What would your class like to learn about Japanese culture? Prepare them for a novel unit about Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter with a KWL chart. After listing what they already know about Japanese culture, they write questions about what they'd like to learn, and later complete the chart with a list of facts that they have learned.

Concepts

novels, japanese culture, reading comprehension

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Have kids update their charts as they read the novel
• Use the information that kids come up with in the left section to form research assignments, and assign certain groups different aspects of Japanese culture to present to the class

Classroom Considerations

• Some of the sample answers for the middle section could be considered to be stereotypes about Japanese culture and Japanese people; take care in guiding the conversation away from stereotypes

Pros

• Graphic organizer is clear, and with a few changes it could be applied to other novels

Cons

• None