The World War II Resource Collection
The World War II resource collection will provide teachers with a vital stockpile of archival information pertaining to the Second World War. The folder is organized in a manner that makes it easy for both teachers and students to access and pinpoint the exact information they are seeking. The collection covers a range of topics posed by the Second World War such as: feminine perspectives, racial tensions, leadership, governmental systems, and strategy and tactics. The information is presented thematically to allow users to explore the motivations behind pivotal events
World War II is a vast subject that has numerous subplots; therefore, I oriented the collection into numerous headings that are broken down and elaborated on as the user explores the site. Each heading can be explored independently as the nature of this collection is not necessarily linear according to dates; rather, it is oriented to scaffold information thematically. After navigating the home page and reading through the cover page/introduction, the first unit of information pertains to political systems. To understand the turmoil that was Europe and Pacific East Asia during the post World War I era, a student needs to have background knowledge on the nature of the differing political systems embraced by the warring nations. The instruments of political systems are thoroughly researched through primary sources depicting propaganda efforts by each nation to dehumanize their enemies and promote nationalism.
Considering many of the nations involved in the war used racial tactics as a call to arms for their citizens, the next unit of study involves racial factors involved in the war. Genocide is a major theme explored through the research. I chose to have information available pertaining not just to the holocaust and Hitler’s attempted extermination of the Jewish race, there is also information pertaining to Japanese war crimes, American internment of Japanese citizens and various Eastern European executions and ethnic cleansing attempts before, during and after the war. I really wanted to stress the impact racism had on the war because it was racism that fueled public propaganda efforts on all sides. To connect this theme to contemporary times, I would have students search news articles and videos looking for underlying themes of racism. Any instance of one nation dehumanizing their enemies publically could be used for analysis. This would be especially effective with genocidal campaigns in Africa, Middle East relations, and US Middle East relationships.
The next theme explored is military and political leaders. This section depicts the people that put the politics and military strategy to work. Using video resources, texts and website links, this section is meant to detail each nation’s strategy and chronicle the exploits of the famous leaders from various perspectives to avoid bias. In this section students could pair up and explore two generals such as Rommel and Patton, or Montgomery and Bradley, or Zhukov and Guerdarian. Together the students could assume the roles of their Generals and give presentations in front of the class depicting their general’s strategies, maxims, troop’s admiration or hatred of them, and famous exploits on the battle field. For students that may be introverted or have ELL needs, I would differentiate allowing them the option of creating a joint compare and contrast essay of their Generals.
Technology is the next resource offered in the collection as the tools of military leaders must be thoroughly detailed for users to grasp the scope of destruction in the war. I stressed the development and use of the atomic bomb in this section as it still is one of the most controversial subjects in military history. I would certainly promote users of this resource collection to do a writing to learn exercise with their students asking them to take sides on whether the US should have used the atomic bomb. Students would be asked to argue their stance utilizing the resources provided to provide historical documentation on whether it was tactically or morally responsible for America to use atomic weapons. Another important aspect of the war, the aircraft carrier is also chronicled via a documentary that could be assigned with guided questions for homework, or viewed during a class period to stress the impact of technology and production capabilities on the allied war effort. Further resources on the mass produced weaponry such as tanks, guns, airplanes and artillery are also provided.
The next theme explored is critical battles to the war. This material is extremely engaging as the majority of the resources provided are first hand accounts through text, or videos of battle sequences with commentary. Once again I provided users with various perspectives of the battles to portray motivations, morale and nation specific tactical goals.
With the hopes of offering various perspectives to engage students of all sexes, I provided resources detailing women’s contributions to the war effort. This section includes Nazi, American and Soviet assertions of gender roles. The resources will depict the differing gender roles in each respective society. Also, this section addresses the atrocities committed to women in Europe through primary source interviews with women that suffered at the hands of their nation’s enemies.
In interests of bringing closure to the collection, the resources address the policy of unconditional surrender and its implications on the victors and the losers of the war. Documentary footage is provided that shows Churchill’s announcement of Germany’s surrender and the Allied victory parades throughout Europe. In this section I used a newspaper article that questioned what if the United States demanded unconditional surrender in Iraq. What if the United States treated the war in Iraq as they treated World War II? This intriguing question could be used as an in class group activity where the students create a Venn diagram comparing strategies in World War II and Iraq such as: conscription, unconditional surrender, rationing on the home front and bombing of civilian targets. From the Venn diagram I would have students individually write their assessment for why the strategies differed and how the aftermath of World War II forever changed how wars would be fought.
The final compilation of resources involves maps and important timelines pertaining to World War II. These are important because they are a reference that depicts the geography and chronology of the war. Throughout the collection there are archival photos of the era which engage and offer images that allow students to see visual depictions of the information provided.
The resource collection addresses a topic that is extremely vast. While this made the collection of reference material a rigorous task, it allowed the collection to address a wide variety of standards put forth by the Pennsylvania department of education. The collection addresses numerous issues that contribute to historical analysis ability and skills development. Through thematic study, students will evaluate chronological thinking. Students will be asked to synthesize and evaluate historical sources through maps, pictures, timelines and primary and secondary sources. The differing perspectives offered by the collection allow students to evaluate historical interpretations of events. As with any resource collection, students will have to synthesize historical research.
Pertaining to United States history, the collection enables students to identify and evaluate the political and cultural contributions of Political and military leaders, as well as innovators in technology. Students will be asked to identify and analyze primary source documents. Students will also explore how continuity and change contributed to women’s role in society via their contribution to the war effort. Students will identify and evaluate cooperation among social groups through resources depicting ethnic and racial relations and military conflicts.
In reference to the PA Standards for World History, the collection allows students to evaluate the significance of individuals and groups who made major political and cultural contributions to world history since 1450 such as Engels and Marx, Hitler and Stalin and Winston Churchill. Students will need to evaluate historical documents such as the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. Finally, students will evaluate how conflict and cooperation among social groups and organizations impacted world history through their study of race and global conflict.
The goal of this resource collection is to provide people who are interested in World War II with a stockpile of archival information that depicts differing perspectives about the war. The differing perspectives are meant to allow students to formulate their own opinions about the war rather than being indoctrinated by a biased textbook. While the progression of information on the site does scaffold learning, students will be able to draw on any resource in the collection at any time. I separated information according to theme because the war is much more than dates and chronology. The important knowledge students gain from studying World War II come from themes such as political systems, racial relations, the dangers of propaganda, peace agreements and the role of women. Conclusively, through offering perspectives on World War II thematically, this resource collection allows students to explore topics that interest them, and through drawing on student’s interests this resource collection will engage students in learning.
World War II is a vast subject that has numerous subplots; therefore, I oriented the collection into numerous headings that are broken down and elaborated on as the user explores the site. Each heading can be explored independently as the nature of this collection is not necessarily linear according to dates; rather, it is oriented to scaffold information thematically. After navigating the home page and reading through the cover page/introduction, the first unit of information pertains to political systems. To understand the turmoil that was Europe and Pacific East Asia during the post World War I era, a student needs to have background knowledge on the nature of the differing political systems embraced by the warring nations. The instruments of political systems are thoroughly researched through primary sources depicting propaganda efforts by each nation to dehumanize their enemies and promote nationalism.
Considering many of the nations involved in the war used racial tactics as a call to arms for their citizens, the next unit of study involves racial factors involved in the war. Genocide is a major theme explored through the research. I chose to have information available pertaining not just to the holocaust and Hitler’s attempted extermination of the Jewish race, there is also information pertaining to Japanese war crimes, American internment of Japanese citizens and various Eastern European executions and ethnic cleansing attempts before, during and after the war. I really wanted to stress the impact racism had on the war because it was racism that fueled public propaganda efforts on all sides. To connect this theme to contemporary times, I would have students search news articles and videos looking for underlying themes of racism. Any instance of one nation dehumanizing their enemies publically could be used for analysis. This would be especially effective with genocidal campaigns in Africa, Middle East relations, and US Middle East relationships.
The next theme explored is military and political leaders. This section depicts the people that put the politics and military strategy to work. Using video resources, texts and website links, this section is meant to detail each nation’s strategy and chronicle the exploits of the famous leaders from various perspectives to avoid bias. In this section students could pair up and explore two generals such as Rommel and Patton, or Montgomery and Bradley, or Zhukov and Guerdarian. Together the students could assume the roles of their Generals and give presentations in front of the class depicting their general’s strategies, maxims, troop’s admiration or hatred of them, and famous exploits on the battle field. For students that may be introverted or have ELL needs, I would differentiate allowing them the option of creating a joint compare and contrast essay of their Generals.
Technology is the next resource offered in the collection as the tools of military leaders must be thoroughly detailed for users to grasp the scope of destruction in the war. I stressed the development and use of the atomic bomb in this section as it still is one of the most controversial subjects in military history. I would certainly promote users of this resource collection to do a writing to learn exercise with their students asking them to take sides on whether the US should have used the atomic bomb. Students would be asked to argue their stance utilizing the resources provided to provide historical documentation on whether it was tactically or morally responsible for America to use atomic weapons. Another important aspect of the war, the aircraft carrier is also chronicled via a documentary that could be assigned with guided questions for homework, or viewed during a class period to stress the impact of technology and production capabilities on the allied war effort. Further resources on the mass produced weaponry such as tanks, guns, airplanes and artillery are also provided.
The next theme explored is critical battles to the war. This material is extremely engaging as the majority of the resources provided are first hand accounts through text, or videos of battle sequences with commentary. Once again I provided users with various perspectives of the battles to portray motivations, morale and nation specific tactical goals.
With the hopes of offering various perspectives to engage students of all sexes, I provided resources detailing women’s contributions to the war effort. This section includes Nazi, American and Soviet assertions of gender roles. The resources will depict the differing gender roles in each respective society. Also, this section addresses the atrocities committed to women in Europe through primary source interviews with women that suffered at the hands of their nation’s enemies.
In interests of bringing closure to the collection, the resources address the policy of unconditional surrender and its implications on the victors and the losers of the war. Documentary footage is provided that shows Churchill’s announcement of Germany’s surrender and the Allied victory parades throughout Europe. In this section I used a newspaper article that questioned what if the United States demanded unconditional surrender in Iraq. What if the United States treated the war in Iraq as they treated World War II? This intriguing question could be used as an in class group activity where the students create a Venn diagram comparing strategies in World War II and Iraq such as: conscription, unconditional surrender, rationing on the home front and bombing of civilian targets. From the Venn diagram I would have students individually write their assessment for why the strategies differed and how the aftermath of World War II forever changed how wars would be fought.
The final compilation of resources involves maps and important timelines pertaining to World War II. These are important because they are a reference that depicts the geography and chronology of the war. Throughout the collection there are archival photos of the era which engage and offer images that allow students to see visual depictions of the information provided.
The resource collection addresses a topic that is extremely vast. While this made the collection of reference material a rigorous task, it allowed the collection to address a wide variety of standards put forth by the Pennsylvania department of education. The collection addresses numerous issues that contribute to historical analysis ability and skills development. Through thematic study, students will evaluate chronological thinking. Students will be asked to synthesize and evaluate historical sources through maps, pictures, timelines and primary and secondary sources. The differing perspectives offered by the collection allow students to evaluate historical interpretations of events. As with any resource collection, students will have to synthesize historical research.
Pertaining to United States history, the collection enables students to identify and evaluate the political and cultural contributions of Political and military leaders, as well as innovators in technology. Students will be asked to identify and analyze primary source documents. Students will also explore how continuity and change contributed to women’s role in society via their contribution to the war effort. Students will identify and evaluate cooperation among social groups through resources depicting ethnic and racial relations and military conflicts.
In reference to the PA Standards for World History, the collection allows students to evaluate the significance of individuals and groups who made major political and cultural contributions to world history since 1450 such as Engels and Marx, Hitler and Stalin and Winston Churchill. Students will need to evaluate historical documents such as the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. Finally, students will evaluate how conflict and cooperation among social groups and organizations impacted world history through their study of race and global conflict.
The goal of this resource collection is to provide people who are interested in World War II with a stockpile of archival information that depicts differing perspectives about the war. The differing perspectives are meant to allow students to formulate their own opinions about the war rather than being indoctrinated by a biased textbook. While the progression of information on the site does scaffold learning, students will be able to draw on any resource in the collection at any time. I separated information according to theme because the war is much more than dates and chronology. The important knowledge students gain from studying World War II come from themes such as political systems, racial relations, the dangers of propaganda, peace agreements and the role of women. Conclusively, through offering perspectives on World War II thematically, this resource collection allows students to explore topics that interest them, and through drawing on student’s interests this resource collection will engage students in learning.