SUBJECT: Social Studies

GRADE: Sixth

TECHNOLOGY: PowerPoint, Internet

BY: Michele Reed

Target Grade/Subject

The target population is a heterogeneous sixth grade class of twenty-one students. Students have mixed ability levels with three students above grade level, fifteen at grade level students, and three below grade level. From prior instruction and class activities, students have writing skills, word processing skills, and basic PowerPoint and Internet experience.

This lesson allows students to research some of the American propaganda posters from World War II using PowerPoint and the Internet. Sixth grade students between the ages of eleven and twelve have progressed to Piaget's concrete operational stage and are moving into the formal operational stage. It is during the concrete operational stage that children begin to think logically about concrete objects. Concrete operational learners acquire reversible, organized mental operations that allow them to conserve, classify, and take alternate perspectives. Children/adolescents in the formal operational stage can examine and analyze abstract problems systematically and can generalize about the results. This lesson is particularly well suited for children in these stages because it allows them to organize information, which expands their classification abilities. It also allows for students to take alternate perspectives, examine problems, and make generalizations.

Since students already have basic PowerPoint and Internet skills, this activity is within their zone of proximal development. Dynamic assessment is essential in this activity because the teacher needs to provide appropriate scaffolding. This activity allows for dynamic assessment because the teacher can monitor the students abilities to understand a task within the context of a real problem. This lesson also allows for authentic learning because due to the nature of the activity, scaffolding can take place between the teacher and the students.

According to Erikson, students at this age experience the crisis of industry versus inferiority,ä and are beginning to experience identity versus confusion. Children need to develop a sense of industry, or the feeling of mastery and competence through success and recognition of accomplishment. This activity is well suited to help students succeed because with prior experience and teacher assistance, students will achieve mastery. Also, scaffolding is an important part of making students feel safe and gain a sense of identity and belonging in the classroom. Supportive scaffolding will help children feel safe and worthwhile in the learning environment. Students will be made to feel important and significant within the learning environment, as through scaffolding the teacher supports new ideas and discoveries.

Objectives

• Virginia Standards of Learning: History and Social Studies
  • 6.7 The student will describe the economic, social, and political transformation of the United States since World War II, with emphasis on
    • The changing role of women in America
  • 6.10 The student will develop skills for historical analysis, including the ability to
    • Identify, analyze, and interpret primary sources (artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, art, documents, and newspapers) and contemporary media (computer information systems) and to make generalizations about events and life in United States history since 1877;
    • Recognize and explain how different points of view have been influenced by nationalism, race, religion, and ethnicity
    • Distinguish fact from fiction by examining documentary sources
  • Computer/Technology Standards by the End of Eighth Grade
    • C/T8.4 The student will process, store, retrieve, and transmit electronic information.
    • Use search strategies to retrieve information.
    • Use electronic encyclopedias, almanacs, indexes, and catalogs to retrieve and select relevant information.
    • Use local and wide-area networks and modem-delivered services to access and retrieve information from electronic databases.

1. Given informational PowerPoint, websites about World War II Propaganda, and resource books, students will record observations and retrieve and record researched information about the role of women in World War II.

Materials

• Teachers laptop
• Projection system
• Computers with Internet access and Microsoft PowerPoint
• Teacher created PowerPoint Presentation with the following hyperlinks:

  http://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/women.html

  http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/126_rosi.html#posters

  http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/wcf/wcf0001.html

  http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets5.html

  http://www.wasp-wwii.org/wasp/home.htm

  http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/tocCS.html

• Resource Books
  • Gourley, C. (1999). Welcome to Mollys World 1944: Growing Up in World War Two America. Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications.
  • Kuhn, B. (1999). Angels of Mercy: The Army Nurses of World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  • Zeinert, K. (1994). Those Incredible Women of World War II. Brookfield, CT: The Millbrook Press.
• World War II Inquiry/Research Guide (one per student)
• Pens, pencils, and coloring utensils for each student

Lesson Description

Day One

• Save the teacher created PowerPoint presentation to the desktops of the computers in the computer lab.
• Take students to the computer lab.
• Have each student sit at a computer.
• Explain to students that today, as we continue with our unit about World War II, we will be exploring the web to discover information about World War II Propaganda and its meaning and influence on the role of women in American society.
• Pass out an inquiry/research guide to each student.
• Instruct students to open PowerPoint presentation entitled World War II Propaganda Posters.
• Demonstrate using a PowerPoint presentation with hyperlinks to students using the teachers laptop and projection system.
• Show students how to get back to the presentation once they have used the hyperlink.
• Explain the inquiry guide to the students. They will need to complete the guide in order, following along with the presentation.
• Tell students that they will find information that will help them with the guide from the designated websites that are hyperlinked to the presentation.
• Inform students that they will also need to use their judgment and prior knowledge to make inferences and generalizations about the propaganda, its meaning, and its influence.
• Tell students that they will need to use their searching skills to find information, not all of the information they may need will be readily apparent once they have linked to the sites.
• Tell students that when they complete portions I and II of their inquiry/research guide, they will need to participate in Think, Pair, Share with a partner. (Students have done this in prior activities.) Inform students that directions for when and how to do this are in the PowerPoint presentation.
• Inform students that they will be given more time tomorrow to engage in further research and complete remaining portions of the guide.
• Allow students to begin completing the inquiry/research guides Parts I, II, and III.
• Encourage students to explore their thoughts and ideas by writing down any questions or observations that they think of while viewing the posters in the appropriate places on their guide. This activity is designed to be inquiry- based, so students should feel free to explore any of their related questions.
• Circulate to ensure understanding and participation and facilitate if needed.
• Collect all inquiry/research guides when the activity is complete for the day.

Day Two

• Take students to the computer lab.
• Have each student sit at a computer.
• Pass out inquiry/research guides.
• Review instructions for opening and using PowerPoint presentation and hyperlinks if necessary.
• Instruct students to continue working on their guides and research and to complete Parts III and IV today.
• Circulate to ensure understanding and facilitate when needed.
• Have students complete the activity by finishing Part IV (drawing).
• Collect all inquiry/research guides.
• Instruct students that we will go over the guides as a group tomorrow to share observations, inferences, and ideas and to discuss the research that students did.
• Collect all guides.

Day Three

• Take students to the computer lab.
• Have each student sit a t a computer.
• Pass out inquiry/research guides.
• Go over the items on each part of the guide, stopping for discussion and student input. *This should be guided by the students comments, ideas, and discoveries.
• Encourage student participation and diverse opinions.
• Have students cite where they found specific information (there is a place for this on their guide, so they should have it written down) so other students may take note.
• Address any questions or confusions during class discussion, clarifying and emphasizing information when necessary.
• Guide students to significant information in resource books or on the hyperlinked websites for emphasis if needed.
• Allow students to add or change any information on their guides during class discussion.
• Allow students who volunteer to share their drawings and descriptions with the class.
• Collect all inquiry/research guides to ensure students recording of information and citation of sources.
• Inform students that we will be continuing to discuss the role of women in the war and how their roles changed as a result of the war.

Evaluation

• Collect all student guides and evaluate.
• Students must have correct information and citation of resources. If students do not have appropriate information or citations from research, students must make corrections and changes to their guides since this activity is designed to be used as a source of information in conjunction with a continuing unit on World War II.
• (All students questions, inferences, and generalizations may be slightly different; this is appropriate, because this activity is designed to allow students to generate and explore their own research generalizations and questions within the guidelines a specific topic. Questions may be broad or specific, but should still be focused within the topic of the role of women in World War II.)

Given the propaganda posters you have examined, record several observations about what roles women played during the war.

What questions do you have about the overall roles women had during the war?

Conduct research to find the answers to some of your questions and to discover further information about your observations. Record your findings below.

QUESTION 1:

RESOURCE CONSULTED:

RELEVANT INFORMATION DISCOVERED:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DISCOVERED:

QUESTION 2:

RESOURCE CONSULTED:

RELEVANT INFORMATION DISCOVERED:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DISCOVERED:

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

QUESTION 3:

RESOURCE CONSULTED:

RELEVANT INFORMATION DISCOVERED:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DISCOVERED:

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

DRAW THE POSTER YOU FOUND MOST INTERESTING HERE (OR CREATE ONE OF YOUR OWN):

Write a brief description about how you feel about the poster you chose or created.