Lesson 16: Seen and Unseen, Part 9

Have students take out their copies of Seen and Unseen and their annotations from the previous lesson.

Turn and Talk

Teacher Guidance: Use this routine to activate students’ prior knowledge about nonfiction text features before they read the back matter closely.

Set students up with a partner.

Say these Directions: In the previous lesson, we finished reading the main part of Seen and Unseen and noticed how photographs and testimony preserve only part of the record. Today, we are turning to the back matter to see what extra context, sourcing, and perspective the authors add. This matters because in our performance task, we will need to explain how different sources help us bear witness responsibly.

• Ask: What kinds of information do you expect to find in the back matter of a nonfiction book?

  • I expect to find notes, references, timelines, biographies, and maybe an author’s note or illustrator’s note. Those features usually help readers understand where the information came from and what the creators want us to notice.

• Ask: What purpose does this information serve?

  • Back matter adds context and credibility to the record. It can help readers verify information, understand the author’s choices, and keep learning about stories that were not fully told in the main part of the book.

Have students work in pairs to discuss the two questions. Then have pairs share with the class one feature and one purpose of back matter.

Connection to Today’s Learning

Now that students have predicted what back matter can do, they are ready to read one dense excerpt slowly and notice how language and structure build authority.

Fluency Practice

Teacher Guidance: Use this routine to help students navigate long sentences and notice how reporting verbs shape perspective in informational text.

Display and read aloud the following excerpt from the section describing General DeWitt’s report:

“In April 1943, from the army headquarters in San Francisco, General DeWitt, who had been in charge of the forced removal of Japanese Americans, put together a 618-page final report for the US Army chief of staff. DeWitt claimed at the outbreak of the war there were hundreds of organizations on the West Coast actively engaged in advancing Japanese war aims.”

Say these Directions: We are going to read this passage more than once. The first time, listen for how the sentence is built. The second time, pay attention to which words make the report sound official and alarming.

Teach: Using Fluency to Analyze Tone

• Say: When I read a sentence this long, I do not try to hold every word in my head at once. First, I find the core idea: General DeWitt put together a 618-page final report. Then I go back and notice the added phrases that tell me where he was and what power he had. Next, I pay attention to the reporting verb claimed because that word tells me the author is showing me what DeWitt said without proving it was true. I also stress 618-page because that detail makes the report sound serious and authoritative. When I read fluently, I can hear how the language builds fear before I even start evaluating the evidence. That helps me connect fluency to analysis, not just pronunciation.

Read the excerpt aloud once, modeling phrasing across commas and emphasizing 618-page and claimed.

• Say: Now we will echo-read the two sentences together. Listen for where the voice pauses and where the meaning keeps moving.

Guide students to break the sentences apart into manageable pieces. Start by writing the following details on the board.

• Say: When sentences have many parts, we can break them down into notes to help us understand the meaning.

  • When: April 1943

  • Who: General DeWitt and US Army chief of staff

  • What: 618-page report

  • Important word: claimed

• Ask: What idea does the author want us to notice by including the length of the report and the verb claimed?

  • The author wants us to notice that the report sounded official because it was 618 pages long, but the word claimed suggests that readers should question whether the report’s accusations were actually supported by evidence.

Next, have partners add details in note form from the sentences, such as what the report claimed. When students have completed their notes, have them reread the sentences in their original form.

Say these Directions: Now read the excerpt with your partner. Partner A reads first while Partner B listens for smooth phrasing and one word that should be emphasized. Then switch roles. You should find that, now that you have broken down the sentences, they make more sense than they did the first time you read them.

Connection to Today’s Learning

Students have now practiced slowing down and noticing how language shapes perspective, which will help them read the back matter for context, sourcing, and gaps in the record.

Part A: Reading the Back Matter for Perspective (RI.7.6, RI.7.9) (20 minutes)

Partner Reading & Discussion

Teacher Guidance: Direct students to read selected back-matter landmarks rather than every page evenly. Focus them on the section “Citizenship Violated” (pp. 108–109), the photographer biographies (pp. 112–113), and the author and illustrator notes (pp. 114–115). Students should spend no more than five minutes reading each section. Have student pairs read one section at a time, annotating as they go, and then have pairs share their ideas with the class before advancing to the next section. Draw three columns on the board, labeled C, A, G, and add notes to it as students share.

Say these Directions: Read the selected back-matter sections with your partner. As you read, annotate using these three codes: C for clarifying context, A for author or illustrator choice, and G for a gap or limitation in the record. Be ready to share one strong annotation for each code.

Teach: Using Back Matter to Deepen Perspective and Context

After students read the first section, take no more than one minute to add student notes to the columns for the first section. Then ask the first question, as follows.

• Ask: In the section “Citizenship Violated” (pp. 108–109), what new context deepens your understanding of incarceration?

  • This section adds context by explaining that Japanese Americans were treated differently from German and Italian Americans and that the government’s justifications were not supported by evidence. That helps me see incarceration as a policy choice, not a necessary wartime action.

After students read the second section, take no more than one minute to add student notes to the columns for the second section. Then ask the second question, as follows.

• Ask: In the photographer biographies (pp. 112–113), what do these pages reveal about how stories and images were preserved?

  • The biographies show that the photographs were preserved in different ways. Some of Lange’s and Adams’s images ended up in public archives, while Miyatake’s work remained connected to his family and studio, so access to the record depended partly on who controlled the images.

After students read the third section, take no more than one minute to add student notes to the columns for the third section. Then ask the third question, as follows.

• Ask: In her illustrator’s note (pp. 114–115), Lauren Tamaki writes that she is Japanese Canadian and that when she looked at photographs of incarcerated Japanese Americans, she saw “familiar-looking faces staring back at me: They looked like my family.” She also writes that her grandmother’s generation was expected to not talk about incarceration—to “leave the shame of those traumatic events behind.” Tamaki made this book anyway. What does her choice to illustrate this history tell us about bearing witness across generations?

  • Tamaki’s grandmother’s generation was told to move on, to not talk about what happened. By illustrating this book, Tamaki is doing the opposite. She’s saying that the shame doesn’t belong to the people who were imprisoned; it belongs to the government that imprisoned them. Making art about this history is a different kind of bearing witness than Miyatake’s photography was. Miyatake documented what was happening in real time. Tamaki is looking back to honor what her family couldn’t or wouldn’t talk about.

Part B: Writing Across the Record (RI.7.6, RI.7.9) (15 minutes)

Think-Pair-Write-Share

Teacher Guidance: Students should use their annotations from Part A and at least one detail from an earlier section of the book. Start by asking the summary question below.

Say these Directions: Use your annotations from Part A and at least one earlier section of the book to help you write a synthesis paragraph. First, discuss the summary question with a partner, then review your notes before writing.

• Ask: Across the back matter, what gap or limitation in the historical record becomes clearer?

  • A major limitation is that many people never recorded their experiences, or their stories were hidden, lost, or not shared across generations. Because of that, the book can preserve some voices, but it cannot recover every story that never got recorded or, perhaps, was recorded but then lost.

Explain to students that they will write a synthesis paragraph in response to the next question below. Guide them to spend a few minutes going over their notes and annotations and then take the rest of the class time to write.

If students have difficulty getting started, use parts of the sample response as a model to scaffold structure, including transitions. Ensure, however, that students’ responses are their own.

Teach: Synthesizing Evidence Across the Historical Record

• Say: A synthesis does more than summarize the back matter. It explains what the back matter adds to the main text and why that addition matters for understanding the historical record. As you plan and write, consider both preservation and omission, because this book keeps showing us that some stories were saved while others were hidden or lost. Include evidence from two places: at least one detail from the back matter and one detail from an earlier part of the book. Explain the connection by naming a limitation in the record or a choice that shaped which stories survived.

• Ask: How does the material at the back of Seen and Unseen help you understand whose stories were preserved and whose were left out? In your response, analyze how individuals, events, and ideas influenced which stories were recorded and which were not. Use evidence from the back matter and another part of the book to support your analysis.

• The back matter helps me understand that the stories readers inherit are shaped by access, silence, and later acts of witness. In the illustrator’s note, Tamaki explains that her family’s survivors was expected not to talk about incarceration, which means some experiences were never shared openly. In the photographer biographies, readers learn that different archives and family collections preserved different images, so access to the record was uneven. Earlier in the book, Miyatake’s photographs show life from the perspective of someone who was himself incarcerated, while the back matter explains how those images survived and why other stories did not. As a result, the back matter shows that both individual choices and larger historical pressures influenced whose stories were preserved and whose were omitted.

Scoring Rubric

Quick Write

Teacher Guidance: Use this Quick Write to formatively assess students’ ability to synthesize and connect their ideas to the unit’s witness theme.

Have students write two or three sentences in response to the prompt.

Say these Directions: Write 2–3 sentences explaining what you learned from the back matter of Seen and Unseen and which section increased your understanding the most. Use specific details to support your response.

• Ask: What did you learn from the back matter of Seen and Unseen that increased your understanding? Which section did you find most valuable?

  • The back matter adds context and helped me understand better the limits of the record. The illustrator’s note helped me most because it connected family silence to the bigger idea of bearing witness. It gave me a clear way to explain why some stories were preserved later instead of in the moment.

• Say: Today’s work matters for the performance task because you will need to explain not just what a source says but what kind of witness it is. The back matter showed us that notes, biographies, and references can change how we read the whole book. That same thinking will help you choose and explain your own sources in the next lesson.

Gather the materials you will need for the next lesson, where you will compare primary sources and write about how different kinds of evidence bear witness to the past. Include each of these:

• One letter written by an incarcerated person

• One oral history excerpt

• One Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, or Ansel Adams photograph

• Relevant pages from Seen and Unseen

Remind students that the back matter of Seen and Unseen includes useful notes for locating letters, oral histories, and additional works by the photographers.