World War II WebQuest

What I Did During the Big War: 

From Mawmaw's or Pawpaw's Scrapbook: 

A World War II WebQuest

by Kyle Landry and Greg English

based on a webquest by Joyce Valenza,  Len Arlen, and Chris Shelly

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Resources

 

Some images from the National Archives and Records Administration. Idea of quest came from http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/wwIIwq.html

Introduction 

"At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world, they were fighting in the most primitive conditions possible across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and the coral islands of the Pacific.  They answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled. . .They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest.  They succeeded on every front.  They won the war; they saved the world.  They came home to joyous and short-lived celebrations and immediately began the task of rebuilding their lives and the world they wanted."

"They came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War and went on to build modern America--men and women whose everyday lives of duty, honor, achievement, and courage gave us the world we have today."

 Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation

The scene: You are now approaching your eighties.  You've lived through the very period your favorite grandchild is now studying in history.  At a family dinner, you begin chatting about World War II.  It's clear that the events and mood of the period are very remote to your grandchild. 

To give him or her a richer picture of life back then, you go down to the basement (or up to the attic) and pull out and dust off the wartime scrapbook, in which so many of your critical memories are stored.  What's in the book? Who were you back then?  What facts and feelings would be most important for you to share to enable your grandchild to better understand life during this period?  

The Task:

Your assignment is to create an authentic looking scrapbook to share with your grandchild and to present the scrapbook and its contained memories to the class in the voice of the grandmother or grandfather, a person who lived through the Second World War.

As you develop your scrapbook, consider the essential question, "How has the individual impacted history?"  You may look at your own character or the important people of the day and place.

You may choose any of the following persona or invent one of your own:

In the fray: On sea, by land, in the air, in the camps. . .

 On the home front
Choose a theater of war, a branch of the military, and a particular period of two years.  You may be a male or female soldier, nurse, prisoner of war (POW), officer, aide to or under the command of a general, in a specific concentration camp liberator, etc.  You may be with either the Allied or Axis forces. Choose a persona and identify a two year period for one of these characters:
  • The Pacific (You should include such events as Pearl Harbor, Battle of Midway, island hopping and reclaiming islands by the US, Japanese imperialism in China, etc., Hiroshima and Nagasaki,  post-war occupation of Japan, Guadalcanal, Battle of Coral Sea)
  • Western Europe (You should include such events as the siege of Stalingrad, Battle of the Bulge, German invasion of the Soviet Union, German blitzkrieg of Poland, German occupation of France, annexing of the Sudetenland, Battle of Britain, Dunkirk, D-Day, post-war occupation of Germany, Yalta Conference, British appeasement policy under Chamberlain, life as an SS Officer, life as an ordinary citizen in any European country)
  • North Africa (You should include events relating to both the US and British campaigns.)
  • Italy (You should include events relating to both the US and British campaigns, from Sicily north. Italian campaign in Ethiopia.)
  • Prisoner of War in any theater, Bataan Death March
  • United States (working on a base or in a POW Camp) 
  • A Tuskegee Airmen
  • A Military nurse

 

 Choose a persona and identify a two year period for one of these characters:
  • A soldier's sweetheart following him in a specific theater of war through his letters and the news media
  • A Japanese-American about to be "relocated"
  • A German prisoner of war (POW) in Louisiana then sent to the west.
  • Navajo code reader
  • A Rosie-the-Riveter (Betty-the-Boat Builder) type girl
  • A teen whose older brother has been drafted
  • Air raid warden
  • A North Louisianan during the Louisiana Maneuvers
  • A war production worker in a factory in Louisiana
  • Higgins boat-builder
  • A military Nurse
  • A mother who's son is overseas serving

Important:  Get your choice approved by your teacher! 

Specify who you are, where you are, what you are doing, and the years you will cover! 

For instance, "I plan to investigate the life of a sailor on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific from 1942-1944."

   

The Process

Scrapbook materials: Take FIVE sheets of construction paper 11x9 size or size given in class. Fold the paper in half forming a 5.5 x 9 inch sheet. You will put all five sheets together to form your scrapbook. The outside page will be used as a cover. Look over the list and divide the items you need to collect. Talk about the webquest and decide what two-year period of the war you are creating your scrapbook about. You might even all look for the same things and pick-and-choose from them on the day you are assigned to put this scrapbook together.

Make sure your team’s scrapbook appears authentic (of the period!) and includes the following:

 Make sure your scrapbook is as accurate as you can make it for the time period. Be sure to check the scrapbook against the evaluation grade sheet.

During your presentation:

Resources:

Use our databases, including:

Remember, though the Web is a rich source of information on World War II we have a fine collection of books in the stacks and in the reference area. Please check the Patron Catalog for many more resources or browse around 940.5

Some useful links:

Directory Searches

Major Sites

Conclusion

You have been engaged in exploring history through the perspective of a "player" in a period of modern history that dramatically shaped your life today.

History is essentially the story of people and all people have perspectives. Perspective is the place where you stand relative to what you are viewing. By analyzing multiple interests and values, we develop a richer understanding how people really lived and of the great issues of our past.

How we view our history may well determine how we perceive and act in the present.

"The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this." John Stuart Mill

 ThanksVeterans