A different mirror e.com

[Pages:32]a different mirror for young people

A History of Multicultural America

Ronald Takaki

Adapted by Rebecca Stefoff

a teaching guide

by Dr. Russell Binkley Western Carolina University

Seven Stories Press New York

teaching guide

a different mirror for young people

This text has been adapted from the 529-page book (1993, 2008)

by Ronald Takaki (1939?2009). Takaki's scholarship focused

on the racial and ethnic diversity of the United States and how

those differences have both enriched and troubled the coun-

try. After the introductory chapter, a rationale for challenging

the "Master Narrative" of American history, the subsequent 15

chapters each center on specific groups; most are immigrants,

although some (enslaved Africans) did not come of their own

accord and others (native peoples) were already here.

The stories are of heartbreak, hardship, and against-the-odds

perseverance in spite of class bias and economic hardship, rac-

ism, discrimination, suspicion, cruelty, legal sanctions, and

narrow definitions of who deserves to be called "American."

Following the introductory chapter, each chapter (the final

one, chapter 17, is more of an afterward) may be used as sepa-

rate reading assignments of 17 to 25 pages each. This teacher's

guide follows a general pattern:

I.

Chapter summary

II. Vocabulary

III. Open-ended discussion questions

IV. Activities for small groups and individuals

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V. Connections: films, readings, websites that can extend the chapter content

VI. Questions for the teacher to consider Finally, the teacher's guide closes with ideas that could be used either for end-of-book response projects or for enrichment.

Preliminary Activities Anticipatory:

1. Project an enlarged image of the front cover of A Different Mirror on a screen (or provide each student with a copy to examine). Allow two minutes for students to look closely at the cover and to take notes on what they see. (Later, this skill of deep observation will be developed further as we learn to analyze photographs as primary documents). Then, in small groups, have students compare notes, particularly noticing what they might have seen that others did not observe. Provide these questions for discussion, noting that sharing will be expected later in the larger group. Encourage the observations to be detailed and ask students to take some risks in speculating about what they find.

2. The uncropped photograph can be seen at

Thinking About the Photograph (Japanese internment, Ansel Adams, 1943) on the Cover*

1. What do you see in the photograph?

*A thorough and teacher-friendly resource for the classroom analysis of primary

documents (written, photographs, films, recordings, maps, material artifacts) is on the Library of Congress website at This site includes a wealth of teaching ideas, reproductions of primary sources, and forms for classroom analysis.

2. Describe the children in the photograph. 3. Where do you think this photograph was taken? 4. What can you say about the setting of the photograph? 5. Who do you think took the photograph (and why)?

Thinking About the Title 1. Explain what you think the title A Different Mirror means. 2. What is meant by "multicultural America"?

Speculating About the Reading Experience 1. Why do you think your teacher (or school) has chosen this particular book for you to use? 2. What do you think you might learn that you don't already know after we have finished reading and studying this book? 3. If this is a history book, how do you think it will compare to other history textbooks you have used in school? 4. How have you felt about other history textbooks you have used in the past? Why? 5. If you were in charge of choosing history textbooks for students like you, how would they differ from the books you may have used previously?

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