Learning Experience Plan

Subject: Social Studies Grade level: 8th

Unit: History of the United States Length of LEP

(days/periods/minutes): 1 day

Topic: World War II

Content Standards: (include only standards addressed in this LEP)

8.6b: Students will examine American involvement in World War II, including the
American strategy in the Pacific and the invasion of Normandy on D-Day

Literacy Standards: (include only standards addressed in this LEP)

a. Introduce claims about a topic or issue, acknowledge and

distinguish the claims from alternate or opposing claims, and
organize the reasons and evidence logically.
b. Support claims with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data
and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or
text, using credible sources.
c. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience.
d. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including
visually, quantitatively, and orally.

Learning Experience Outcomes Learning Experience Assessments

(knowledge/skills) Do Now entry slip
Students will:
Summary Frame/Primary Source
Identify the main strategies used
Open discussion questions at end of
by the United States during World
class
War II in the Pacific and the
Atlantic theatres. Prompted questions during
discussion
Analyze the entry of the U.S. into
World War II
Compare the feelings of
Americans during WWI to that of
WWII.
Differentiation (What will you do to meet the needs of students at these different levels?)
Approaching On-level Beyond
Approaching students will On-level students will be Beyond students will be able
be able to recognize the able to analyze both the to recognize the main points
main reasons for the U.S. status of the American of the American Dream
entering World War II and Dream before the entry before the war and after the
assess the status of the into WWII as well as war. Students will also be
American Dream during during the war. able to compare the status
the war, referencing Furthermore, on-level of the American Dream

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internment camps. students will be able to during WWI and WWII.
completely fill out the Finally beyond students will
worksheet and access be able to come up with a
their prior knowledge with claim using the American
World War I. Dream worksheet and
support their claim with
specific events.
Curriculum Integration (Does this lesson correlate with any other content area? Describe.)
Students will learn how to close-read and summarize primary sources, enhancing
literacy skills in other content areas such as English. They will also learn note-taking
skills from forms such as media clips and lecture.

Materials/Resour Procedures/Strategies
ces

Do Now slip Day 1

Whiteboard Sponge Activity (activity that will be done as students enter the room to get them
into the mindset of the concept to be learned)
PBS Documentary
Students will be presented with a hypothetical situation similar
Projector/Images to that of the U.S. entering World War II. The students must think
American Dream about the U.S. entry into WWII and compare previous
Worksheet experiences that may have a significant impact on their
decisions, such as World War I had on the U.S. entry into World
War II. This role-playing will lead to the Do Now and lecture.

Anticipatory Set (focus question/s that will be used to get students thinking about
the days lesson)

What was the status of the American Dream prior to entering

World War II?

What was the significance of entering World War II when looking

at the context of recent U.S. events?

How does the U.S. entry into World War II compare to the U.S.
entry into World War I?

Activating Prior Knowledge (what information will be shared with/among

students to connect to prior knowledge/experience )

Students will fill out a Do Now slip, answering the main

question:

At what point in U.S. history did World War II occur? Why was the
U.S. entry into WWII significant?

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 After answering this question, students will read their answers
aloud and begin an open discussion with the class about the
prior knowledge that they used to answer the question. For
example, students will ideally mention the policies the U.S. used
in WWI as well as the feelings Americans faced during the Great
Depression.

Direct Instruction (input, modeling, check for understanding)

Begin lesson by discussing the causes of the WWII, and events

that lead to the U.S. entry. Main points of lecture will be:

I. Intro: Current U.S. Positions

II. Pearl Harbor
III. Decision to Enter War

After the lecture, the teacher will play a segment from the PBS
documentary series, History of Us, in which the role of the U.S.
is discussed and the idea of Japanese internment camps are
mentioned. Further, this segment discusses the entry of the U.S.
into the war and touches upon Pearl Harbor a bit more than the
lecture might. This video is a good way to include technology in
the classroom.

Guided Practice (how students will demonstrate their grasp of new learning)

Teacher will write the word Isolationism on the whiteboard,

and will ask students to raise their hands and ask what role this
phrase played in the U.S. entry into World War II. Ideally, the
students will discuss how isolationism also played a similar role
in World War I, and how the two situations were very similar,
emphasizing prior knowledge from previous lessons on World
War I.

After this cue from the teacher, the question written on the
board will be, What was the status of the American Dream prior
to and during World War II? In order to answer this question,
students will fill out a barometer worksheet and pinpoint where
the American Dream was during this time period. Students will
then write specific events that back up this claim, and events
that may go against what they believe to be true. When
students are finished with this worksheet, they will discuss with
their groups what they wrote down and then present to the class
some of their answers. At the end of class, the teacher will
collect this worksheet and grade it as a formative assessment.

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 *Its important that the teacher differentiate here in terms of the
activity. If the student does not like the idea of filling out the
worksheet, the student can draw an image or a picture
illustrating the emotions that people felt in the United States,
further reflecting the status of the American Dream during this
time period.

Independent Practice (what students will do to reinforce learning of the lesson)

Closure (action/statement by teacher designed to bring lesson presentation to an

appropriate close)

Have open discussion with students/have them make predictions

by asking questions such as:

1. What was the status of the American Dream?

References: (e.g. Book, course packet, pg #, complete web address URL)

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