Learning Letter

This quarter has been one of the busiest quarters I have ever had. I think having to spend nine hours at my high school then having to come to EWU for classes added to the busyness of this hectic quarter. However, I learned a great deal of how to manage my time wisely and accomplish all I needed to do to stay successful. This class has been a tremendous help for me as a future teacher. I felt challenged by this class and so I definitely grew as a student. Having to do a 20 minute mini-lesson on a literary text helped me. I walked away after completing this assignment with great constructive criticism from both my instructor and peers. I really enjoyed knowing my peers were willing to both tell me what I did great, but they also told me what I could improve. That kind of feedback is extremely helpful for anyone, especially future teachers.  In addition, I loved having the opportunity to choose a young adult text and prepare a short talk to introduce the text to the class. All my peers chose interesting books to present to the class. I really enjoyed that no one from my peers chose a boring book. All the books my peers presented were books I would want to teach in my future English class.

            The one assignment that stood out like Mount Everest: The Literature Unit Plan. When I began this assignment, I was extremely nervous. However, towards the end of it, I felt like a Holocaust survivor being liberated from Auschwitz. I was FREE! Nothing felt better. But I am grateful for doing this assignment because I learned so much along the way. I discovered how to write better TPA lesson plans and I enjoyed learning how I could teach my text in a fun and creative way.  Overall, I am grateful for taking the amazing Dr. Agriss and my phenomenal peers who made English 493 a class that I won’t soon forget. We had many discussions and the ideas we bounced off each other are ideas I hope to soon implement in my classroom.

TPA Lesson Plan #___1____

1. Teacher Candidate	Elijah Mikheyev	Date Taught	3-8-15
Cooperating Teacher	Dr. Agriss	School/District	Eastern Washington University
2. Subject	English	Field Supervisor
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Japanese and American Relations before Pearl Harbor	5. Length of Lesson	20 minutes
4. Grade Level	10

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
7. Learning Objective(s)	Given the article about Japan’s and the United States relations before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, students will read the article together and be able to analyze what they read, by writing three reasons why Japan became angry with the US.  I can analyze a text by using thorough textual evidence to support my analysis about why Japan became angry with the US.
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Great White Walls, Fascism, Great Depression,  and Social Darwinism This vocabulary will be clearly addressed during this lesson. The students will write down what they think these words mean. Then students will be given a paper with the definitions of these words with the reading,

9. Assessment

Students will be asked to write three reasons why they believe Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. This will be a form of formative assessment. Then students will share their responses with their classmates. In addition, I will asks students to start reading out loud—to the class—the article. After the reading, they will be asked to write down three reasons what made Japan angry with the US. The assessment connects to the standards by helping me understand that the students can read and analyze what they have read.

10. Lesson Connections

This lesson is part of a two week unit on the novel Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury. This lesson is drawn from research and theory from the book Readicide, Gallagher (2009). Gallagher mentioned the book In the Middle and he discussed how the author advised teachers to “come out from behind their desks to write with, listen to, and learn” from young readers and writers (Gallagher 2009, 90). Writing the three reasons why Japan became angry with the US, after reading the article, will be a form of formative assessment during this lesson. This connects to previous lessons and builds on to the foundation for the rest of the unit.  Students will have to have had some basic knowledge of WW2 history. Teaching this lesson will allow students to understand the importance of why Japan attacked the US in 1941. The learning of this lesson will build on to previous knowledge of what was taught yesterday. I am teaching this lesson because this lesson will help students better understand the book Under the Blood-Red Sun.  Learning about why the Japanese attacked the US will help broaden the students’ understanding about this tragic event in human history. At the start of this lesson, students will write down three reasons on the whiteboard why they believe Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. This lesson will further be built upon in future lessons by having the students continue reading Under the Blood-Red Sun in our next lesson.  Also, students will be given a quiz in the following lessons.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Introduction In order to communicate the learning objective to my students, I will have the objective in my PowerPoint. I will introduce the lesson by asking a question about why Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.–What made the Japanese do it? Was the US partially to blame for this attack? Learning Tasks Students will be learning to cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Students will take turns reading the article during the in class reading. I will ask students to write down three reasons why Japan became angry with the US.  Conclusion After finishing reading the article and writing three reasons for Japan’s anger toward the US, students will finish viewing the PowerPoint and respond to the prompt: “Was Japan’s anger toward the US justifiable? If no, why not? If yes, why?” Sequenced Instruction
Teacher’s Role Teacher will orally state the learning objective of the lesson to the students and have it written posted on the PowerPoint. Teacher will make sure every student has the article and is ready to read. Teacher will introduce why Japan bombed the US and define the vocabulary words. Teacher asks student to respond to the article in writing.	Students’ Role Students will write three reasons why they believe Japan attacked the US and students will write what they think the definitions of the vocabulary words are. Also, students will listen to the teacher explain why Japan became angry with the US. Then students will receive an article and will begin to read the article, the article will have the definitions of the vocabulary words. (10 min) Students will write down three reasons why the Japan became angry with the US after reading the article. (5min) Students will answer PowerPoint prompt: “Was Japan’s anger toward the US justifiable? If no, why not? If yes, why?” (4min) Students turn in prompt and the writing assignment. (1min)
Student Voice: Students engage in explaining the Learning Target and the definitions by having the instruction call out on different students during the class period. Students show their understanding of the reading of the article by writing down three reasons why Japan became angry with the US. Students will be able to ask questions about the article and any other questions pertaining to the topic. Students will be able to express the importance of the learning targets during the reading of the article. The PowerPoint prompt and short writing assignment should help students see the importance of the learning targets.

12. Differentiated Instruction

Plan Students with a disability such a low vision or bad hearing will be seated in the front rows of the class. In addition, any other student with a disability will be given proper accommodation in the class to meet his or her needs. All of these learning styles will be incorporated in this lesson: auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile. Students will be given the article, which is visual. Students will be given oral instruction, which is auditory. Also, students will be use tactile and kinesthetic learning when they use their pencil to fill out the writing assignment and prompt questions. In addition, students who need more time, during their time filling completing the prompt, will be given it. And students who cannot read fluently or have a hard time reading orally will be exempted from reading, during the open class reading.

13. Resources and Materials

Plan Gallagher, K., & Allington, R. L. (2009). Readicide: How schools are killing reading and what you can do about it. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse. Rise of Fascist Japan. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://thejapaneseexperience.weebly.com/rise-of-fascist-japan.html Salisbury, G. (1994). Under the blood-red sun. New York: Delacorte Press. I will need a whiteboard and a black marker and Internet access. Students will need an article and writing utensil.

14. Management and Safety Issues

Plan When the students writing, I will walk around the room to answer any questions the students may have and monitor them. If a student is acting up, I will make sure the student isn’t disrupting other students’ learning. He or she may have to be excused from the class if they do not listen to my warnings. I will do my best to make this lesson educational, yet exciting at the same time. I will do this by allowing the students to ask questions during our reading. Hopefully this will help keep students from falling asleep during this lesson. Before we have a class discussion, I will make it clear to the students that they need to respect each other and not fool around. I will award good student behavior by giving them bonus points.

15. Parent & Community Connections

Plan Students will be encouraged to ask their grandparents if they were alive during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What kind of emotion did they feel? Did they know any Japanese people? In addition, students will be asked to have their grandparents write down the answer to these questions. Students will bring in the writings of their grandparents. The next day, students will be encouraged to present their information to the class; this will be optional.

Worsening relations between Japan and the West from 1919 to 1939. There's were incidents like:

American expansion in the Asia-Pacific region threatened Japanese plans to control the region.

Ever since 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to American trade, American businessmen had taken an increasing interest in doing business in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States took control of many tiny islands that were rich in guano, a natural fertilizer.  It also took control of other islands and used them as bases for American trading ships. By the 1930s, the area under American control had expanded to include islands such as Hawaii and the Philippines. Japanese militarists believed that Japanese and American economic and military interest would bring them into conflict over who would control the Asia-Pacific region.

Washington Naval Conference, 1921-1922.

The Washington Naval Conference aimed to reduce the naval forces of the major naval powers. Many Japanese felt that this was an unfair treaty. They felt that is was an attempt to restrict Japanese power. Tension grew between them as they felt being treated unfairly.

Immigration laws in the USA in the mid-1920s.                                          

In 1924, the government in the USA tried to prevent Asian immigration as part of its isolationist and protectionist policy. The USA forbade the entry of all Asian immigrants (expect Filipinos), including Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Indians.  Immigrants could not become citizens of the USA even if they had been there for a long time. Asians also could not marry Caucasians or own their own land. Some state enforced laws to segregate the Asians who were living in American. California for example, enforced the California Alien Law in 1913 ruling that all Asian children, including those born in America, had to attend separate schools. There was also a widespread fear that Asians would take jobs away.

Before the strict immigration laws were passed, many Japanese migrated overseas. The new America immigration policies of 1924 angered the Japanese. They saw the policies as a sign that the Americans considered the Japanese to be inferior to Americans.

These events combined with the protectionist policies of the West during the Great Depression, caused many Japanese to turn away from Democracy and support an expansion of Japan's empire.

Great White Walls: From the 1880s onwards, the white settler countries of the Pacific Rim all implemented restrictive immigration policies designed to keep their populations white.

Fascism: a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people

Great Depression: the economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries, roughly beginning with the stock-market crash in October, 1929

Social Darwinism: Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform.

3 Question Assignment Rubric

This checklist-rubric is designed to give the instructor some form of objective feedback when formatively assessing students’ completed questions.

1-5 Rating 5 being meet standard

1) Wrote in complete sentences

2) Has three answers

3) Answers reflect student using article to justify answers