Class: Japanese Culture - Literature/History
Unit Title: Tale of the Heike - Book 4
Lesson Title: Spark that Burns the Prairie ---- The Rebellion of Yorimasa
Time Allotment: 3 class periods (40-50 minute periods)
Objectives: Students will…
Essential Question/Big Idea:
Materials & Resources:
Instructional Procedures/Activities:
OVERVIEW:
Unit summary: The readings for Book 4 will be a combination of summaries and full text. For the first two lectures, students are expected to read summaries of the whole book before the first lesson, and full text of episodes 3-12 and 16 for the first two lessons. For the third lesson, students are expected to read the rest episodes and some specific parts of the book.
The lectures for the Unit: Book 4 will focus on these five topics:
(a) The events surrounding the rebellion of Yorimasa and the significance of them
(b) Fire and its meanings in the context of The Tale of the Heike
(c) Death and the related rituals and meanings
(d) Introduction to contemporary Japanese poetry
(e) Difference between Buddhism and Christianity
Lesson summary:
Lesson: The Rebellion of Yorimasa
Lesson One/Day One:
The students will read the summaries of all episodes before class.
In the beginning of the class, students will be asked to read the full text of episodes 3-6 and 16. They will be given a list of guiding questions marking out what they should focus on.
Here are some suggested guiding questions: (feel free to add/remove any one if needed)
The students will then be divided into groups to discuss their answers, while the teacher will walk around the groups, trying to engage in each group discussion for a little to find some most interestings points from students to share. The teacher will also grade the students’ answers to the questions by completion.The groups finish their discussion before the teacher comes will think and discuss about the role of Prince Mochihito and research about the symbolic meanings of fire in Japanese culture and other cultures.
After the teacher has visited all groups, groups having the most interesting points will be invited to share with the entire class. Then the teacher will guide a discussion on the role of Prince Mochihito, the symbolic meanings of fire and the burning of people’s own houses. Here are some suggested points to cover:
At last, the rest of the time will be given to a discussion on what the contemporary people valued and what was not as shown in the rebellion of Yorimasa. This should cover:
The writing homework for next lesson will be a short reflection on what the people are individually striving for. It will be graded for completion. The reading assignment will for next lesson will be episodes 9-12. Guiding questions for the reading assignments can be:
Lesson Two/Day Two:
There will be a short discussion regarding the writing homework from the previous lesson. The teacher can find a way to connect students’ responses to the battle and the death. The teacher will then ask the students to talk about what they think are the most impressive scenes in the episodes they just read. A discussion on the warrior culture can then be started. The teacher needs to clarify, however, that at this time it hasn’t been the samurai culture yet, but can definitely ask students to find similarities. The students will then be asked to think about similar battles, or rebellions, in western history and think about what causes the differences and the similarities. The teacher should specifically guide the students to focus on:
Lastly, the rest of the time will be spent on examining the contemporary people’s idea about death and the remains. Students will be given the time to research and discuss. The homework assignment for next lesson is to come up with a poem, a few lines of words or.lyrics that involves their ideas about death or the people from The Tale of the Heike about death. This homework can be completed in groups of no more than 3 people. The reading assignment for next lesson is the rest of the whole book.
Lesson Three/Day Three:
This lesson will start by reading and discussing the student’s writing homework from last lesson. The teacher can then use the student’s responses to bring up the discussion on poetry of the time of The Tale of the Heike. (Students should be given copies of poems from the book.) The discussion should cover the following points:
Then the students will be asked to write KWL journals on Buddhism. Then the students will start to research and discuss in groups about the differences between Buddhism and Christianity, and list the 5 biggest differences in their opinion. This is a completely free discussion, but the teacher should walk around the groups to make sure the students are not getting superficial differences, like the immortal deities are different. After all groups are done, students can all together have a discussion about what are the most common differences they come up with and what are not. The teacher may let the students to debate for a while if time allows.
Lastly, the students will be given time to examine the way to make time reference in The Tale of the Heike and try to use it. The homework for this lesson is to finish the KWL journals and a short essay on what may be different and what may be not if Christianity takes the place of Buddhism in this book.
Assessment – Formative & Summative:
Informally, instructor will gage student comprehension through response to questions posed throughout lecture. An essay or paper on one of the discussed topics can be used for formal assessment. The essay or paper should be showing deeper study and/or thoughts about the topic.
Closure/Follow-Up/Homework:
Students are encouraged to take advantage of the wealth of information on the web resource published by the class of Dr. Elizabeth Oyler, which offers maps, additional images, research tips, links to other sites, a glossary, episodes summaries, interactive activities, essays, and other pertinent information.