WWII

Homefront

Objectives
- Students will be able to construct a connection between a catastrophic event hitting their
hometown & the events of WWII affecting communities across the U.S. by answering reflection
questions throughout the lesson.
- Students will be able to summarize the main ideas of the home front by creating an acrostic poem.

Standards
- Colorado High School Social Studies Standard 2: The key concepts of continuity and change, cause
and effect, complexity, unity and diversity over time.
- 21st Century Skills Standard: Develop new connections where none previously existed. Recognize
the interdependent nature of our world.
- Literacy & Numeracy Standard: Build conceptual frameworks based on an understanding of
themes and the overall flow of events.

Materials
1. Opening/Closing slides
2. Homefront powerpoint
3. Markers
4. White paper
5. Textbook

Procedure
Opening slide: Agenda & objectives for the day

Warm Up: Ask a series of questions about how a community changes when a major event takes place.
How did their community change when the tornado happened?

1. Explain to students that throughout this lesson we will frame our understanding of how a
community must adapt when catastrophic event happens by thinking back on the tornado that hit
Windsor and the ways that Windsor had to adapt, much in the same way that communities across
the U.S. had to adapt during WWII.
2. Lecture through the main points of the World War II homefront, including rationing, Tuskegee
Airmen, Zoot Suit Riots, etc.
3. Give students acrostic poem assignment and ask them to create their acrostic poems with a
partner using the directed parameters.
4. Students will share their poems with the class & explain why they chose the words they did.
5. In their notebooks, students will explain how a community changes during a major event. What
connection can they see between the changes in their community post tornado, to the changes
communities across the U.S. made during WWII?

Homework: Read Chapter 35
Next class we are: starting the Pacific Front


Evaluation
- Students will be evaluated on their understanding of the home front by the detail of their acrostic
poems.
- Students will be evaluated on their ability to form connections and answer the essential question
by the reflection paragraph in their notebooks.