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Defining US: The American Experience
FCPS Teaching American History Grant
LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE
Subject: US/VA History World War II
Grade: 11
Prepared by: Nan Bonifant, Susan Conrad, Joanne Rosenthal
School: Devonshire Center, Hickory Grove, Less Secure Shelter
Title or Topic: An Oral History of World War II
Instructional Time: Five 50 minute class periods
PART I.-CONTEXT
1. Essential Learning:
 How did citizens from the United States and other countries respond to the onset, duration and
aftermath of World War II?
2. Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL):
 Standard 10: the student will demonstrate knowledge of World War II by
c) Describing the role of all-minority units, including the Tuskegee Airmen and Nisei
Regiments.
d) Describing the Geneva Convention and the treatment of prisoners of war during World
War II.
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Standard 11: The student will demonstrate knowledge of the effects of World War II on the
home front by:
a) Explaining how the United States mobilized its economic, human, and military
resources.
b) Describing the contributions of women and minorities to the war effort.
c) Explaining the internment of Japanese Americans during the war.
3. Fairfax County Program of Studies (POS): (Identify by number and descriptor.)
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Benchmark 10.3: The student will analyze how minority participation in World War II
contributed to the Allied victory.
Benchmark 10.4: The students will analyze the violations of human rights that took place
before and during World War II.
Benchmark 11.1: The student will analyze how the United States mobilized for war.
4. National History Standard
 Chronological thinking
 Historical comprehension
 Historical research capabilities
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Historical interpretation
Historical issues
Learning Strategy(s) Objectives:
 Use imagery
 Tell what you know
 Make inferences
 Use selective attention
 Use graphic organizers
 Cooperate
6. Connection to TAH grant:
Pedagogy:
 KWL - After discussing the accessibility of interviewees, students will use the KWL
technique to discover what they already Know and What they want to know about the way
citizens from the United States and other countries responded to the onset, duration, and
aftermath of World War II
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Lotus – Students will use the lotus strategy to brainstorm question ideas, thereby fleshing out
their understanding of the details of the human experience in World War II.
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Library of Congress website – Students will analyze primary source material such as
photographs and posters from the WWII era.
PART II.
1. Assessment:
 Rubric for student created sample questions
 Gauge student participation during interview practice
 Gauge student participation using the release form, student behaviors while conducting his
interview, and student notes.
 Rubric for all options of final presentation
1. Instructional Strategies:
Prior to this lesson, students have learned information about World War II. Summary: Franklin
Roosevelt’s interests were on the overseas changing situation which included Japanese, German, and
Italian expansion and the creation of militaristic forms of national government, but his time was
occupied with US domestic economic matters. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States
joined the world conflict. The United States quickly mobilized its human and material resources in
order to win the war. Details of each of these events were presented in student involved lessons prior
to this lesson, the teacher and student role for content, and resources are listed in the bibliography.
Springboard:
Students will view a clip from the movie “Swing Shift.”
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Discuss as a class the various roles civilians, minorities and military personnel played during
World War II.
Show war-time photographs and posters (slide show) obtained from the Library of Congress
Website. Primary source material should include men, women, minorities, civilians, and soldiers.
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Introduce the project by distributing the project guideline sheet. Answer all student questions.
Discuss availability and accessibility of interviewees. (Grandparents, neighbors, nursing homes,
community centers, religious organizations, and military organizations.)
Create and complete the first two columns of a KWL worksheet. (What you Know, what you
Want to know, and what you Learned.)
Discuss interview question writing and interviewing strategies
Distribute Sample Questions handout
Brainstorm ideas for 5 additional questions.
o Students can use a lotus diagram to help brainstorm question ideas.
Break into pairs or small groups to practice interviewing and obtain peer feedback.
Discuss appropriate behaviors while conducting the interview.
Conduct real interviews and record information. Prior to the real interviews, and example could
be given by providing a volunteer to visit the classroom as a model interviewee. Students could
ask questions and in turn modify them.
Prepare final presentation (choice of):
o Essay
o PowerPoint
o Visual presentation (poster, diorama)
o Another possible choice approach, especially if students are not alternative students,
would be to have the poster as a group project, using the other three options for
individual assessment. Then have students combine their information from writing,
power point, and the diorama into a “unit summary poster.”
Present final project to class.
PLEASE NOTE: The above lesson steps can be divided into five fifty minute class periods in
whatever design fits the student composition of the class. Some classes during the day move
faster than others due to student resources and levels.
2. Materials/Resources to be used:
 “Swing Shift” video clip
 Library of Congress Website
 Project guidelines
 KWL worksheet
 Lotus worksheet
 Sample Interview Questions handout
 5 Rubrics: sample questions, essay, PowerPoint, poster, diorama
 Release form
3. Differentiation:
 Teacher reads all directions and handouts to the class. At this point the teacher could ask
students to explain or request students to respond to, “What questions do you have?”
 Teacher demonstrates KWL and Lotus with class participation
 Teacher may provide interview subject
 Students may video tape the interview and make documentary
 Students may ask more in-depth questions
 Teacher may demonstrate good vs. poor interview techniques
4. Attachments:
 Project guidelines
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KWL worksheet
Lotus worksheet
Sample Questions handout
5 Rubrics: sample questions, essay, PowerPoint, poster, diorama
Release form
Interview essay outline
Lotus worksheet
5. Annotated Bibliography:
Abramowitz, Jack. (1993). American History. Follett Social Studies, Ally and Bacon, Inc.
Boston, ISBN 0-025-09259-4. pages 526-592. Textbook for low level readers.
American Nation. (1995). Prentice Hall, Englewood, New Jersey, ISBN 0-13-063710-6, pages
734-767. Textbook for low level readers.
Bragdon, McCutchen, Richie. (1998). History of a Free Nation. Glencoe McGraw-Hill, New
York, New York, ISBN 0-02-821383-1, pages 804-835. Textbook for on grade level readers.
Buehl, D. (1995). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Madison, WI: Wisconsin
State Reading Association: contains a variety of graphics that assists the student in gaining
practice in translating key concepts in their own words, in understanding key vocabulary and
ideas, in identifying main ideas and relating significant information to these ideas, and in being
actively involved in constructing a meaningful synthesis of what students have read
http://www.be.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/ArtWeb.html Art on the web
http://www.doingoralhistory.org/index.html Doing Oral History: an oral history project of the
American Century for the 21st century, Glen Whitman, St. Andrew’s Oral History Project, St.
Andrew’s Episcopal School. A collection of seventeen histories conducted by secondary
students focusing on topics relating to “The American Century”: World War II; the Cold War;
Vietnam; “the rights revolution”; immigration; education; and science and technology. Each oral
history entry contains a biography of the interviewee, historical contextualization and evaluation
essays, and bibliography. The site provides tools for teachers to use in designing oral history
courses: release for interviews, pre-interview worksheet, “do’s and don’ts,” guidelines for
transcribing and editing interviews, how to analyze the historical value of an interview, grading
rubrics, and student feedback. Also offers a 36-title bibliography, including twenty-four links to
related sites. Of interest to teachers preparing oral history courses and for those studying
selected 20th-century American history topics.
http://history.cc.ukans.edu/history/index.html index of resources for historians
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/ oral history guide
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/online.html#guides oral history guides (how to)
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/ the Library of Congress oral history site which is documenting
WWII memories and is being conducted through the Veterans History Project
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/stories/ex-war-home.html contains many of the stories that have
already been collected through the Veterans History Project.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print prints and photographs home page, useful information on this site
including resources for finding pictures. Then go to the prints and photographs online catalog:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html
http://www.loc.gov contains several pages with key features on a variety of topics;
http://memory.loc.gov/ has Collection Finder and Search Pages and Featured Collection which
provide links to special presentations, collections, broad topics, period ranges, geographic
regions and entries about events, people, places, time, topics, and documents.
http://www.nara.gov National Archives and Records Administration houses original documents
and maintains an extensive assistance library
http://www.stgbrown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/tocCS.html What Did You Do in the War
Grandma? An Oral History of Rhode Island Women During World War II, South Kingstown
High School. This website was written by students in the Honors English Program at South
Kingstown High School and posted on the Web in conjunction with Brown University and the
Northeast Regional Technology in Education Consortium (NetTech). In this project seventeen
students interviewed thirty-six Rhode Island women who recalled their lives in the years before,
during and after the Second World War. Here are twenty-six of the stories told by the women,
and retold by the students.
Demme, Jonathan (Director). (1984). Swing Shift [Film]. USA: Warner Studios.
An examination of life on the American home front during WWII. Goldie Hawn, who also
served as the film’s producer, stars as Kay, a woman who takes a job on the line of a plant producing
war planes after her husband goes off to fight in Europe. Clips that could be used: Kay working at
the factory, a factory worker receiving the notice that her husband has been killed in the war, and
gatherings of the factory workers in their homes showing support group activities during the war.
Pacemaker United States History. (2001). Globe Fearon, Pearson Learning Group, Parsippany, NJ,
ISBN 0-130-23304-8, pages 368-425. Textbook for low level readers.
Terkel, Studs. (1984). An Oral History of World War II, The Good War. Pantheon Books,
Random House. Oral histories of World War II, Ota’s childhood experience in the
detention camp, after being drafted, and his return to America.