Social+Studies+-+History

=Subject: Social Studies =

Curriculum Standards:
Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities 
 * Benchmark A: Analyze ways people achieve governmental change, including political action, social protest and revolution.
 * Indicator 3: Analyze how governments and other groups have used propaganda to influence public opinion and behavior.

Technology:

 *  Computer Lab with 30 computers
 * United Streaming (http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm)
 * Ceiling Mounted Projector
 * Wiki (http://powerofpersuasion.wikispaces.com/) (This is a sample of what the teacher generated wiki would look like.)
 * National Archives website (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/powers_of_persuasion/powers_of_persuasion_home.html)
 * Microsoft Publisher

Description:
Students will analyze propaganda posters from World War II and post their responses to them using a wikispace. Students will also be given the opportunity to create their own propaganda poster for World War II using Microsoft Publisher. As an introduction to the poster analysis activity the teacher will show the class a selection from a video in United Streaming entitled //Profiles of Courage, Controversy, and Sacrifice (WWII): Homefront USA//. The specific two minute long selection that will be shown is entitled //Domestic Propaganda// and it explains some of the propaganda campaigns orchestrated by the Office of War Information in order to sell the war.


 * 1) Using a teacher created wikispace for each group the students will analyze posters individually.
 * 2) Students will edit the correct wikispace for each poster of the three posters they analyze, answer the required questions, and insert images and other hyperlinks to expand upon the propaganda the poster represents.
 * 3) Students' responses should also give thought to:
 * Issues mentioned or implied in the poster.
 * Whether the poster was trying to motivate the viewer by instilling patriotism, confidence and a positive outlook or whether it sought to ward of complacency with grim, unromantic visions of war.
 * 1) Students' will need to justify their answer with reasoning and examples.
 * 2) After completion of the poster analysis students will be required to participate in a discussion with their group mates, using the wikispace, about the posters that they have analyzed. The teacher will monitor these discussions and pose additional questions to encourage students to think about different aspects of the propaganda campaigns during World War II.
 * 3) Students will be given the option to create their own propaganda poster for World War II using Microsoft Publisher Software to earn extra credit.

> || http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/powers_of_persuasion/its_a_womans_war_too/images_html/victory_waits.html ||
 * < **Poster Analysis Questions**
 * 1) What symbols (if any) are used in the poster?
 * 2) If a symbol is used, is it?
 * Clear (easy to interpret)?
 * Memorable?
 * Dramatic?
 * 1) Are there messages in the poster primarily visual, verbal or both?
 * 2) Who do you think is the intended audience for the poster?
 * 3) What does the Government hope the audience will do? ||< **Sample Poster**
 * ======To view the Power of Persuasion Wiki Click Here====== || Image Source:

Supporting Resource:
//Using Wikis in Schools//, a case study completed in the United Kingdom, found that wiki software has the potential to support knowledge-building networks. In a knowledge-building network the "explanations and ideas are developed and shared publicly with peers, who offer critiques and alternatives or competing explanations" (Grant 3). By presenting students with an opportunity to interact with the work of their peers they will be more likely to gain a wider appreciation and understanding of the material, as long as the subject matter has a cohesion amongst topics. The study does suggest creating learning goals and content design guidelines to give students something to strive for within their wikispace.

An article by two librarians from the Ontario School Library Association entitled, //Wikis and Blogs for Students-Why Not?,// supports the use of wikis in the curriculum because they help practice literary skills. They also argue that wikis make writing more dynamic with the inclusion of hyperlinks and multimedia, thus making students more engaged with the material and therefore gaining a better understanding. "Students are actively involved in manipulating and learning the material when a wiki is used as a medium to share and communicate information, which is exemplified in a student comment that "It (a wiki) gives us the chance to let our opinions be heard by everyone in the class" (Henley 27)..

Tried & True or New & Innovative:
This lesson contains new and innovative components, as students are used to turning in their work in hard copy format and this lesson gives them the opportunity to give their responses in a virtual format using a wiki. By using this format they will be able to interact directly with the information they are learning about and with the work of their fellow classmates. Students will also be discussing their opinions in an online discussion forum, attached to each wiki page, where they will be able to express their opinions and not wait to be called upon. This may be extremely beneficial to students who are shy and normally would not speak up in a normal class period because in a virtual environment they are not being forced to speak their opinion directly in front of their peers.

APA Citations:
Grant, L. (2006). Using wikis in schools: a case study. //Futurelab//, 1-10. Retrieved October 27, 2008, from [|http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/ documents/discussion_papers/Wikis_in_Schools.pdf]

Henley, B., & McGregor, K. (2008). Wikis and blogs for students-Why not? //Teaching Librarian, 16//(1), 26-28. Retrieved October 28, 2008, from Library, Information & Technology Abstracts database.

National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). Poster art from World War II. In //Powers of persuasion//. Retrieved October 24, 2008, from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/powers_of_persuasion/powers_of_persuasion_home.html

Profiles of Courage, Controversy, and Sacrifice (WWII): Homefront USA. OnDeck Home Entertainment (2003). Retrieved October 26, 2008, from Discovery Education: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/