LESSON 2
Following Directions: Japan

OBJECTIVES
" To read and follow directions as stated.
" To use an atlas and an almanac to locate specific information.

NOTES TO TEACHER
Following directions is a vital part of student's success. Practice in this area is an ongoing process. This is an introductory activity for the skill of following directions. This lesson also involves group participation and group cooperation as well as practice in locating information.

In this activity students will follow written directions and complete a map of Japan as directed using an atlas as a guide. The almanac game will be played in groups of four using an almanac and a set of action cards that ask students to perform specific tasks.

MATERIALS: crayons (box of eight colors) or colored marking pens, handouts 1-3, The World Almanac, game cards and game markers

PROCEDURE
1. Distribute Handouts 1 & 3 to students. They will also need an atlas or the atlas in their text and a small box of crayons (eight) or a set of colored markers.

2. Locate the map of Japan on the atlas. Both a political and a physical map are needed.

3. Students are to complete the handout without further direction or guide.

4. Collect the handouts and evaluate students' ability to read and follow directions.

5. A second activity that will take most of a class period is the Almanac Game. The teacher should prepare the Almanac Action Cards and have them ready before calls (see Procedure 12). An almanac is needed. On Handout 2 there are twenty-five questions for which students are to find the answers in the almanac within a twenty-five minute (or more) time limit.

6. Divide students into groups of four with at least one almanac per group. One person should be designated team captain. Noise must be kept to a minimum or teams can be penalized for noise violations, e.g. lose two tokens, disqualification, etc….

7. Students should turn to the general index of The World Almanac and note on paper all the pages concerning Japan, before the game begins. (This will save them time in not having to continually turn to the index for page numbers.)

8. Students may answer questions regardless of order by looking them up. Team members must write the correct answer on their papers and should rotate the almanac at each turn so all my use it equally.

9. After the team completes a question, the team captain must come to the front of the room to pick up a token and a card. Tokens can be any small item - buttons, paperclips, strips of colored paper, poker chips, bingo markers, etc….

10. The captain puts the token on the team's table, sharing the card silently with the groups. The group must follow the directions on the bottom of the card and then return it to the bottom of the pile.

11. At the end of the time limit, teams should total their tokens. The team with the most tokens wins. (The winning team members could be given bonus points toward their grade.) Many of the twenty-five questions may remain unanswered but the game cam be continued during another class period.

12. To make the Almanac Action Cards, use three by five notecards and copy one direction on each one. Others can be added to these suggestions:

a. Stand up silently, pat your head three times, sit down.
b. Shake hands with your team members.
c. Stand, hold hands and form a circle, move three times around your desk while holding hands.
d. Raise your right hand and shake it twice.
e. Raise your left hand and shake it twice.

f. Stand up, turn around, sit down.
g. Stand up, bow to your team members, sit down.
h. Reach across to the opposite team members and clap hands with them twice.
i. Stand up, face the door, turn around, sit down.
j. Stand up, bow to your teacher, sit down.

Suggested Responses, Handout 2:

1. Advanced Neolithic Yayoi Period 2. China or Korea 3. Yamato Clan 4. Chief priest of the Shinto Cult 5. Chinese cultural invasion 6. Buddhism 7. China 8. Shogunate 9. lord 10. Samurai 11. Zen (Buudhism) 12. 1597 13. Tokugawa

14. 1640 15. slightly smaller than California 16. Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoko 17. 822 square miles 18. 118,896,000 19. Parliamentary Democracy 20. Emperor Hirohito 21. Yashiro Nakasone 22. seventy-three years 23. seventy-eight years 24. ninety-nine percent 25. late 19th century

EXTENSION/ENRICHMENT
The finished activities would make an interesting bulletin board. Students develop a bulletin board whose topic or theme is based on the information acquired as a result of one or more of these activities.