Lesson Plan Title: Japan: The Resource War

Date: April 2, 2018

Subject: History 20 Grade: 11
Topic: WWII
Essential Question: How much affect can one’s views and pride have on an entire country? How
important can resources be to a country? What constitutes important information when doing
research? What websites are credible?

Materials:
- Access to YouTube and screen.
- Links to websites are in the Activities section of the plan. If you don’t have access to the
computer copy of this lesson plan, just type in the title that’s written by the link.
- Make sure all students have their journals and proper writing utensils.
- Access to computers and cellphones for research purposes

Stage 1- Desired Results – you may use student friendly language

What do they need to understand, know, and/or able to do?
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the second theatre of war, the Pacific. Students will know who led
Japan and why they were involved in the war. Students will know how influential resources and hatred can
be, even when looking at an entire country.

Broad Areas of Learning:

Sense of Self, Community and Place- By examining the country of Japan’s actions during WWII, students will
be able to draw parallels to community and themselves and how they would react in certain situations where
who they are is being threatened.
Lifelong Learners- By learning to use the appropriate technologies for research students will be able to take
these new skills and knowledge with them for the rest of their lives.
Engaged Citizens- By allowing students to perform their own research and have control over the technologies
being used, students will learn to be more engaged in their learning. They will then be able to take these skills
into the world outside of school and be a more engaged citizen in their future communities.

Cross-Curricular Competencies:
Developing Thinking- Through guided questions and instruction, students will be in charge of researching
Japanese culture, economy, and military. Then afterwards, developing their skills to pick out important
information and know the difference between what’s a reliable resource and what’s not reliable/credible.
Developing Identity- By looking at Japan’s involvement during the war and how one leaders shame can
influence the actions of an entire country, students will be able to draw parallels to their own identities.
Developing Literacies- Students will develop literacies in the topics of economics, resources, leadership and
the proper use of technology in the forms of research and critical thinking.

Outcome(s): Taken from pg.24 of the History 20 Curriculum (no designations were provided)
- Students will understand that distinct populations will seek to secure the decision-making processes which
have an impact on their distinctiveness and well-being.
- Students will understand that there are challenges/issues that are global in that they have global
consequences and will require global involvement in seeking solutions to those issues.
- Students will understand that various political paradigms, when functioning, will impact the relationship
between individual rights and collective rights.

PGP Goals:
1.3 - a commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable environment for
the empowerment of all learners
3.2 - the ability to use a wide variety of responsive instructional strategies and methodologies to
accommodate learning styles of individual learners and support their growth as social, intellectual, physical
and spiritual beings
2.4 - ability to use technologies readily, strategically and appropriately

Stage 2- Assessment

Assessment FOR Learning (formative) Assess the students during the learning to help determine next steps.
During the activity where students are doing research and practicing the skills of the proper use of technology
and deciphering between important and nonimportant information, the teacher will assist the students in
developing these skills. The teacher will walk around doing a visual assessment of each student’s ability to
appropriately use technology in doing research. The teacher will also visual assess the student’s ability to
choose what information is important and be able to use that information to develop a better understanding
of Japan in WWII.

Assessment OF Learning (summative) Assess the students after learning to evaluate what they have
learned.
For a summative assessment, students will be answering a question given to them at the start of the lesson.
The research activity will help the students in answering the final journal question. The journal entry will then
be handed in to be given a mark and to see where the students are at the end of the lesson. This is to make
sure they understood the lesson and skills that were taught to them during the lesson. Each entry is not
marked on the detail of the knowledge, but more a general understanding of what was taught. This will be
out of 1 mark. Either they get it or they don’t.
Stage 3- Learning Plan

Motivational/Anticipatory Set (introducing topic while engaging the students)

 Quick Intro Video: The Japanese Army (10 mins total)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMtb1oYGIl4 (4 mins)
Video gives students a quick overview of the major events of Japans Involvement in WW2.
Before watching the video, have them write this question in their journals:
“Was Japan’s leader in charge of the army? Why did Japan take part in the war? Explain your answer.”
(6 mins)
They will answer this at the end of class.

Main Procedures/Strategies:

 Handout and Research Activity: WE NEED RESOURCES!!! (40 mins)

Start by explaining the difference between a credible website and a not credible site.
-Government, university, research websites verses Wikipedia (anyone can write in it)
Students will be given a series of links to credible websites about Japan why they joined in the war.
They will then have access to computers (where available), and their phones. The teacher will then
write a series of topics on the board to help guide research and to give the students a hint of what
information is important. The topics will be based off the info from these links and are to help them
pick out the important information. These topics are:
-resources? Why are they important?
-why the aggression? To USA? To China?
-who was in charge? Government or selected leader? Why?
-major movements/attacks by Japan?
-reasons for major movements/events?
-end result?
-what makes these websites credible for information?
Websites:
Why Japan joined the war
http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2014/07/07/what_prompted_japan_s_aggression_before_and_d
uring_world_war_ii.html
Pearl Harbor http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor
Tojo Hideki (Leader) http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/tojo-hideki

 Journal Entry (10 mins)

Students will answer the question given to them at the start of the class in their journals. They will
also answer the question, “Why was it important to make sure the sites you were using were credible.
Why was some information more important than others when doing your research?”

Adaptations/Differentiation:
- Make sure when assigning groups to place higher achieving students with lower achieving students so
that they can help each other. This will provide a slight challenge and give the higher achieving
students more responsibility and provide lower achieving students with the proper assistance.
- If students need EAL support. If they don’t have previous devices to help them, have one student read
out the info out loud to the EAL students in case listening is easier than reading for them. Also,
information on most websites can be translated thought the search engine (Google Chrome, Explorer)
 - If students have supports or cover content in a separate room, make sure that the specialized teacher
knows what you are doing in class.
- IF you feel necessary, you can extend the lesson to two days. You can’t go wrong with allowing the
students to learn more about their own country and cultures involvement in WWII.
- Don’t forget to walk around and provide assistance where necessary.

Closing of lesson:
If there is time at the end of the lesson, recap on the important of using technology responsibly when doing
research and how to properly decipher what information is important and what information is not.
Also recap on the importance of resources and how much it can influence a countries actions towards
another. Remind the students that this information will be extremely helpful when they are doing their final
project, the Mock Model U.N.

Personal Reflection: Lesson hasn’t been taught in a real classroom and is subject to change based on success or
failure of the lesson.

M. Wilkinson ’16 *Adapted from Understanding by Design (McTighe and Wiggins, 1998)
 Reflection/Justification

Finally, a chance to justify my use of YouTube and research into many, almost all, of my lessons and

units. I have received feedback from teachers, peers and others in the world of education about my excessive

use of videos and research activities in my History and Social Studies subjects. I explain to them that in todays

world, our students are becoming more and more engaged when they are looking at screens because we are

living in an always increasing technological world. Think about it this way, students today would be more

interested in a video explaining a certain subject than the teacher talking about it. If you click on the links to the

videos I use you can see right away why I chose to use them. In todays world, people are given more and more

creative freedom to do what they want. There are famous Youtubers out there who can explain the content I’m

teaching in a more exciting way than I ever could. These videos are visually stimulating and add visuals to the

content we are covering. Instead of asking students to picture something in their minds, they can see it for

themselves and thus making it more interesting. My lesson begins with an introductory video explaining Japan’s

role in WWII as a motivational set. I then go on to instructing the students on how to appropriately use

technology when doing research. More specifically, the lesson teaches them to decipher between what is

important information and what isn’t. This lesson also provides them with the knowledge on what a credible

and reliable source looks like when doing internet research. This lesson will be followed by a lesson where they

will be required to do research, but I will not give them credible sites, they will have to use the skills they have

learned to locate their own credible websites.

Outcome 1 – I feel I deserve a 4 in this category because I feel my plans are very effective in connecting my

lessons to the outcomes and indicators and I utilize my strategies and assessment in a proper manner.

Outcome 2 – I believe this is a 4. I can’t make my goal any clearer and my instruction is designed to help my

students achieve that goal, not just alone but together as a team.
Outcome 3 & 4 – I believe a 4 is achieved because the lessons I chose need to be related to the outcomes and

indicators or else why would I even bother with this lesson. In addition, my lessons and materials are sub ready.

Outcome 5 & 6 – This is a 4. Both my formative and summative lessons are easy to follow and focus on the most

important elements and journals are an excellent way to check where they are at.

Outcome 7 – I have a lot of evidence of where I made changes to my unit plan and just generally increasing my

knowledge of technology and how to use it appropriately. I give myself 3-4 because I still feel I need that

feedback from others to fully grow and move forward.

Outcome 10 – I give myself a 4. I’m not really sure what the outcomes are saying about communicating and

creating. My lesson and Unit revision is more incorporating technology into research and the proper use of

technology when doing researching and looking up important information. I still feel I am almost meeting the

practice of incorporating technology into my classroom.

Outcome 11 – 5, because this is what this assignment is all about and me learning both from and with my

students. I still need work on using technology appropriately when doing research and collaborative work. So by

teaching my students I am better increasing my knowledge.

Outcome 12 – 4 is where I sit. I have a good variety of questions both for my essential question, the beginning

of the lesson and at the end of the lesson that help my students achieve the outcomes and understand the

importants of proper use of technology when doing research.

Outcome 14 & 15 – Both of these can be anywhere from 3 – 4. My plans reflect my preparation to meet the

needs of different students, however I feel at this point it’s hard to list all the needs because I haven’t had a

chance to try this in the classroom and don’t know the needs of my future students. My lesson is also very

engaging in my opinion and will hopefully provide interest and connect to my students.
Outcome 16 – I strongly believe this is a 5 because my students will have developed literacies in communication,

technology, group work, presentations and self-discovery and reflection via the journals.

Outcomes 17, 18, 19 & 20 – I have grouped all 4 because they pertain to my unit plan and feel that I deserve a 4

in all the categories. The reason I say this because I already felt that I had a strong unit plan to begin with and

this assignment can only make it stronger. I still don’t feel it’s a 5 because I still need to test it in a real situation,

but other than that it’s well on its way.

Although my lessons and units aren’t teaching proper etiquette when using social media and other

technologies like that, they are still learning how to use technology responsibly through doing historical

research. This will better prepare them for post-secondary schooling and even just looking up information that

they were told and were not sure if it was reliable. Now they have the skills to look up information, check to see

if the site is reliable, and then pick out what information is important. Research is one of the main parts of

History, and the use of technology can make it easier and more accurate if you know how and where to look. By

the end of this unit, students will have that skill and knowledge and will hopefully use it after they have moved

on into adulthood.