Task #1)

2) NB* See Lesson Plan 1 for Reading

3) Students will take notes during the reading (5-7 minutes)

4) Rapid Fire Style Question-Answer Drill based on the reading. Call on students randomly!! See Lesson Plan #1 for Basic Fact questions

Main Lesson Activity Ideas.
SEEING HIROSHIMA THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PLAYERS
1) Dramatic Monologue: Based on the information you learned from the listening comprehension activity, take the role of either Staff Sergeant George Caron, or Co-Pilot Robert Lewis, and write a dramatic interior monologue of what is going through your head. The monologue should be in three stages: a) As your plane is approaching Hiroshima b) the moment the bomb is dropped c) the minutes after the bomb is dropped.

2) Students read the monologues aloud

3) DISCUSSION/DEBATE: WAS IT ETHICAL TO DROP THE BOMB?

4) HOMEWORK DUE Wednesday: Revise and develop monologue (2 page min)

5) BONUS DAY ACTIVITY: Memorize the first person narrative you wrote on Sadako or Memorize the above monologue and perform for class for 100 bonus points on 2nd marking period average. Performances will be Friday.

RESPONSE TO SADAKO AND THE THOUSAND CRANES
1) Free Response: Comments, observations, Questions

2) Connecting with the characters on a human level: If you sat down to talk with any of the characters from the story, what would you say to them? What questions would you have? What would you need them to know after having read the book?

3) The tone: How do you process the ending of the story? Is the story uplifting, depressing etc?

4) Though the story is of course a non-fictional account of the life of a young girl who is now a national symbol in Japan, what particular elements of the story could be considered fictional?

5) How does the author make use of symbolism throughout the story. Is it effective?

6) Now that Sadako is gone, her family, especially her brother, are left to tell her story. How effective is human memory in the re-telling? Is factual accuracy the most important aspect of a “re-telling”? Explain! What is the most important thing to capture in a re-telling? Words? Emotions? Description of setting?

7) DISCUSSION DEBATE PART 2: WAS IT ETHICAL TO DROP THE BOMB? Does an intimate/personal account of a victim like Sadako change your opinion on the ethics of dropping the A-bomb.

**LEVEL 3 APPLIED: War as depicted in the media is a distant concept. We hear reports of numbers dead, the details of certain battles. However, our daily lives carry on. If you heard more first person narratives of victims of war, how might that affect your opinion of war. Is war ever justified? When? Explain! Which wars that you are familiar with have been justified? Which ones have NOT been justified? Explain!

Summative Activity Ideas.
MEMORY ACTIVITY
1) One minute meditation: Take a mental journey back to your earliest memory.

2) For one minute describe that earliest memory on paper: Where are you? Who is with you? Which senses are most vivid for you? Seeing, feeling, tasting, hearing, smelling?

3) Do a five minute Read aloud.

4) 2 Minute reflection: Go through the ages of your life: Age 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 etc. Up to 16. Write down the 10-15 most vivid memories you have. Choose one from each year!

5) Read aloud! Student Choice

6) QUOTE BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: “Memory is seated predominantly in the heart.” Analyze and explain in your own words. After the previous activity, do you agree with the quote?

Extra:
1) Folding of paper cranes

Resources. dfg