Message from eshorer

[Anonymous]

Deai: The Lives of Seven Japanese High School Students.
I had the opportunity to take part in a seminar at Loyola Marymount University last year that dealt with teaching about contemporary Japan through the use of large photographs detailing the lives of seven students. These photo essays are wonderful motivational tools, and provide colorful examples of life in Japan, with clear descriptions in both Japanese and English on the back of the photographs.
I just finished a unit with my 8th grade students using them for the LAUSD unit on Expository writing. A brief description of the project follows:
* We had just finished reading “Tears of Autumn,” a story by Yoshio Uchida in our Prentice Hall text, about young woman who is going to Japan for an arranged marriage. Students had already been given some background information on the culture and geography of Japan.

We brainstormed categories that make up culture. Students were guided to come up with topics such as: Family, food, housing, clothing/fashion, education, religion, etc.
Students were put in seven groups, of four to five students each. Each group was assigned a Japanese student, and given the set of photographs that detailed that student’s life.
Students were instructed to look at the picture side of the cards only, and to list things they saw that fit into the above cultural categories.
Students were next told to choose only three categories from above, and to gather information from the pictures and the text that would provide a good picture of that student’s life. They were asked to focus on things that were either different from American culture (e.g., the shape of the bathtub), or simply interesting (e.g., the Japanese McDonalds).
The project culminated with each group going to the front of the class and introducing their Japanese student to the class for five minutes, holding up various photographs that supported their talk.

It was a successful project that engaged the students while teaching them about contemporary Japan. Those interested in the materials can contact:
The Japan Forum
[email protected] (give the subject line: Deai order)