A Gallery Walk
Students will be provided with a large number of artifacts, photographs, and documents to survey in a gallery walk. These artifacts should provide students with some insights into the internment without having to read a large amount of text material. Moreover, the collection will stimulate a number of questions about how Japanese Canadians were affected by the internment experience.
Analysis of Artifacts:
Arrange a series of stations, up to 14, and place one or more artifacts at each station. Students will then walk around and examine the photographs, documents, and articles.
Instruct the students to pick out 8 of the 12 artifacts for their charts. They should choose only those items that provoke an immediate response. Once the students have viewed all of the items have them work in groups of 3 or 4 to compare responses.
After the students have completed Handout 3.5 they are to draft a 7 minute “free write” using the following initial prompt:
“When I saw the pictures, documents, and newspaper headlines I realized…”
For a free write the teacher is to instruct the students to begin writing at a timed signal and not to stop until time is called. Students are not to worry specifically about grammar, spelling, punctuation and so on, but to focus on capturing their thoughts, feelings and reactions to the material presented.
All Gallery Walk materials are included in Lesson 3: Case Studies, part of Internment and Redress: The Japanese Canadian Experience, a resource guide for Social Studies 11 teachers.