UCLA
Center for East Asian Studies Educational ResourcesUCLA
Center for East Asian Studies Educational Resources
Linking Story to History:
Sign of the ChrysanthemumDescription
As more schools are integrating subject areas such as History and Literature/Language Arts, educators are faced with a daunting challenge: How to find the resources and time to do so. However overwhelming this task, there is a logical and exciting connection to be made in order to help enrich the student's understanding of History and Literature. Universal themes in literature are introduced and experienced by the historical and social changes within a society and within the psyche of people. Like oral history, historical novels can help to humanize history. Students can see history from the ordinary person's point of view and not only the view of scholars or nobility.
Objectives
A. General: To learn what everyday life was like for a teenage peasant boy in ancient Japan. (Heian Period 794-1185)
B. Specific:
1. To understand the difference between the province and city.
2. To understand how trade with China greatly affected Japanese society.
3. To show how Shinto infused with the lives of all social/political classes.
