Sierra Matsubara

Moenaha Individual Unit Reflection

From the process of creating the unit, one new thing I learned about myself is how

resourceful I am when faced with a problem. Despite being used to the prevalence of Hawaiian

language terminology in education-based assignments, I still struggle to remember what each

word means. This can pose a challenge, especially when confronted with different assignments

with similar sounding names (e.g. Lau Kukui, Kumu Kukui, Hoʻolohe, Hoʻopuka, etc.). To

resolve this issue, I would use a variety of sources (e.g. wehewehe.org, my peers, the resources

given from class, etc.) in order to construct a little miniature dictionary of phrases to help me

understand and remember what they all mean in relation to education. This initially came off as

surprising, as previously I did not do this type of thing, but rather rely on the help of my fellow

cohort members to explain how the assignments with Hawaiian names was supposed to be

completed.

One of the most challenging things from this assignment was ensuring that all my lessons

in the Lau Kukui were interconnected together by the common goal of meeting what was laid out

in the Kumu Kukui. Being that I am used to creating standalone lessons, constructing an entire

unit composed of multiple lessons was a new task for me. Because of the unfamiliarity of

creating lessons under a larger unit, I essentially went into this process nearly blind and thus

struggled to ensure that the lessons were interconnected and related to the Kumu Kukui outline.

One thing that was safe from this project was the creation of different lessons under the

unit. At this point, I am fairly confident on my ability to construct different activities for a lesson

based on a given topic or theme. Making five of them for a unit was not an issue. The problem

laid more in making sure they were all interconnected to lead to a final task.
 In the unit’s Hoʻolohe, I tried a variation of the activity called Think-Pair-Share in one of

my lessons. While the Hoʻolohe’s activity required students to share a personal story, which can

take longer depending on each student’s experience, in relation to a prompt, the strategy I used

required students to answer a prompt that is relevant to themselves culturally. In each version,

students had to draw on their own experiences, which are often personal in nature, when sharing

to another person.

I was “political” in my unit through the historical content in itself. Unlike most U.S.

History courses when discussing World War II, this unit focused on the darker aspects of U.S.

involvement in the war regarding the unequal treatment of its own civilians despite touting itself

as the pinnacle of Democracy and Freedom. Considering how important World War II to the

American consciousness when defining itself as a global Democratic superpower that promotes

freedom and liberty, the unit’s focus would be considered politically controversial in its

implications of America as a hypocrite in its ideals.

I attempted to bridge the curriculum to the students through two activities: The Hoʻolohe

and the Hoʻopuka. With the former, I used the concept of change to construct an activity that

requires students to reflect and share to their peers about an event that changed the way they

perceived an idea or issue. From there I would connect the stories that they share to the content

through an explanation of how World War II helped to change the perception of America as a

Democracy and freedom in a society that restricts those two aspects for half of the population.

By giving an explanation to connect the similarities of their own stories of change to the

historical events in my curriculum, students can see the relationship between their own lives and

those who lived in the historical time period in the curriculum.

 With the latter activity, I attempted to bridge the curriculum to students by having

students to place themselves in the perspective of a woman or African American during World

War II. Through engaging students in this form of writing, students can “see” and “feel” the

events and tribulations that occur in this time period as if they were either a woman or an African

American. In a sense, this activity would make the curriculum come to life for the student, as

they immerse themselves in the role of the groups (e.g. what they went through, how they felt,

etc.) discussed in the unit.