Felicia R. McKinnon
The purpose of this unit is to provide students with information about a period involving a war: the 1940's and World War II. Another purpose of this unit is to have students analyze society's perspective on that war. Through the use of children's literature such as historical fiction, periodicals, picture books, folktales, and nonfiction text, this unit intends to show the roles and struggles of women in the workplace, explain the roles of women in the family during the war, and examine the effects of the war on the Home Front: children, families, schools, and communities. Also as many of my children face war-like scenarios in their community—gangs and drugs—I believe that they should have a chance to discuss their feelings about these conflicts between people. Lastly my hope is that my children will develop peacemaking techniques when encountering threatening situations. This unit is designed for students in grades two but could be taught in grades Kindergarten through six. Also this unit is part of a collaboration at L.W. Beecher School whose purpose is to treat diversity issues through literature; though my unit has two components: war and children and war and women, it is war and women that will be featured in our team's culminating activities.
This unit is thematically designed so that activities, texts, and learning experiences are interdisciplinary, integrating many content areas, thus, students can construct meaning from a variety of sources including literature, films, periodicals, projects, and resource people. It is my belief that children's literature enables students to construct meaning, gain knowledge, and build connections between the concepts taught and other disciplines. In this unit, students will read, hear, and discuss various genres of literature in order to clarify the concept of war. Using a variety of literature will broadened student's sources of information and make them realize how many types of literature are useful for learning about certain topics. Below is a list of cross-curricular objectives for this unit:
1. Reading/Language Arts. Students will:
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A. Read a variety of literary genres.
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B. Build literary webs consisting of character, setting, and plot.
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C. Listen to radio shows of the 1940's.
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D. Express ideas orally and through written reports.
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E. Recite information for dramatic presentations and culminating projects, including facts about women and poetry.
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F. Understand characteristics of historical fiction and nonfiction texts.
2. Writing. Students will:
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A. Engage in writing experiences that promote reflective, persuasive, and expository writing.
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B. Record daily reflections in a personal journal to show reactions to concepts. C. Read magazine articles and write mock articles.
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D. Write to pen pals who presently live in countries that are war zones.
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E. Make daily records in a literary log of reactions to books being read.
3. Creative Dramatics. Students will:
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A. Reconstruct past events by writing and performing dramatic presentations about women and children in the 1940's.
4. Social Studies. Students will:
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A. Demonstrate sensitivity to values and behaviors of people in different historical contexts.
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B. Use facts and concepts drawn from history to make informed decisions on critical issues dealing with peace and war.
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C. Compare the behaviors and lives of people during World War II and today.
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D. Identify needs and wants of people during the war and make comparisons to people of today.
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E. Interview community people who lived through World War II or have some knowledge about the period.
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F. Understand cause and effect as it relates to war and conflict.
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G. View films that give information about the historical period.
5. Music/Movement and Dance. Students will:
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A. Create and perform dances to portray the period, and incorporate dances into dramatic presentations.
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B. Learn musical selections of the period.
6. Art. Students will:
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A. Develop projects and recreate items from stories to create a museum that displays memorabilia of the time period.
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B. Construct maps that illustrate continents, countries, and bodies of water to show geographical features key to World War II.
7. Science. Students will:
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A. Plant Victory gardens.
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B. Explore simple machines used by women in factories.
8. Math. Students will:
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A. Develop timelines that illustrate chronology of the time period.
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B. Use recipes to recreate foods of the period.
9. Social Development. Students will:
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A. Adopt a family in a war zone and send survival kits and care packages.
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B. Generate and demonstrate peacemaking techniques when interacting with one another.
10. Health. Students will:
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A. Study the responsibilities of the Red Cross during the war and learn fire safety rules and first aid instruction.
The Rome Front: The Effects of World War II on Families
World War II caused many changes in American communities and families. One change occurred when families were forced to face separation. Fathers were drafted to join the war and mothers were joining the workplace filling jobs left by the drafted men. More than six million women joined the workplace during the war. Women became police officers, cab drivers, and riveters; they operated buses, cranes, and tractors. They ran farms, factories, and offices (Colman, 1995). Other changes occurred as Americans were asked to reduce their use of goods, staples, and privileges. This limited usage, called rationing, forced families to limit the use of privileges such as visiting family members, especially when there was a need to travel on trains or buses. The government also rationed the use of gasoline for cars when traveling. Other goods that were rationed were sugar, toys, vegetables, bread, rubber, coffee, and heating oil (Colman, 1995). Goods such as silk and rubber were rationed because they were largely products of Japan and Southeast Asia, and hence were no longer available (Colman, 1995). Coffee was rationed because ships that were used to transport beans from South America were now being used to transport troops (Colman, 1995). Metals were rationed for the use of tanks, bullets, and weapons, and were no longer available for toys, bicycles, or refrigerators for the home front (Colman, 1995). This affected presents for birthdays, ornaments and decorations for Christmas. Staples such as vegetables, bread, and sugar were also limited. People were asked to plant a Victory garden to produce their own vegetables and fruits (Colman, 1995). Lastly, World War II had many effects on the lives of children. At home some children suffered the losses of both parents to war and work. In families that were separated, caretakers fulfilled the duties of parents. Another effect on the lives of children was the absence of festivity on many special occasions such as Christmas and birthday parties. At Christmas, children were not as able to receive gifts such as toys and bicycles. Because the factories were building ships and munitions, there was very little emphasis put on toys. Because of this rationing children had to make homemade Christmas tree ornaments. Birthday parties were affected by the war as well. Sugar and cocoa were rationed and therefore children were not able to have cakes and ice cream. Decorations, prizes, and games for parties had to be homemade.
The war also affected the way children interacted with each other. Adults, propaganda, and advertisements often reminded children of the war. Children often participated in mock wars in their neighborhoods and began to make effective use of war terminology with words like "spies" and "allies". Children also learned war strategy as they interacted with each other. As the children created mock wars they used problem-solving techniques to successfully outwit each other.
The Home Front: The War and Women
During World War II, many women were called to duty-not the duty of war, but the duty of work. Women were thought of as caretakers in the home, not breadwinners, therefore the mere fact that women were pulled from the home to work caused great concern for advocates of the "American family unit". In 1943, Norman Rockwell made the working woman famous through his painting that named her Rosie the Riveter. The creation of the character "Rosie" was Rockwell's way to pay tribute to the more than three million women who accepted this call of duty during the war. His painting appeared on the May 29, 1943 issue of the "Saturday Evening Post". Rockwell depicted the working woman as a strong, coverall-wearing sandwich-eating, and broad-bodied woman who appeared to be ready and willing to take on a "man's" job.
Review of Literature
Children's Literature serves many purposes for children, and the teaching of such literature should correlate with those purposes. Thomas Gunning explains that children's literature should be taught in an effort to elicit an "aesthetic" response as well as an "efferent" response. In an effort to elicit aesthetic responses, teachers should encourage students to articulate their personal feelings, insights, and attitudes; or they can be encouraged to picture and imagine themselves in the character's setting or participating in the character's actions. Also while reading, a good reader generates questions about what's being read, hypothesizes about what will happen, extends the story by creating new parts or a new story, and lastly makes associations with other stories. Finally, children should be encouraged to discuss literature and bridge gaps between their lives and the text, thereby understanding the text as it applies to their lives. When expecting to elicit efferent responses such as literary elements (who, what, when, where), readers focus on the ideas and information embodied in the text. Gunning also explains that children should be exposed to a wide variety of genres to create a balance that allows children to differentiate between facts and fiction in order to have different literary perspectives on World War II. In this unit, I plan to begin with
The Butter Battle Book (
picture book) to provide an introduction; The American Girls Collection:
Meet Molly, Molly Learns a Lesson Molly's Surprise Happy Birthday Molly, Molly Saves the Day,
and
Changes for Molly
by Valerie Tripp (historical fiction) and
Rosie the Riveter:. Women Working on the Home Front in World War II
, by Penny Colman (non-fiction) will be core books for the development of the unit; and the unit will culminate with a selected tale in
Peace Tales
(folktales) by Margaret Read McDonald.
Using a picture book, students will examine the question "What is war"?
The Butter Battle Book
by Dr. Seuss will explore this question, the nature of war, the events that lead to war, and characteristics of society at war. This book complements the unit because children will be able to see the concept of war humorously, yet realize its serious effects on societies and countries. Picture books are useful to a social studies curriculum because
:
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1.They include information that is not always present in textbooks.
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2.They contain entertaining illustrations for the visual learner.
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3.They allow anticipatory activities and stimulate thought for new concepts.
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4.They serve as springboards into discussion and writing on a desired topic.
The Butter Battle Book
In this book, two communities, separated by a wall, have been at war for generations. The Zooks and the Yooks are at war because of the different ways to butter bread. Each community attempts to create the largest, strongest, most destructive weapon to outdo the other. Dr. Seuss uses patterned rhymes and humorous illustrations to depict the concept of war, and how war affects attitudes and behaviors of society.
Although fictitious, The American Girls Collection:
Meet Molly, Molly Learns a Lesson, Molly's Surprise, Happy Birthday Molly, Molly Saves the Day,
and
Changes for Molly
by Valerie Tripp will help to create the image of war through a child's eye, and make it possible for students to respond to the factors that affected the lives of Americans during the war. Linda Levistik in
Fact and Fiction: Literature in the Curriculum
, outlines the following as ways that historical fiction can influence students' imaginative entry into the past:
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1. Personalizing history: powerful themes are presented through the eyes of individuals who communicate the personal, emotional, and psychological impact of living in and through historical events and eras.
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2. Exploring human experience: children are able to explore both the best and worst of human behavior.
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3. Probing cause and effect: historical fiction carries readers along a timeline while involving the reader in cause and effect lessons about society.
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4. Interpreting the past: through many different interpretations children are able to identify point of view as well as how the events of the period affected people.
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5. Teaching the past: historical fiction can be an effective component to any social studies program.
Meet Molly
In this book, the main character, Molly McIntire is introduced along with her family members. She is in the third grade, the year is 1944, and the world is at war. Molly is faced with the separation of her family because her father, a doctor, is in England caring for wounded American soldiers and her mother is a Red Cross volunteer. Molly's family caregiver, Ms. Gilford, helps Molly and her siblings deal with their fears of the war. In this book, the reader gets an introduction to the expectations the American government has for Americans to support the war.
Molly Learns A Lesson
This book is based on an experience Molly has in school. This experience is one that was very typical for many children during the war. Molly's teacher begins a contest in which the students are expected to devise a plan to contribute to the war effort, and work together to complete the plan. The boys and girls team up in a competitive race to have the winning project. Project ideas include collecting bottle tops, tin foil, and newspaper and making patchwork quilts. Molly learns a lesson about teamwork, spies, and allies.
Molly' s Surprise
Molly Surprise
is a Christmas story that shows the effects of war on communities and families. Molly's family is disappointed because of the realities of war: family separation, rationing, and sacrifice. Molly feels lonely at Christmas because her grandparents are not able to visit her due to the rationing of gasoline. Molly and her siblings decide to make Christmas special by surprising their mother with a Christmas tree and homemade tree ornaments. The siblings get some unexpected surprises themselves when their father sends presents from England and sends a radio message for the family.
Happy Birthday Molly
Molly gets a chance to learn about how the war affects children in other parts of the world when an English girl comes to live with her family. Molly and Emily realize their different perspectives on the war and are able to support one another as they deal with the many changes of war. Because of the rationing of goods such as sugar and cocoa, many children were not able to have cake or ice cream on their birthday, but Ms. Gilford saved rationed supplies for Molly's special cake.
Molly Saves the Day
This summer story takes place at summer camp. Molly and her friends go away to camp and learn to compete in a mock war called the Color War. The girls have to compete to keep the United States flag in their possession. The two teams have to use war strategies to maintain or regain possession of the flag. The girls also have to utilize map skills, survival skills, bravery, and courage to win the war. Molly overcomes her fears of the war that her country is in and learns lessons about survival, war strategy, and friendship.
Changes for Molly
In
Changes for Molly
the war is near to a close. Molly learns of the expected surrender of the Nazis and the expected victory for America and its allies. Molly and her family await the arrival of her father as well as other men who fought in the war. The communities and the Red Cross prepare a Victory Show to show their pride in the soldiers.
In the classroom I have experienced success with interchanging fiction and non-fiction to promote effective comprehension in the content areas. By using literature to teach concepts, I have been able to motivate my students to learn. This unit has been designed to utilize non-fiction along with historical fiction, folktales, and picture books. The purpose of using non-fiction is to provide my students with information about the"Rosie the Riveter" image during the war.
Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II
by Penny Colman will be used for whole-class activities including read aloud to strengthen listening and research skills.
Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II
(nonfiction text), "How War Drive Hits Home", "What Did You do in the War, Grandma", "Women' s Place", "Women at Work", and "Women for War" (articles) will be used to provide facts about women working during the war. These texts will serve many purposes to my unit. First, students show a great need to learn strategies to use when comprehending forms of nonfiction text—expository and argument. By studying elements of nonfiction (fact and opinion, cause and effect, point of view), students will identify exposition as nonfiction that tries to explain something or tries to help the reader understand a subject or idea, and students will identify argument as nonfiction that tries to persuade the reader to believe or do something; Colman and articles will help reach these objectives. As Colman's work is a chapter book written for intermediate through upper elementary grade level, it will present challenges to my second grade class. Lastly, Carter and Abrahamson, in
Fact and Fiction: Literature in the Curriculum
, note ways that nonfiction can infuse lessons and motivate students to learn. One way, key to this unit, is by building literary ladders. Colman and articles help to build literary ladders by extending the Molly Series and the idea of life during the war, especially life for the working woman, and therefore allow students to compare and contrast information about the period. Another way, by learning from the text's illustrations—photographs, original advertisements, and propaganda—will allow students to examine the intentions of advertisements and propaganda. Other educational media will be used, for example, the film "The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter". As a culminating activity for this component, my students will compose a dramatic presentation featuring women that Colman highlights, and women in the articles.
Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II
This text focuses on women in the workplace, and their struggles as they gain respect for fulfilling a "man's job". Also using original photographs, propaganda, and advertisements, this text shows the jobs made available to women and the attitudes toward working women during the war.
The most popular of folktales for children are those in which animals are personified. Talking animals have appeared in folktales of all cultures. Many animals' roles remain the same, for example, the trickster rabbit, the sly fox, the slow turtle, and the wise spider. Also in many cultures the purpose of folktales varies but throughout my research I have found two common purposes of folktales: to entertain young children, and to teach social and moral lessons. I will use a selected tale in
Peace Tales
to clarify the war concept while allowing the tale to teach peaceful solutions to problems. The tale used in this component will cover themes such as war and pathways to peace.
The War Between the Sandpipers and the Whales
This folktale is about the Sandpipers and the Whales, beach animals who want to control the beach habitat. They each try to gain control of the beach by calling in their family members and comparing the size of each other's family. When they realize the destruction they have caused to the land and innocent animals, they attempt to find peaceful solutions to their problems.
Reader response is an important component to this unit because one of the purposes for writing this unit is to give students an opportunity to personally relate experiences encountered in the text. The lessons provided reflect the Reader Response Theory that Probst (1988) defines as a view of reading in which the reader plays a central role in constructing the meaning of a text (Gunning, 1996). The activities in the lessons allow students to respond personally to the events in the text. In addition to the sample lesson plans, I have provided a list of mini-projects that can be incorporated into any of the books in this unit:
