Lesson Overview:

This lesson explores the realities and effects of war on children by examining diaries, journals, and letters written by children during times of war. Through class discussion and studying various texts of actual events, students will examine the similarities and differences of children's experiences during wartime in different parts of the world, as well as the power of documenting these experiences in writing. The lesson culminates with a variety of creative and interactive theater exercises that broaden students’ understandings of children during times of war.

Length of Lesson:

Five 45-minute class periods

Notes:

This lesson is particularly suitable for grades 7-8.

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• develop an understanding of how events of war influence lives, in particular the lives of children.
• explore the importance of creative expression in war situations, especially the use of diaries, journals, and letters.
• conduct research to broaden their understanding of the impact of war on people.
• participate in theater exercises involving the children they studied.

Supplies:

• Chart paper
• Paper
• Writing materials
• World map
• United States map
• Location flags for world map
• Printouts of diary entries, journal entries, and letters used in lesson

Instructional Plan:

Warm Up

Write "War" on the chalkboard. Ask the class to name wars they are familiar with, wars the United States has been involved in, recent wars, and past wars. List examples that students know of. (Possible answers include: The World Wars, The Civil War, the War on Terrorism, religious wars, land feuds, etc.) Explore with the class some of the repercussions of war and the effects of wars on families. (Possible answers include: loss of homes, lack of food, separation of families, prisoners of war, death, sickness.)

Lesson

Ask the class if they know who Anne Frank was. Tell the class that Anne Frank was a German Jewish girl whose family was under attack, like all Jewish families, from the Nazi government of Adolph Hitler during World War II. Anne, her family, a neighboring family, and a family friend spent about two years hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam before being captured and sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She died nine months after her arrest. Review the map of Bergen-Belsen and other concentration camp locations. Have students locate Anne Frank’s hiding spot, Amsterdam, and the concentration camp where she was sent. Anne’s experiences and insights became a classic of modern literature, titled The Diary of Anne Frank. Have students read excerpts from Anne Frank’s diary. Ask them what they think Anne felt as she wrote about her "Jewish friends and acquaintances...taken away in droves." Anne wrote that she "doesn’t care if she lives or dies." What does the class think could drive a person to feel this way?

Ask the class why Anne Frank’s diary has become such an important document. Why do many students in the U.S. and throughout the world read it? Why does the writing of a child have such a profound affect on so many people? How do they suppose writing the diary helped Anne Frank deal with living under war conditions? List students’ responses on the board.

Explain to the class that children in the United States have also experienced the effects of war. Tell the class that during World War II people of Japanese ancestry where taken from their homes and placed in internment camps within the United States. Ask the class if they know why this was done. Elicit from the class that people of Japanese ancestry, living in the United States, were thought to be sympathetic toward Japan, an enemy of the United States during World War II. Because of this unfounded fear, the U.S. government removed many Japanese Americans from their homes and relocated them to internment camps. Have students access the Japanese American National Museum Web site to read several letters from a Japanese American child, Louise Ogawa, who was imprisoned in the camps. Point out that Louise was held at the Poston (Colorado River), Arizona Camp. Locate Poston, Arizona, on a U.S. map and flag the location.

Have students access the PBS Web site: Children of the Camps to locate the other nine internment camps in the U.S. and have the class flag those.

Introduce the book The Journal of Ben Uchida, and explain that though this is the story of a fictional character, much of what Ben experiences in the Japanese internment camps happened to real children. Have them read portions of the story out loud. Suggested passages are as follows:

• Pages 3—7(1/2 way down) Tuesday, April 21, 1942.
• Pages 22—25 Thursday, April 23rd 1942—On A Train
• Page 82 Wednesday, September 16, 1942.
• Page 104 Friday, November 6th, 1944.

The author of this book chose to use a diary format to convey Ben’s story. Ask the class why they think the diary format is used to tell Ben’s story. Elicit from the class that diary entries help us imagine what daily life was really like during these difficult times.

Teacher note: The Japanese American National Museum has many examples of letters about what life was like for Japanese Americans in the internment camps. For classes that would like to focus on this aspect of WWII there is wealth of material.

Tell the students that these accounts document the experiences of children during World War II. The following lesson is about children living through more recent wars. Students may read both The Diary of Anne Frank and The Journal of Ben Uchida as extra credit homework.

Tell the class that they are now going to read some diary entries of a more recent time. Zlata Filipovic was an 11-year-old girl caught in the war in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Access the Discoveryschool.com Children of War article.

Zlata writes that, "As for me, I’m reading through my letters. Letters are all I’ve got left of my friends. I read them and they take me back to my friends." Ask the class what they would think or do if they no longer were able to be with their friends. What are some feelings they might have?

Zlata also writes, "That’s my life! The life of an innocent eleven-year-old schoolgirl!! A schoolgirl without school, without the fun and excitement of school. A child without games, without friends, without the sun, without birds, without nature, without fruit, without chocolate or sweets, with just a little powdered milk. In short, a child without a childhood. A wartime child." What does the class think the life of a "wartime child" might be like? Have the class locate Sarajevo on the map and mark it with a flag.

Finally, have the class read the last set of diary entries. This time they will read about the lives of children in Northern Ireland. These accounts of children caught in the middle of a religious war are available at Discoveryschool.com's Children of War web article.

Have the class read through several diary entries. Point out the entry of Gemma McHenry, who writes, "I was brought up in a mixed area (Protestant and Catholic) and I had mixed friends and thought nothing of it. We were all innocent children. I would be asked by my Protestant friends to say the Hail Mary. To me it was the only difference between us. Sometimes I needed to say it to prove I was a Catholic!" Ask the class what this says about Gemma and the way she looks at people? Gemma also writes, "Those were happy days of innocence, but reality hit us with a bomb when a Protestant neighbor was shot by Republican paramilitaries for being a member of the Security Forces. And then a Catholic neighbor was shot for being a Catholic." How do students think Gamma’s life was and is affected by the war that is going on around her? Have the class locate Northern Ireland on the world map and flag it. Point out to the class some of the different areas of the world where children were, or are, influenced by the effects of war. Suggest the importance of the written word and how they have come to learn about all these children through their writing.

Note: The remaining portion of the lesson may be taught over several days.

Have the class participate in several theater exercises/games to further develop their understanding of children's experiences during wartime.

To help students prepare for these exercises, distribute the Life Story handout and guide students to collect and organize pertinent details and insights into their character.

Theater Exercise/Game 1—Role Play:

Have students take turns transforming themselves into one of the children of war studied in class. During this transformation, have the class interview the character, asking questions about his or her life. Start the session by telling the class that today they will pretend to be one of the children they have studied in class. Prepare a nametag with the studied child’s name on it, which the student can wear while in character, performing. Tell the class that the performer, as well as the audience/interviewers, must use their imaginations during the performance. Tell the class that, now that they have finished hearing about Ben Uchida, you would like them to share some of the things they learned about his life. They will do that by pretending to be Ben Uchida. Select a student to play the part. (Teacher note: You may want to ask a student in private if he or she would be willing to go first.)

Have the student come to the front of the room and turn his or her back to the audience. Remind the class that when the student turns around he or she will no longer be their classmate, but will be Ben Uchida. Tell the “actor” that he or she can turn around when ready. When the student faces the audience, welcome Ben Uchida to the classroom. (Talking to the character as Ben Uchida will help the class become comfortable with this exercise.) Ask the class if anyone has any questions for Ben about his life, such as how he felt when he spent time in the internment camps, etc. Give the performer a few minutes to play the part before asking for volunteers to continue the role-playing.

Theater Exercise/Game 2—"Then What Happened?"

In this game the class recalls the events of a story or situation by continually answering the question, "Then what happened?"

Provide the class with an opening sentence from the life of Anne Frank. "My name is Anne Frank and I was born in Germany." Then ask, "And then what happened?" and select a student to respond. When that student has added to the retelling, again ask, "And then what happened?" This activity is a great device to help the students focus on the character’s life story and the events that took place. A variation on this activity is to divide the students into small groups, place the character names into a bag, and have students draw the name of the person that their group will talk about.

Theater Exercise/Game 3—Imaginary Door

Students will draw an imaginary door and find a multitude of things behind it. Have students draw an imaginary door with an imaginary felt-tip marker (chalk, pen). Tell the class that when they open the door they will see Zlata Filipovic (or any other character that the class has studied). Ask the class what they see. Have them describe what the person is wearing, what he or she is doing, if he or she is with anyone else, etc.

Theater Exercise/Game 4—Role Play II

Have the students take on the role of Anne Frank, Louise Ogawa, Zlata Filipovic, or Ben Uchida. Discuss with the class several topics that the children could talk about if they were to meet. List these topics on the board. Divide the class into pairs. Have each team create a dialogue in which they discuss what life in hiding is like, what it is like living without some of their family members, etc. Have the class work on their dialogues. After rehearsing, students may perform their scenes for the class.

Students may create a graphic narrative or comic book depiction to relate an episode or episodes in the life of one of the children presented in this lesson. The Stapleless Book Activity of the ReadWriteThink Web site would be appropriate for this project.

Assessment:

Use the Assessment Rubric to assess your students' works.

Extensions:

Students ma create graphic narratives or comic book depictions to relate an episode or episodes in the lives of the children presented in this lesson. The Stapleless Book Activity of the ReadWriteThink Web site would be appropriate for this project.

Sources:

Print:

• Denenberg, Barry, The Journal of Ben Uchida. Scholastic Inc. 1999, New York
• Kelner, Lenore Blank. Games 1-3 adapted from The Creative Classroom. New Hampshire: Heinemann, 1993.
• Spolin, Viola. Theater Games for the Classroom. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1986.

Authors:

• Scholastic Inc.
  New York, NY