Three Years and Eight Months by Icy Smith
Ten year old Choi and his friend Taylor get caught up in the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in 1941 during World War II. The two boys lose contact with their mothers and must fend for themselves in a city that is ravaged with hunger, fear and death. They secretly help the anti-Japanese resistance group to save the lives of thousands of prisoners of war, and allied forces. They make an unexpected friendship with a Japanese soldier, Watanabe-san. This is a moving tale of friendship, bravery and human resilience during war times.
The story covers the period of the Japanese ocupation of Hong Kong that lasted for three years and eight months - from the occupation on 7 December 1941 until the Japanese surrender following the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945. It is based on the actual experiences of the writer's father, uncle and grandmother, and other survivors’ experiences lived the reality of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation during World War II. The book features extensive historical notes and photographs documenting the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong from 1942 to 1945.
This picturebook for older readers is illustrated by Jennifer Kindert.
Excerpts from Three Years and Eight Months by Icy Smith. Copyright 2013 by East West Discovery Press. www.eastwestdiscovery.com
About the author
Icy Smith is the author of many historical fiction and nonfiction books, including The Lonely Queue: The forgotten history of the courageous Chinese Americans in Los Angeles, Three Years and Eight Months, Mei Ling in China City, Half Spoon of Rice, and Mystery of the Giant Masks of Sanxingdui. She is the winner of numerous prestigious book awards and the recipient of the National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color Author Award for her “substantial and lasting contributions to the understanding of diversity and multicultural society in the United States.”
Icy grew up in Hong Kong. She left the city when she was 20 years old and moved to Los Angeles to study communication and public relations. She established East West Discovery Press, one of the few Asian-American publishing companies specialising in multicultural and bilingual books.
Unit lesson plan
Book title: Three Years and Eight Months
Author: Icy Smith
Illustrator: Jennifer Kindert
ISBN: 978-0-9856237-8-4
Publisher: East West Discovery Press, US, 2013
Reading Level*: Lexile 770L / Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level reading Test 5.2
Suitable for Ages: 11 to 12 years
Proposed grade level: P6
Themes: Hong Kong History, WWII
Connection to Hong Kong Curriculum: English Language, Language Education KLA
Values: National Identity, Perseverance, Responsibility, Integrity.
Modules: We love Hong Kong, Changes, Relationships.
General Studies Curriculum: National Identity and Chinese Culture, Community and Citizenship.
Lesson duration: 30 minutes per lesson
Unit Lesson Plan Three Years and Eight Months.pdf Skill Allocation
Reading
L1 (Reading setting)
L2 (Inferring character thoughts)
L3 (Foreshadowing)
L10 (Boardgame)
Listening
L5 (War announcement – audio clips)
L5 (Child evacuees in England during WWll - video)
L6 (Campus TV)
L8 (Dictogloss)
Writing
L6 (Campus TV – school broadcast script)
L7 (Book report - character)
L8 (Dictogloss)
L9 (Letter)
Speaking
L6 (Campus TV)
L8 (Dictogloss)
L10 (Boardgame)
Grammar
L4 (Cause and effect)
Download complete set of lesson plan and teaching materials
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Download individual lesson plan and teaching materials
( Please email to engl.rcpce@polyu.edu.hk for the ZIP decompression password. )
Lesson plans and teaching materials
Lesson 1 - Book setting
Aims:
To practise the skills of prediction.
To identify the setting of the story.
Focused skill: Reading
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to make relevant predictions of the story.
Students are able to identify key information about the setting.
L1 Book Setting - Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 2 - Inferring characters’ thoughts
Aims:
To be able to understand the story better by putting students into the characters’ shoes.
To be able to learn vocabulary related to war.
Focused skills: Reading and vocabulary
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to put themselves into character and write down their thoughts.
Students are able to recall vocabulary from the story.
L2 Inference & Vocabulary - Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 3 - Foreshadowing
Aims:
To learn the literary technique “Foreshadowing”.
To be able to identify the clues for foreshadowing.
Focused skill: Reading
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to answer the true or false questions about foreshadowing correctly.
Students are able to identify examples of foreshadowing in the story.
L3 Foreshadowing - Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 4 - Cause and effect
Aims:
To be able to understand and identify the cause and effect of the events in the story.
To be able to use connectives/conjunctions to construct sentences.
Focused skill: Grammar
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to identify examples of cause and effect in the story.
Students are able to match the cause and effect in the pelmanism game.
L4 Cause & Effect - Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 5 - War announcement
Aims
To practise listening for gist and listening for detail skills.
To understand more about the impacts of atomic bombs.
Focused skill: Listening
Assessment Criteria
Students are able to answer listening comprehension questions.
L5 War Announcement - Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 6 - Campus TV
Aims:
To understand the use of campus broadcasts.
To be able to draft a 2 to 3 minute broadcasting script.
To be able to present news in the context of a campus TV station.
Focused skill: Speaking
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to make use of journalistic expressions to present a piece of news on campus TV.
L6 Campus TV - Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 7 - Book Report (character)
Aims:
To discuss thoughts about characters with peers.
To be able to write personal opinions about the character(s) in the book.
Focused skill: Writing
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to discuss and write their opinions about the character(s).
L7 Book Report (Character) - Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 8 - Dictogloss
Aims
To be able to practice past narrative tenses.
To be able to collaborate and communicate with other classmates.
Focused skills: Listening, speaking, writing, grammar
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to identify and record key words from listening to a text.
Students are able to use their notes and existing knowledge to recreate the text.
L8 Dictogloss - Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 9 - A response letter
Aims:
To be able to understand the structure of the letter in the book.
To be able to respond to the points in the letter.
Focused skill: Writing
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to write a reply to Taylor’s mother’s letter using the correct format of a letter.
L9 Lesson Plan.pdfLesson 10 - Boardgame
Aims:
To reinforce the understanding of the book.
To reinforce the past, past continuous and perfect tense which are used in the book.
To express personal opinions about the book.
Focused skills: Reading and Speaking
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to read the sentences in each square.
Students are able to answer questions related to the book.
L10 Boardgame - Lesson Plan.pdf