The Tale of Genji

Write a Romantic Scene Set in Feudal Japan

One of the world's first novels was written during Japan's Golden Age.
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu tells the story of handsome Prince Genji and his many love interests.

Write your own historical fiction romantic scene between Genji and his love interest. Your scene should include dialogue and other narrative techniques.


Your scene should have an accurate historical and geographical setting that is described with sensory detail. You can select from one of the following:




You can review narrative techniques here:

Haiku Poetry

What is a Haiku?
View the short video to experience five haiku poems by the father of haiku, Matsuo Basho. As you read the poems, you will notice Basho's use of juxtaposition, or contrast.

What is being juxtaposed, or contrasted, in each poem?


1. Conduct a quick search to find out how to write a haiku.
2. Search for: Haiku by Basho. Read at least ten different haiku poems by Basho. Find one you like. Copy and paste that Haiku by Basho in the Google classroom stream.

3.  Compose your own original haiku. Publish it on the wall below.

Created with Padlet

Historian Career Task: Samurai Presentations

Today you will present and view the Samurai presentations. Your audience will be providing you with feedback on your presentation skills.  

Be Prepared:

1. View the evaluation form below.

2. Watch the short video on good and bad presentations.  Share with your partner three "don'ts" of a good presentation.



3. Go over each slide, one-by-one, to do any final edits or revisions.

4. Take 15 minutes to practice presenting in your group. Remember, you should not just be reading from the slides. 

Evaluation Form:

View the summary of results.  Write a statistic about our presentation skills on the Padlet Wall. What does the data tell us about our presentation skills? 

Historian Career Task: Research Presentation for Movie Production

Samurai in the Movies

Akira Kurosawa is considered to be one of the best and most influential filmmakers ever. One of his most famous films is The Seven Samurai. This film has been translated into many languages and is loved by people from all over the world.



Historian Career Task:

A Hollywood production company plans to make new samurai movie. It will be historical fiction, meaning the movie should be realistic and incorporate historical facts about the samurai.

You have been hired to research the samurai and create a presentation for the:

• Screenwriter;
• Costume Designers;
• Set Designers.

The goal is to make the movie historically accurate.

1. View the slide presentation to get an overview of your task.
2. You will be working with a partner on this task: red-blue
                                                                                  yellow-green.



Red and Yellow Only: Please make a copy of the presentation. Share the copy "can edit" with your partner.

Religion in Medieval Japan

Buddhism and Shintoism in Medieval Japan

The Japanese Creation Story

As we learned earlier, Buddhism traveled to Japan from Korea.

 But the Japanese people already had their own native religion: 
Shintoism. Although Buddhism became widely adopted, the Japanese people still held on to their Shinto beliefs and practices as well. 

Shinto Gate

1.As you view the two short videos, take notes on the Religion Chart. 

2. Research three additional facts about religion in Japan. 
Shintoism
Buddhism


3. Create a Google drawing that educates your viewer about ONE of the two religions. (Pick either Buddhism or Shintoism.) Be sure to use words and images to show:
Three main beliefs of this religion.
Three main practices of this religion. Remember, a practice is what people DO as part of this religion. 
Two Shrines: holy or sacred places in this religion.

Peasants in Feudal Japan

Historical Investigation: What was life like for the peasants of

Feudal Japan?

1.  Analyze a set of primary and secondary source documents. Use evidence from the sources to write a short argument that answers the question of our investigation. You will find the document set and analysis questions in your Google classroom.

2.  Use Voki.com to create a peasant avatar. Your avatar should tell a short story about his or her life in feudal Japan. This narrative will be historical fiction, meaning it should incorporate factual details about life for the peasants of
Medieval Japan.

Student Sample (Link to Avatar)

What skills did a samurai possess?

Samurai Rap
View the rap as an introduction to the samurai of feudal Japan.

Historical Investigation: What do primary and secondary sources tell us about the skills needed by a samurai? 

Analyze the documents in your folder: Samurai Document Set.



Research more about the Samurai virtues at this site.
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