Japanese Modern History SoW/L: What caused the death of Saigō Takamori?

A 7-10 lesson enquiry underpinned by the second-order concept of causation concerning the death of Satsuma Rebellion leader (and previously focal point of the Meiji Restoration) Saigō Takamori.

Using the hook of the final battle scene from the film The Last Samurai (in which Ken Watanabe plays a character based on Takamori) students will seek to deepen their understanding of Tokugawa Japan and the restoration to nuance the obvious answer that Takamori died because he killed himself. Much of the content for the lessons is drawn from the first 40 pages of the easy to purchase and read Oxford short introduction to Modern Japan. A comprehensive SoL is already written up including a description of lesson activities, opportunities for AfL, differentiation to stretch as well as scaffold, opportunities for different types of independent study and tier three terminology.

The overarching enquiry question is broken down into several sub-questions that give students the opportunity to build up the necessary context of the place, period, person and first order concepts using a range of active learning lesson activities, many inspired by Russell Tarr’s two books. My personal favourite is the Google Earth tour students take using key locations from the life of Saigō Takamori to chart how successful he was in achieving several aims he had (This file type .KMZ was not supported for upload by TES so please email me at a.whybro@BIST.ge for a copy, as well as for the PDF scans of the Graphic Novel).

1. How did Saigō Takamori die according to Hollywood?
2. Who ruled Japan before the Emperor?
3. How did the arrival of the ‘Black Ships’ trigger revolution in Japan?
4. Who was Saigō Takamori?
5. What caused the Satsuma Rebellion?
6. What happened at the Battle of Shiroyama?
7. Assessment - What caused the death of Saigō Takamori?

The series of lessons was planned and delivered to high ability Year 8 students in an international school and as such could be delivered to students who are one or two academic years above with minor tweaking. The planning had to take into account staff who did not know the period well and so many models and answers are included, often in the slide notes. It was very much a labour of love based on a period of study from my undergraduate level course, so feedback would be much appreciated.