Lesson+Plans

Alignment with the Michigan High School Standards: USHG 7.2: WWII and WHG 7.2.3: WWII
 * Day-to-Day Lessons for “WWII Unit” **


 * Prior to Unit:** A podcast will be available via the Internet for both students and parents as a way to introduce the unit as well as act like a permission slip. The podcast will relay our unit goals and the rationales behind them.
 * Week 1: **


 * Day 1: Overview—Meghan’s Google lit trip**

· __Goal:__ Students will have a better understanding of WWII. · __Daily Description/activity:__ We will use a Google lit trip to show how Hitler and the Germans advanced in Europe. Discuss the overall crucial events and landmarks of WWII. (Give students link so they can refer to it when they need to.) · __Materials:__ Google lit trip, projector


 * Day 2: Propaganda at Home and Abroad**

· __Goal:__ Students will see and understand the impacts of propaganda. · __Daily Description/activity:__ Short lecture on propaganda answer questions—what it is, and its purpose. Show movie of Disney propaganda. During film, write down main points to be used tomorrow. · __Materials:__ notes on propaganda for lecture, movie.


 * Day 3: Propaganda continued…**

· __Goal__: Students will have a better understanding of propaganda. · __Daily Description/activity__: today, we will have a fishbowl discussion about their thoughts and ideas about the film on propaganda. (explain fishbowl) Students on outside of fishbowl will listen to discussion. Everyone has to be in fishbowl at least once.


 * Day 4: Propaganda continued…**

· __Goal__: Students will put to use their understanding of propaganda. · __Daily Description/activity__: Today, after learning what propaganda is and understanding what it does and its impact, students will create their own propaganda poster for WWII. · __Materials__: markers, colored pencils, crayons, white construction paper.

· __Goal__: students will understand the important roles that women played in the war. · __Daily Description/activity__: Students will watch a PowerPoint, and take notes. The PowerPoint will show women as nurses in the armed services, women working in factories, women in advertisements, etc. · __Materials__: PowerPoint, projection, students will need paper/pencils.
 * Day 5: Women in War**


 * Week 2: **


 * Day 6: Children in War**

· __Goal:__ Students will understand that the war affected everyone including children. · __Daily Description/activity:__ Ask students if they have any stories that their grandparents have told them. (their grandparents are the children that we are studying) We will also watch part of the film //The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas//. We will also studying children abroad, including Germans and Jewish—Anne Frank, Diary and Significance, also Elie Wiesel of //Night//. This will be a part lecture, part discussion. · __Materials:__ movie, //Night//

· __Goal:__ Students will understand what the Holocaust was and Hitler’s reasoning behind it. · __Daily Description/activity:__ Students will watch/take notes on a PowerPoint that explains the Holocaust and main themes surrounding it (ie: anti-Semitism.) We will also watch the //Band of Brothers// clip when the soldiers enter/liberate the camp. If time permits, we will have a discussion about the impact the movie had on them. · __Materials:__ movie, PowerPoint, projector, students will need paper/pencils
 * Day 7: Holocaust**


 * Day 8: Holocaust continued…**

· __Goals__: Students will gain a further insight into the holocaust and truly see its destruction. · __Daily Description/activity__: Today, students will get to see pictures from Meghan Hall’s trip to Buchenwald Concentration camp. (This is the camp that Elie Wiesel was liberated from and mentioned in __This Way for the Gas__.) Students will see that camps are still there and that they are historic sights. We will incorporate passages from __Night__ and __This Way for the Gas__. · __Materials__: PowerPoint, projector, 2 books, prepared passages.

· __Goals__: Students will see the damage done by the bombs. · __Daily Description/activity__: Students will see a PowerPoint showing photos of the destruction. We will also see 2 articles from the two opposing sides of whether the U.S. should have dropped the bomb or not. We will then have a class discussion attempting to answer the question: Do you think we should have dropped the bombs on Japan? · __Materials__: PowerPoint, projector, copies of articles
 * Day 9: Bombing of Japan**


 * Day 10: Does it take a Catastrophic Event to create Patriotism?**

· __Goals:__ Have students explore/answer the question: Does it take a Catastrophic Event to create Patriotism. · __Daily Description/activity:__ Show imovie—comparisons of entering WWII following Pearl Harbor and Iraq War following Sept 11. Class-wide discussion on thoughts of questions for day. · __Materials__: imovie


 * Week 3: **

· See Unit assessment task & rubric · During these days, students will work in groups on project. · Students will present projects to class and other students will take notes on their classmates’ presentations.
 * Day 11-15: Project/unit assessment**
 * Day 14 & 15: Presentations**