Service Learning

Example Lesson Plan, Service Learning, and Experince at the Pyne Magnet School.

Lesson Plan Format: Secondary

Class/Grade: 11-Honors

Goals/ Standards: USII.17 Explain important domestic events that took place during the war. (H, E)

how war-inspired economic growth ended the Great Depression
Philip Randolph and the efforts to eliminate employment discrimination
the entry of large numbers of women into the workforce
the internment of West Coast Japanese-Americans in the U.S. and Canada (to be done in the next lesson when the viewpoint shifts)

Enduring Understandings: In order to fight the war overseas, America had to adopt a wartime economy that called for massive industrial overhaul in terms of production and workforce, as well as deal with the consequences of a wartime economy.

Essential Question: Could America have sustained a wartime economy without adopting all of the changes, social and industrial, that came with it?

Learning Outcomes (What students will be able to do):

Students will describe how and why America's economy changed when the country entered WW2.
Students will describe the role that women and African Americans played in America's wartime economy and why
these roles were necessary.
Students will explain why America's wartime economy was both a change yet similar for many Americans when compared to the Depression.
Students will compare WW2 wartime economy to our present day “wartime economy.”

Skills Developed:

Analytical skills
Academic Language Scaffold – wartime economy, propaganda, discrimination, workforce, and rationing.
Historical Thinking Skill: Chronological Thinking
Historical Thinking Skill: Historical Comparison
Note-taking
Quantitative analysis.
Historical Writing

Modifications: 1. Give word box to X student for skeleton notes. 2. Have student X work with a paraprofessional to synthesize essay paragraph(s) for this lesson; two days additional time will be provided to allow for scheduling. 3. Student X will have help with reading by a paraprofessional during class.

Resources and Materials:

Primary sources
Propaganda posters
Images of rationing coupons
Captain America war bond clip
“Der Fuehrer's Face” cartoon
American resources during WW2 chart

Opening: Over the past two days we looked at the life of an average American GI in the Pacific and European theaters of operation. Now we are going to turn our attention to the American home front and take a look “behind the curtain” to see what was needed to support such a massive war.

Learning Plan (Design for Instruction):

Do it now! (Watch Captain America warbond clip).
Preteach vocab - wartime economy, propaganda, discrimination, workforce, and rationing.
Powerpoint presentation and skeleton notes, “recall” on the skeleton notes to get topic sentence for homework paragraph.
Abridged primary document reading of Order 8802 and historical document analysis worksheet.
Propaganda poster(s) with student driven word wall with a focus on propaganda.
“Der Fuehrer's Face” Cartoon. This will be removed from the ELL modified course.
Homework.
Ticket to leave (Compare what you know about WW2's wartime economy with our own, what's the same? What's different?)

Learning Outcome Assessment

Students will describe how and why America's economy changed when the country entered WW2. This information will be included in the essay paragraph that will be due the next day for homework. This is the same as the assignment.

Students will describe the role that women and African Americans played in America's wartime economy and why these roles were necessary by examining order 8802 and by analyzing various types of non-military American propaganda. Document analysis worksheet that will be done in class.

Students will explain why America's wartime economy was both a change yet similar for many Americans when compared to the depression. This information will be included in the essay paragraph that will be due the next day for homework. This is the same as the assignment.

Students will compare WW2 wartime economy to our present day “wartime economy.” Ticket to leave.

Closing: Today we looked at how America changed in order to support the war effort across the Atlantic and Pacific. You realized that although soldiers had to bare a tremendous burden, the people on the home front had an equally important burden to carry. Tomorrow and for the next day, we are going to switch perspectives and look at the lives of Europeans, Russians, and Japanese at each of their respective home fronts. Then we will move on to see how they supported their own soldiers on the war front.

Assignment (Developing Historical Writing): Using the topic sentence that you “recalled” from the skeleton notes that we did in class today, write a paragraph or two (to later be included in your Essential Question Unit Assignment) about America's wartime economy.

NCSS Themes: Culture, Time, Continuity, and Change, Individual Development and Identity, Individuals, Groups, and Institutions, Production, Distribution, and Consumption, Civic Ideals and Practices.

Experince at the Pyne Magnet School

Without a doubt, my experience at the Pyne Magnet school has been one of the most important aspects of my student teaching career. Until this point, I had never been in front of an actual classroom full of students. The first time was harrowing, to say the least, but I quickly got that first hand knowledge that is intrinsic to service learning. I hold this experience as invaluable. In many of my classes I have heard my professors speak about "this is what it will be like in a classroom," but I never truly understood what they were saying until I had this experience myself.

Over the course of two months, myself and other student teachers took turns presenting lessons to a class of 8th graders. All of our lessons were based around the American Revolution. We got time to meet our students while we worked with them in small groups on classwork and assisted them through difficult assignments. We even took them on a historical field trip to the Freedom Trail in Boston.

I quickly learned a few good lessons myself. On the day to present my lesson, I had chosen five documents to hand out, one to each of the five groups of students. Two things jumped out at me right away that I hadn't even considered. The first was that I only had one copy of the lesson per group. This of course turned out o be ineffective with groups of five students. The other important thing I learned was that one of my documents that I chose was too advanced for the students' grade. Luckily I had the support of the other student teachers I was with to help the groups through their various primary source document work. Though I later realized that I knew that I should have had more copies and better chosen the documents I was going to present, without the actual experience of messing up I'm not sure I truly “understood” it.

Service learning is important for a few reasons that set it apart from regular academic learning. While academic learning can teach a student the basics of the intellectual side of teaching, as well as teaching them what they "should do" in some situations, there is hardly a better teacher than actual experience. Being in front of students with the support of ones professor and the students' traditional teacher provides a unique experience in a safe environment for those who are training to be teachers themselves. Not only does the student teacher get the support and observations of people who have been in their exact position, but the students of the class get to see the beginning steps of a profession that they interact with on daily basis.

Service learning is also invaluable due to the fact that it not just a benefit to the student teacher, but to the community as a whole. Without this necessary experience, new teachers maybe be unprepared for some of the challenges or realities of teaching. This experience benefits the community that the student teacher is in by better preparing them to be the best teacher they can be. Likewise, when the student teacher becomes established, it will be their responsibility to give back to the community by allowing the next generation of student teachers to come and get this hands on learning with them.