War in the Pacific

Author: Colin Swyer
Endorsed: This lesson is to be placed on the Internet as part of an undergraduate Education course at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Date: November 22, 1995

Grade Level: 11 and 12

Subject: History 3201 (World History)

Time: 55 minutes

Objectives:

After today's lesson, students - through class discussion - will be able to identify how the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour impacted the United States.

Contents:

a) Six elements, highlighting the erosion of Japanese-U.S. relations, provides background for a discussion of the Pearl Harbour attack.

b) Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour (Dec. 7, 1941):

•  
• economic/military damage caused by the attack
• emotional impact on the American public
• political impact -- the failure of President Roosevelt's isolationist policy
• U.S. declaration of war, Dec. 8, 1941.

Resources: Textbook, personal knowledge, student knowledge, map transparency, handout, cooperative learning exercise, chalk, chalkboard, projector.

Methods:

Students will be asked if they have any questions concerning previous issues, which will be addressed before proceeding. To give the students a geographic perspective, a transparency - highlighting Japanese expansion in Asia, to December 1941- will be placed on the projector. Likewise, a handout- illustrating some of the damage at Pearl Harbour - will be distributed.

Since the students are expected to have read prescribed textbook pages, anyone having an idea of what contributed to the breakdown of Japanese-U.S. relations, will be encouraged to orally respond - i.e. raise their hand. Students' input will be clarified and placed on the chalkboard, and any questions to this point, will be addressed before continuing.

Thereafter, a description of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour will be provided. The class will then be divided into groups of four or five, for a cooperative learning exercise in which the students will be asked if the attack was good or bad for Japan. In this exercise, students will be expected to weigh short-term against possible long-term consequences - i.e. days/months versus two/three years, following the attack. For the final ten minutes of class, and ten to twenty minutes of next class, representatives from each group will voice their perspectives.

Evaluation:

Informal evaluation will occur during the cooperative learning exercise; the groups will be monitored, to see how effectively the students work as a team.

Formal evaluation will occur on the unit test, which contains four multiple choice questions from this lesson.

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