Multicultural Unit on WWII
An Integrated, Thematic, Transition-Linked, Standards-Based Unit
The World War II Unit was designed specifically for students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH)
between grades 4 through 8, but this unit could easily be modified to a high school curriculum as well.
This unit is based on a series of related units developed by Ms. Michelle Fischer, a former Teacher of the
Deaf at Wickliffe Middle School in Wickliffe, OH. The grant identified Ohio Dept. of Education curriculum
standards from the middle-school grades, and identified transition competencies from Brolin’s (1997) Life
Centered Career Education (LCCE) program.
This unit is unique in offering a range of choices and organizational formats (accumulated from over 10
years of Ms. Fischer’s teaching of various versions of this unit and meeting diverse DHH student needs).
As a result, the choices of chapter books or picture books allows the teacher to address:
DHH students who have varied reading abilities
cognitive skills of understanding other people’s/culture’s/country’s perspectives
a range of curriculum standards according to the students’ needs
needed transition skills to prepare students for adult-living decisions and settings
Where state standards can be somewhat “dry” in language, transition needs add an authentic and relevant
focus that can help standards remain meaningful to students’ lives and learning. Many of the books in this
unit focus on the children and the children’s perspectives and life experiences, also encouraging increased
student interest and motivation.
The unit development process occurred in the following way:
1 - Working with a partnering middle school teacher of the deaf, we studied her ideas and developed
lesson plans using a multidisciplinary approach and a plethora of resources to display different
perspectives from the World War II era.
2 - We used her book list and lesson plans to assemble a master list of books focusing on the Holocaust
and European concentration camps, the atomic bomb and it’s effects on Japanese life, and WWII’s
impact on American life including the Japanese-American prison camps.
3 - We identified key curriculum standards that would best achieve the objectives of our thematic unit’s
cross-cultural perspectives.
4 - We used each book to identify key transition skills from the LCCE Daily Living Skills to help teachers
incorporate these skills into unit discussions and activities.
5 - We created a timeline showing the different events occurring throughout the books with all the
characters across a number of continents and circumstances.
The unit provides summaries of each of the books, curriculum standards and transition competencies
related to each of the books, suggested worksheet formats, and unit organization ideas. Below is a
suggested organization across strands, although teachers are encouraged to assemble a unit that best fits
your students’ instructional and transition needs—enjoy!!
World War II Unit Organization
Overall Unit Question: How Do Wars Impact Children?
Introduction
Discuss: What happens to children during war?
Link to WWII—(rationale: we’ve had time to
study and learn from this war)
KWL about WWII
Comparisons with other wars students may know
Ongoing Themes
Comparing children’s experiences across the arenas
Multiple time line across arenas of war
Europe—shortages, recruitment, hiding from Nazis,
concentration camps and Nazi experimentation
Asia—war effort, Pearl Harbor, atomic bomb
U.S.—Japanese Americans, shortages, recruitment,
women working, deaf people working
European Focus
1. DRTA-picture
book: Hilde & Eli
2. DRTA-chapter
book: Number the
Stars
3. Research Report:
Anne Frank
U.S. Focus
1. Japanese Americans:
Baseball Saved Us, So Far
From the Sea, The Bracelet
2. Chinese Americans
(contrast with Japanese):
Nim and the War Effort
3. All the Secrets of the
World
4. High Flight
Cross-Cultural Picture-Book Focus
1. DRTA & story map-picture book: Rose Blanche
2. Reading & story maps of 3 books: read 2
picture books independently with story maps
3. Complete 2 additional unit activities
4. DRTA-chapter book: Night Crossing
Japanese Focus
1. DRTA-picture
books: Paper
Crane, The Perfect
Crane
2. DRTA-chapter
book: Sadako and
the Thousand Paper
Cranes
3. DRTA-picture
books: Faithful
Elephants, Hanna’s
Cold Winter
High-Achieving (chapter book) Unit
(also very appropriate for high-school students)
Introduction: How have children and adolescents become involved in Wars?
How were children and adolescents involved in World War II?
Cross-Cultural Unit
1. European Theater:
Fighting back: Number the Stars, Passage to Freedom
Hiding: Diary of a Young Girl
Prisoners: The Children We Remember
2. Asian Theater:
Impact of war: Hiroshima No Pika, Sadako and the
Thousand Paper Cranes
3. American Involvement:
U.S. Involvement: Baseball Saved Us, High Flight
Unit Activities:
1. Compare different forms of governments, across
cultures, and their impact on their citizens during WWII.
2. Compare the different responses of citizens to
restrictions of their freedom during WWII, across countries
and cultures.
Research Project:
1. Choose a theater and an issue or person to research.
2. Choose a research question, develop an outline, take
notes and use citations.
3. Write the paper using an Introduction (research question
and background), Body (thoroughly describe across 2-4
major points or issues), Conclusion (summarize how
background influenced the points or issues, answer the
research question), and Bibliography/References.
4. Create a timeline across major events in WWII you’re
your particular topic.
5. Create a PowerPoint presentation or poster to present to
the class/school/parents that concisely states key points
across Introduction, body, and Conclusion.
Picture Book Resources
Introductory Books
Hilde and Eli: Children of the Holocaust by David Adler.
Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti
Hiroshima No Pika by Toshi Maruki
Unit Books
Europe
Child of the Warsaw Ghetto by David Adler
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
The Children We Remember by Channa Byers Abells
Fireflies in the Dark: the Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis & the Children of Terezin by Susan Goldman Rubin
Hanna's Cold Winter by Trish Marx
Let the Celebrations Begin by Margaret Wild
Little Ships by Louise Borden
Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story by Ken Mochizuki
Star of Fear, Star of Hope by Jo Hoestlandt
Japan
Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya
My Hiroshima by Junko Morimoto
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
Shin's Tricycle by Tasuharu Kodama
United States
All the Secrets of the World by Jane Yole
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
High Flight by Linda Granfield
Nim and the War effort by Milly Lee
Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp by Michael L. Cooper
So Far from the Sea by Eve Bunting
The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchinda
Chapter Books
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Night Crossing by Karen Ackerman
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
Book Resources
Anne Frank, Beyond The Diary : A Photographic Remembrance by Ruud Van Der Rol And Rian
Verhoeven, In Association With The Anne Frank House (c. 1993).
Contains multiple photos of family and friends, maps of where her family lived, a color diagram of the
house in Amsterdam and where they hid, historical background and developments, with explanations
of events with relevant diary excerpts that helps students better understand the situation under which
Anne wrote her diary.
Atwell, L., Kruchkow, B., Mineo, D., & Pannozzo, L. (1995). World War II: V for victory: Teacher’s team
planning guide. NY: D.C. Heath and Company.
Filled with graphic organizers for the unit, teacher resources and a bibliography to organize an
interdisciplinary team unit. The overall goals are: student-centered, student-directed experience;
increase knowledge of WWII, provide authentic engagement and cooperative learning experiences,
and to enhance curricular relevance through interdisciplinary teaching and teaming. Students collect
artifacts, create a “museum”, engage in a simulation of a war crimes trial, examine effects of nuclear
blasts, and so on across language arts, social studies, math, and science activities.
“World War 2 – V is for Victory” (Student Book) companion book to the teacher’s guide.
This is an excellent workbook that goes through the steps of researching an experience which
occurred during World War 2. It introduces the time period and causes of the war with newspaper
articles and pictures of important events. The workbook introduces the “museum” they are opening,
and each student creates an exhibit by choosing an event/experience to build on for the victory
collection. Each page prompts the research process, such as generating an action plan, forming a
collection, adding notes, an accessioning form, and finally evaluating the exhibit. Different telegrams
are used to discuss important events, places, heroes, positive things that emerged from this
experience, and changes that occurred. The end of the workbook is filled with information for students
to refer to: list of nations at war, key people involved, eye witness history, timeline, statistic, impact of
the nuclear blast, description of rationing, and a glossary of terms used within the book. This is a
creative way of getting students involved in this historical event and a fun way of having them learn
about the research process that could be used with any age group (with slight modifications made).
Teaching Holocaust Studies with the Internet by Classroom CONNECT.
Comprehensive book for teachers implementing a Holocaust/ WWII unit. It is best used as a
supplement and provides a wide variety of subjects with clear and distinct lessons. Among its features
is a registry of websites, lessons for a range of grade levels, a variety of genres, formats that can be
reproduced, and a step by step guide if desired. One feature that is not included is connecting lessons
to the Academic Content Standards. Materials include photographs, interactive maps, personalized
experiences, brutality of the Concentration Camps, and survivors. The book’s website is at
http://www.classroom.net
Ambrose, S. E. (2001). The good fight: How World War II was won. New York: Atheneum Books for
Young Readers.
Includes excellent maps showing movement of troops and key battles, with frequent pictures of troops,
landings, key leaders and events, and countries involved in the war. The focus is exclusively on
American involvement in the war; however, this is well documented.
Witness to War: Eight True-Life Stories of Nazi Persecution by Michael Leapman (c. 1998).
Begins with an excellent summary of war’s horror and the motives for WWII, written for students, with
pictures of Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and some key events. Stories describe the experiences of eight
children and show pictures at the time and as adults (if available) to represent the range of wartime
experiences: a German girl who was transported safely to Britain, a girl who escaped from France to
Switzerland, three girls who were hidden in a convent in France, a Polish boy who survives the camps,
a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, Gypsy children at Auschwitz, Czech children who were
“Germanized”, and Anne Frank.
Everything World War II Book: People, Places, Battles, and All the Key Events by David White and Daniel
P. Murphy (2007).
Outlines the major battles in Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific with brief biographies of major
political and military figures; examines Nazism and Holocaust and explores the homefront. Appendices
list print and web resources, and provide a detailed timeline, Holocaust statistics, and descriptions of
military decorations.
The Seamstress by Sara Tuvel Bernstein (1999).
Bernstein's memoir of childhood in rural Romania and schooling in Bucharest is a critically acclaimed,
haunting account of life in Holocaust-era Europe. Bernstein's journey takes her from expulsion due to
her protests about unfair treatment of Jews at her school to Ravensbruck, a women's concentration
camp; it is ultimately a story of survival and power.
Hiroshima: Fifty Years of Debate by Robert Young (c. 1994).
Begins with the pilots dropping the bomb on Aug, 6, 1945 with pictures of the bomb, the crew, the
explosion at Hiroshima, and victims. Each chapter then presents issues to be debated: Was there no
other choice for the U.S.? Was Japan ready to surrender or did this force the issue? Were there other
options? Book concludes with ideas and assumptions for students to consider.
Video/DVD Resources
Anne Frank—young Dutch Jew and family goes into hiding with another family; diary describes
interpersonal issues, personal growth and insights during this time; video shows the family interactions and
living quarters.
Paper Clips—school children collect paper clips from relatives of those who died in order to experience the
meaning of killing 6 million Jews.
Life is Beautiful—Italian family is imprisoned but father makes every effort to protect his young son from the
atrocities of camp life.
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes videorecording (c. 1990)—young Japanese girl is diagnosed with
radiation sickness and tries to fold 1,000 paper cranes based on a legend that this will bring her good
health.
America and the Holocaust DVD:
This program paints a troubling picture of the United States during a period beset by anti-Semitism and a
government that not only delayed action but suppressed information and blocked efforts that could have
resulted in the rescue of thousands of people. An examination of these factors is framed by the moving
story of Kurt Klein, a German Jew who immigrated to America and struggled against a wall of bureaucracy
to free his parents from Europe.
Partisans of Vilna CD & DVD A riveting tale of Jewish resistance against the Nazis unfolds in this awardwinning documentary from Josh Waletzsky and Aviva Kempner. Interviews with 40 Holocaust survivors,
newsreels, and archival footage re-create a daring sabotage offensive in the Polish city of Vilna. The
Grammy-nominated CD features Jewish resistance songs.
Internet Resources
PBS Teachers http://www.pbs.org/teachers topic: Holocaust
Lesson plans, information on genocide, rise of Naziism, psychology and biography of Hitler,
oppression
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:--links and information for teachers including a
downloadable lesson guide http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/
The Doctors’ Trial—transcripts and information on the medical “testing” performed on prisoners
http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/index.html
The History Place—WWII sections: http://www.historyplace.com/index.html
The Sadako Story http://www.sadako.org/sadakostory.htm
Sadako Cyberlessons http://www.bsu.edu/web/skim2/cyberlesson.htm
Teacher CyberGuide—c. 1997 (San Diego Co. Office of Educ).
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/crane/cranetg.html
Additional Holocaust Books
The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak (2007). A girl saves books from burning by the Nazis and shares them
with a Jewish man who is in hiding, for 9th grade and older.
Hidden on the mountain: Stories of children sheltered from the Nazis in Le Chambon by Deborah Durland
DeSaix, Karen Gray Ruelle (2007).
The boy in the striped pajamas: A fable by John Boyne. (2006) .Bored and lonely after his family moves
from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in
striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.
Always remember me: How one family survived World War II by Marisabina Russo. (2005). After many
years during which her grandmother skirted the issue, a young girl finally hears the story of how
several of her female relatives survived the Holocaust.
The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse.(2004). Two Jewish sisters, escapees of the infamous
Warsaw ghetto, devise a plan to thwart an attempt by the Gestapo to intercept food bound for starving
people behind the dark Wall.
The Doll With The Yellow Star by Yona Zeldis McDonough (2005). When France falls to Germany at the
start of World War II, nine-year-old Claudine must leave her beloved parents and friends to stay with
relatives in America, accompanied by her doll, Violette.
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine. (2003). A biography of a Czech girl who died in the Holocaust, told in
alternating chapters with an account of how the curator of a Japanese Holocaust center learned about
her life after Hana's suitcase was sent to her.
[Many other books have been published about WWII for young readers—please check with your school or
local library.]
LISTING OF UNIT WORKSHEETS
(available to be uploaded from the unit website)
Genre Comparison Charts
The examples use historical fiction and legend but are not limited by genre.
KWL Chart
Explains the use of color to add new information and to correct misunderstandings.
Concept Definition Map
Used to help students learn and refine understandings of key concepts (war, government, etc.)
Round Robin Writing
Example is used with story elements with students creating their own story.
Unit Activities
Structured research about a country
Comprehension check: War Begins
Hilde and Eli (provides background on Hitler’s rise and stories of 2 children)
Comprehension check
Prereading Organizer
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Teaching guide
Structured research about Japan
Web of characteristics and culture of Japan
Venn diagram comparing Perfect Crane and The Paper Crane
these books provide cultural background on cranes as a symbol
Dropping the Atom Bomb—unit reading and comprehension
Historical fiction chart
Chart of good luck and bad luck symbols
Chart of similes, metaphors, and personification
Chapter 3 comprehension check
Vocabulary review from chapters 1-3
Venn diagram comparing student’s family with Sadako’s family
Chart of how family members reacted to Sadako’s illness
Web for character study of Sadako
Cause-effect chart
Story map
Venn diagram (generic use)
Story timeline
Story Book Unit
Grading rubric (students choose 3 books and complete activities)
Activity pages for 12 possible activity choices
Research Project
Letter to parents
Topic cover page
Assignment description: objectives and activities
Grading rubric
Project overview and description
Topic, main ideas, and thesis statement
Hierarchical organizer
The Vee Map (research plan)
Notetaking, organizing, and outlining
Rough draft
Final draft
Bibliography
Citation example
Research project checklist (self-check)
Calendar (example of important project dates)