Gallery Walk Lesson Plan

Americans During WWII

Mr. Sergent

Unit Essential Question: What kind of opportunities and hardships did war create for Americans at home and
abroad?
Learning Targets:
I will identify how going to war impacted the lives of all Americans and opportunities provided to them.
I will identify the sacrifice of Americans made on the home front for the war effort.
I will identify how our wartime economy played a role in our victory in WWII.

Procedure:
Day 1-2
Anticipatory Set

While students enter they will be given a number, this number will dictate what group they are
in. The classroom will be broken up into these 8 groups and labeled well enough for them to find
their group.
Students will view the musical clip from Captain America titled The Man with a Plan
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxRKwKJI_uI) as they enter the room. This clip is a pop
culture hit with American youths but also represents the American wartime need for money
through bonds.
Primary Source Analysis Worksheets will be already placed on group desks
Go over daily learning targets/agenda

Gallery Walk Activity

10800 S Saginaw St, Grand Blanc, MI 48439: Grand Blanc Weld Tool Center

Break up students into 8 groups; this will result in groups of 3-4 students.
Instruct students to pick a LEADER, a READER, and a TECHNOLOGY EXPERT
Roles:
Leader To lead the group from station to station and keep the group on task. To also
monitor the time.
Reader To read the excerpts from the website after scanning the QR code
Technology Expert To download a QR reader on their phone, and upon arriving to a
station will take a picture and load the QR code. Then proceed to analyze the picture

Gallery Walk Activity continued

Model for students the process of the Gallery Walk on front projector:
Instruct them on how to access the QR code, how to format their lined sheet of paper, and
what is expected of them as a GROUP and as an INDIVIDUAL. Stress the importance of
individual QUIET observation during Primary Source Analysis Worksheet, then GROUP
DISCUSSION during the reading of the excerpt and answering of question.

Groups will already be located at a station, they are to begin at this time. Each group will have 810 minutes at each station to complete their task. (Cheesy, traditional art gallery music will play
overhead)

Groups will rotate until they have completed all the stations or until the end of the hour.

Day 3
Anticipatory Set

Quick Write: As students enter the classroom they will have a prompt on the board to begin
thinking, and answering, the following question. What are some opportunities and hardships
you have endured in your life, or someone you know endured in their life? You will have the
OPPORTUNITY to share this IF YOU WANT. You will not be required
Identify what an opportunity and hardship are, create a working classroom definition for both.
Using the previous days activity as an example, model for students how one of the primary
sources exemplifies a hardship or opportunity for the focused group of Americans. (Station 7 or
Station 8 would be best for this activity)

Organizational Chart
Students will use Chapter 35 in their textbook to identify the opportunities and hardships that
African Americans, Mexican Americans, Jewish Americans, Japanese Americans, Women in
America, and American soldiers experienced during World War II.
They will record their answers in the organizational chart (attached below) with AT LEAST 4 to
5 complete sentences for each group under Opportunity AND Hardship.
Students may complete this in pairs to collaborate. While students are working I will move about
the room conducting formative assessment of misconceptions.

Rationale:

Presenting the chapter information in a gallery walk format allows students to build on their primary
source analysis skills by visually identify and working through Blooms Taxonomy of thinking. The primary
source analysis tool requires students to first identify, then to apply, and finally to critically think about the
visual primary source. Upon completion of this thinking they will then relate to the lesson by using a common
component in their life, technology, to scan a QR code that will lead them to a webpage of my creation. This
webpage provides the student with more background information of the photos where they will then be
presented with a prompt allowing them to apply their thinking to a question relevant to the school curriculum.
This process of thinking allows students to build on multiple skill levels such as teamwork, identify information
visually with a rubric, critically thinking about this visual information and applying it to our unit of study, and
finally connecting their knowledge to a unit question that meets state standards and benchmarks. It also
provides myself with a formative assessment of the student regarding these skills, and their knowledge of the
content. The hardships and opportunities chart allows my students to develop skills on how to properly note
take and dissect a chapter pulling out information that is pertinent to our unit of study. It also will allow students
to create empathy for the ethnic groups in American that faced hardship during this era and prepares my
students with the necessary knowledge in future units so they may connect the dots on why societal and policy
changes occurred in the 1950s and beyond.
The conclusion of my activity requires students to apply their skill of analyzing primary sources and also
their knowledge of hardships endured by ethnic groups in America to demonstrate their understanding of the
unit objectives, and essential question. This will not be a summative assessment but instead a formative
assessment. The alternative assessment that can be given would be an authentic assessment in which students
will need to demonstrate their understanding of the hardships endured by Japanese Americans during WWII
while analyzing a political cartoon drawn by Dr. Seuss.

Forms of Assessment: Formative Observation, Organizational Chart, Primary Source Analysis Tool;
Summative Authentic Assessment
Resources needed: Projector, computer, Primary Source Analysis Sheet (32copies), Printout of Station pictures,
Hardships/Opportunities Printout (150 copies), student cell phone, pen, paper

Primary Source Analysis Tool

Americans At Home World War II

Station #1:
Observe

Is there anything that stands out from the rest of the pictures, documents?

What draws your attention first? Why?

Are there any clues that help you figure out what is going on in the primary source?

Think

Why do you think it is important?

What is the purpose of this primary source?

Was it sending a message or what was it trying to achieve?

Questions

If you were a character in this scene, what would you think or feel?

How is this primary source relevant to what we are studying/time period and even today?
Next, scan the QR code and follow the link to the attached site to read an
excerpt about the pictures and to answer an additional question.

Station #2-8
Repeat above steps/questions for each station.

Gallery Walk Lesson

Americans During WWII

Mr. Sergent

Essential Question: What kind of opportunities and hardships did war create for Americans at home and
abroad?

Learning Targets:
I will identify how going to war impacted the lives of all Americans and opportunities provided to them.
I will identify the sacrifice of Americans made on the home front for the war effort.
I will identify how our wartime economy played a role in our victory in WWII.

Rationale:
Presenting the chapter information in a gallery walk format allows students to build on their primary
source analysis skills by visually identify and working through Blooms Taxonomy of thinking. The primary
source analysis tool requires students to first identify, then to apply, and finally to critically think about the
visual primary source. Upon completion of this thinking they will then relate to the lesson by using a common
component in their life, technology, to scan a QR code that will lead them to a webpage of my creation. This
webpage provides the student with more background information of the photos where they will then be
presented with a prompt allowing them to apply their thinking to a question relevant to the school curriculum.
This process of thinking allows students to build on multiple skill levels such as teamwork, identify information
visually with a rubric, critically thinking about this visual information and applying it to our unit of study, and
finally connecting their knowledge to a unit question that meets state standards and benchmarks. It also
provides myself with a formative assessment of the student regarding these skills, and their knowledge of the
content.

Station #1

Station #2

Station #3

Station #4

Station #5

Station #6

Station #7

Station #8

Opportunities
American
GIs
going to
War

Japanese
Internme
nt

Women
at War

African
American
s fighting
for two
victories

Hardships

Jewish
American
s

Mexican
American
s