Activity 2:
Students will write and create a radio broadcast/podcast about the internment of either the Japanese Americans, Italian Americans or German Americans post Pearl Harbor.
Materials:
- Directions on how to podcast can be found on a number of sites including:
- FDR’s fireside chats
- Paper
- Writing instrument
- Computer or tape recorder
- Library/Internet access to look for primary documents relating to their group of Americans
- Primary documents and articles relating to Japanese Americans, Italian Americans, and German Americans (below)
Overview: Most students have learned that President Franklin D. Roosevelt would discuss World War II with citizens through radio broadcasts called fireside chats. Now it is time for the students to create a similar radio broadcast. Students will research primary documents about the internment of the Japanese Americans, as well as the German and Italian Americans. Then students will compose a script for their broadcast, remembering that this is audio only (and not visual) and they will have to be descriptive in their writing. Lastly, students will record and play their broadcast for their classmates. Options should be available to make this either on a tape recorder, computer, or podcast.
Lesson:
- Start the class by reviewing or having the students review FDR’s fireside chats. Remind students that these were broadcast over radio, and look specifically at his word choice. Preferably choose one from World War II.
- Have students write some of his more descriptive words, phrases, or figurative language
- List some of the words on the board as a reminder to students.
- Make sure that the students know that although there were a larger number of Japanese Americans being interred there were also Italian Americans and German Americans in internment camps.
- Students can use the suggested websites to find information regarding the internment of these Americans, or look on the Internet themselves for additional information.
- Have students work as a group or individually to write a radio news broadcast of the internment.
- Their job is to make sure that they get the information to the general public about why these people are interred, what the camps were like, and how this can happen to an American citizen.
- Students may choose to write the broadcast as a speech (like FDR) or as a script to be read by a number of people (particularly if they want to “interview” someone and use their words about the camps and treatment).
- Lastly, students can create a podcast (if the school has the capability), or simply tape record the broadcast, then play it for the class. Try to put it on tape if possible, because if the students read it aloud in class, it will lose some of the effect.
- Extra: If you are utilizing technology to create this broadcast, for extra credit, have the students research songs from 1941/1942 and play a piece of a song before the newsbreak, and possibly one after.
Useful Websites and Primary Documents:
- Bill of Rights
- FDR Declaration of War with Germany, Italy, and Japan
- Executive Order 9066
- Japanese American internment documents
- Italian American internment documents
- German American internment documents
Homework:
Students will compose a four-paragraph essay about the internment of American citizens from the viewpoint of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Essay Prompt
Farewell to Manzanar and the multitude of primary documents about the US internment camps show an often forgotten part of American history.
Think about the zeitgeist and national security issues.
Now write to explain why President Roosevelt chose
to detain American citizens. |
