Pedagogy Overview

 

 

The Capital Gang's WW II lesson is based on Harris's sixth structure, Impersonations. In terms of what is expected of the students, our objectives are:

 

v    Students will be able to create weekly letters, taking on the role of children (Impersonations) during the Blitz in London in the 1940's.

v    Students will be able to develop a poster (on paper or on the computer) promoting the proper use of various wartime commodities.

 

 

DESCRIPTION

This lesson is designed to allow students to immerse themselves into life during the 1940's in London's Blitz during World War II.  The lesson will use several on-line resource sites designed to show the student what life was like for children during this time through interactive activities.  As a sideline, the PBS series "The 1940's House" will be shown to students as an additional source for information.

 

The students will take on the persona of a child during the Blitz in London.  They will be assigned a job - the "Resource Monitor" (an actual job for a child during this time period) for their household.  They will keep in touch with other students who hold the same position around London by writing weekly letters (real ones through www.EPALS.com or www.kidlink.com).  Students will include in their letters their experiences and problems and will receive responses from other children in the same activity.  The students would then be given an assignment from Winston Churchill to help the war effort by designing a propaganda poster (this brings in the MCPS 7th Grade Language Arts Curriculum) to promote the frugality of precious wartime resources.

 

 

Question:  What six planning steps can help ensure that this online project will succeed?

 

Step 1

What is the educational purpose of the activity?

The educational goal of the activity is for students to learn about life during World War II.  The Montgomery County Public curriculum for 7th grade World Studies and English is based on the William and Mary Language Arts curriculum.   This activity meets the outlined objects according to the curriculum it is designed for.

Step 2

Where does the activity fit into the curriculum?

As stated above, the activity meets the requirements of the William and Mary 7th Grade curriculum.

Step 3

How will using the internet enhance the activity?

This activity could be accomplished the “old fashioned” way through pen and paper and “snail mail”, but the internet allows for a much faster pace.  If this activity were to be accomplished without the internet, the timeline needed would encompass the entire school year, by which time it would be uninteresting to the students.

Step 4

How will students use online resources?

Locating the resources is not the primary objective of this activity.  The project web site will have links to the needed resources so that time will not be spent on searches.

Step 5

What experience do my students have with data-analysis and thoughtful discussion?

Students will be using the information they find on the linked resources during their letter writing activity to their pen pals.  This allows them to have online discussion about the topic at hand in a persona from the period being studied.

Step 6

What will happen if the online resources I plan to use are unavailable?

These resource pages could be downloaded to a local server to be used incase the online versions are not available.

 

 

 

 

FUNCTION THE WEBSITE WILL SERVE

There are three functions that our website will serve; first, as an "attention-getter" to draw potential partners to the project.  Second, the website would be a starting point for the project with the timeline and links to the various resources used by the students.  Lastly, the website would be a place for the final posters to be displayed.  Since the HTML needed for an exchange between students would be complicated, incorporating an already proven site such as EPALS or KIDLINK would be necessary.

 

 

STRATEGIES

1.     Project Announcement:  This is to be accomplished through the teacher portion of our group’s site.  This portion will include the lesson plan and objectives for the project.  Also, the initial participating teacher will register through the EPALS website which allows other teachers interested in a project of this type to view the description.

 

2.     Project Instructions:  The teacher portion of the website includes specific instructions found in the lesson plan for any perspective participant.

 

3.     Information Repository and Exchange:  Much of the exchange for this project will come in the form of letters from student to pen pal.  The final projects produced from the project will be displayed through the website.

 

4.     Context for Project-Related Communication:  Project related communication will be through e-mail, rather than directly from the site.  Any additional information can be posted to the project site at any time.

 

5.     Project Support:  All materials needed by the participants will be included on the site.

 

6.     Project Chronology:  This is currently being discussed.  Since the timeline for the project revolves around response time to pen pal letters, this can be flexible, but we are currently specifying 1 week per letter writing activity followed by time for completion of the final project.

 

7.     Showcase of Participants’ Works:  The website will contain a page devoted to the final projects completed by the students.

 

8.     Project Center:  The website contains links to various resources on the period being studied.  These links, while providing information related to the project, can also serve as a resource for the topic in general.

 

9.     Project-Spawning Service:  This project will not provide for additional activities, though the addition of more letter writing topics can be available.