A Study of America During WWII Self-Paced
Class experience
This study of America's Homefront during World War II gives students a look at what life was like back at home in the United States during the War. This class is meant for students who have already learned the basic overview of events during WWII, but are looking for a supplement to their US History studies. This is a great way to learn about WWII history in the United States because it gives learners a wealth of information on topics like women during the war, propaganda posters, and...
6 lessons//6 Weeks
Week 1Lesson 1Women During WWIIAfter learning about women's roles during the war, learners will work on a worksheet that will be provided before class. This activity has the learners examine two cartoons from WWII and analyze what message the cartoon was trying to send, who it impacted, and how it makes them feel today. After working on this activity, learners will share their answers with the class.Week 2Lesson 2WWII RationingAfter learning about rations, students will get a chance to try their hand at planning a menu with a ration book. I will provide the resource they will need to print out ahead of time and will explain to students how ration books worked and how they will use their ration points to plan a menu. They will then spend some time planning out a week's menu for a family of four, before sharing with the class what decisions they made about which foods to choose and why.Week 3Lesson 3Japanese Internment During WWIIThis is a reading heavy class, meaning that there will be several readings for the students to go through before completing the activity. Unlike other classes where I have a lecture first, I will instead give them a very brief overview of the internment camps before they start the readings. The purpose of the readings is to give them primary documents from the time period and let them view the documents as citizens would at the time, so that they can see how opinions on the camps could have beenWeek 4Lesson 4Comic Books During WWIIAfter learning about the growing popularity of the comic books during WWII, students will be shown several comic book covers and we'll discuss how to analyze them. Each student will have access to a pdf prior to class so that they can print the worksheet for this activity. Students will spend some time analyzing the comic covers and filling out the worksheet they've printed before sharing their analysis with the class.Week 5Lesson 5Analyzing WWII Propaganda and Poster Project part 1This class focuses on World War II propaganda and how it was used both in America and abroad. The lecture portion of the class will cover the history of WWII propaganda, terms/types of propaganda, an analysis of who the propaganda was geared towards and what messages they wanted to get across, plus lots and lots of pictures of propaganda. After learning about propaganda posters, learners will be given an assignment to create their own posterWeek 6Lesson 6Analyzing WWII Propaganda and Poster Project part 2In part two, we will briefly discuss how pictures could be used in newspapers with different titles to skew opinions and then students will work on an assignment to create titles for several pictures. Posters are due this week and will be shared on the classroom wall.
Teacher will post pdfs containing work that needs to be printed each week. For poster project, students will need a plain white piece of paper (printer paper works fine!), pencils, and colored pencils or other art material desired.
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Though there is no content that will be inappropriate for the age group, we will touch on the topics of the Holocaust, Hitler, Japanese Internment, and many other topics that include war, violence, death and other sensitive topics. This time period (and many other time periods) was very tumultuous and horrible for many people and I will not be breezing over the subject or sugar coating what happened, but the content and pictures used will not be graphic in nature. During the class on propaganda, we will be viewing WWII propaganda, both from the US and from other countries, therefore there will be images of Hitler and other Nazi icons. I will explicitly explain to the students and require of them that their own propaganda posters do not include any racist or problematic imagery and any student including offensive imagery in their posters will not be allowed to participate in the class and may be removed from the classroom altogether.
Hi everyone! I'm Nicole Trusky, a homeschooling mom of three and lover of all things history and pop culture! I have a Master in Humanities with a concentration in American Studies and have been studying history for as long as I can remember (my...
Self-Paced Class
$14
weekly or $80 for all content6 pre-recorded lessons
6 weeks of teacher feedback
Choose your start date
1 year of access to the content
Completed by 3 learners
Ages: 13-18