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A LESSON PLAN

for

incorporating

the AMERICAN VETERANS’ HISTORY PROJECT

and

the TRACES’ BUS-eum:

an exhibit about Midwestern POWS

in WWII-era Germany and Austria

into the curriculum

during the unit of study

on WW II

for either

AMERICAN HISTORY classes

WORLD HISTORY classes

INTRODUCTION:

Mandated by Congress and assigned to the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center , the American Veterans’ History Project has as its goal to record the experiences of all American Veterans now living and to make that information available to the American public. The project is reaching out to groups all across the United States to assist in this mammoth undertaking. As one of two Iowa partners in the Project, TRACES would like to encourage your students to also become a part of it. Right now, our primary focus is on WW II veterans because these people range in age from their upper 70s to their 90s and are dying at a rate of nearly 2,000 a day. If their stories are not captured now, they never will be. Your students can be a part of this nation- wide project and at the same time achieve some of the standards and objects you have established for your American history or World history WW II unit. Essentially, each student will make a video taped interview with a veteran of WW II or with another person (veteran’s wife or parent, someone who worked at home in a war-time endeavor, etc.) and make that video a part of the nation-wide project. In order to achieve that end, TRACES recommends that you

A. schedule the BUS-eum for your school
B. purchase copies of volumes one and two of Only the Least of Me is Hostage and possibly Enemies Within as well
C. obtain free from TRACES an American Veterans’ History project packet
D. review the website www.TRACES.org
E. review the American Veterans’ History Project’s web site
F. use or adapt the following curriculum outline

Purchase of the two books and scheduling the BUS-eum entitles you to copy and use for educational purposes sections of the books, the packet and the TRACES website.

Lesson

Conducting primary research to gain information and a personal perspective on WW II and its impact on American Midwesterners

Length of Lesson
6-7 days

Introduction- One day
BUS-eum tour - One day
Follow-up discussion- One day
Organizing the research -- One day
Class Presentations - Two to Three days

National Standard

2.1.d . . . assist the learners in developing historical research capabilities that enable them to formulate historical questions, obtain historical data, question historical data, identify the gaps in available records, place records in context, and construct sound historical interpretations.

Lesson outline

Day 1	Objective: Students will gain appropriate information about WW II and POWs to understand the BUS-eum tour and put it into context with the over-all WW unit. Activity: Lecture/discussion: Prisoners of War in WW II including the formulation of a set of questions for which the students will seek answers through the upcoming tour of the BUS-eum exhibit Teacher’s Resources: http://www.TRACES.org. Enemies Within; Only the Least of Me is Hostage, Vol. I and Vol. II; the section of the Geneva Convention dealingwith the imprisonment and treatment of prisoners of war.
Day 2	Objective: Students will learn what it meant to be a POW in Germany during WW II through the primary information and artifacts contained in the exhibit. Activity:BUS-eum tour
Day 3	Objective: Students will examine the information andperspectives obtained through the BUS-eum tour in order to more fully understand and apply those. Activity:Class discussion, including but not limited to discussion of their questions and the answers they found.Student Resource: printouts from www.TRACES.org
Day 4	Objective: Each student will prepare to do an interview project to gain primary project to gain primary information on World War II. Activity: Each student will receive instructions and prepare materials so that he/she will be able to complete the interview project Resource:The American Veterans’ History Project Packet
Project: (allow 5-7 days while other WW II activities continue during class time)	Each student is to conduct and tape an interview with 1. a U.S. veteran of WW II or 2. someone else who was living during WW II and make a 10-minute presentation to the class talking about what he/she learned from the interview using clips from (but not the entire) tape as support or examples.
Days 5, 6, 7 Assessment	Objective: Each student will make a ten-minute presentation to the class in order to demonstrate what he/she has learned about WW II and in order to share that information with the other members of the class. Activity: Class presentations (time needed depending on class size)

ASSESSMENT RUBRIC

Class Presentation and Video Taped Interview

Outstanding (A)	The student completed an interview with either a Veteran of WW II or someone else who remembers WW II; the interview is 20-30 minutes in length; the student prepared questions for the interview and conducted it in profession manner which resulted in excellent commentary from the subject; the student made a presentation in class which lasted from 8-10 minutes; the student effectively summarized what the subject said during the interview; the student included in the presentation clips from the video to add interest and support to the summary; the student spoke in such a way as to make the presentation interesting to the class; the student obtained and presented information from a primary source that extends his/her understanding of WW II in a meaningful way
Good (B)	The student completed an interview with either a Veteran of WW II or someone else who remembers WW II; the interview is 20-30 minutes in length; the student prepared questions for the interview and conducted it appropriately to gain information about WW II; the student made a presentation in class which lasted from 8-10 minutes; the student summarized the interview; the student included film clips the student spoke reasonably well so that everyone could hear; the student obtained and presented information from a primary source, which was effective, but might have made greater depth in the way it supplement his/her understanding of WW II.
Acceptable (C)	The student completed an interview with either a Veteran of WW II or someone else who remembers WW II; the interview is 15-30 minutes in length; the student prepared some questions, but could have used more or could have used questions that elicited more thorough responses; the student conducted the interview; the student gained information about WW II, but that information might be more extensive or more about the actual war; the student made a presentation in class, but it may have been somewhat longer or shorter than the required time limit; the student summarized the interview, but not as fully as he/she might have done or covered it almost word for word instead of summarizing; the student included film clips, but those might have been selected for stronger impact or support of the summary; the student needs some work to improve his/her speaking style, but everyone was able to understand the information; the student obtained and presented information from a primary source about WW II but needed to gain more information or to gain a somewhat different type of information.

NOTE: The completed videotapes along with the necessary paper work required by the Veterans’ history project may be sent directly to the American Folklife Center (address contained in their packet). The materials may also be sent to TRACES (see www.TRACES.org for mailing information. A third choice is to house the videos at your community’s public library and to send the biographical information sheets to the American Folklife center so that they may record the names of the veterans and where the information is available to the public.

Prepared by Patricia Schultz, BA, MA, University of Northern Iowa. 32 years of high-school teaching experience. Two years experience as Secondary Curriculum Director: Clear Lake (Iowa) Community Schools. For further information or assistance with this unit, contact Ms. Schultz at pals42@earthlink.net or by phone at 641.696.3483.

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