Social Studies: WW1 on the Home front

Activity: World War 1 on the Home front

Learning Outcome: Students will understand what was it like to live in the U.S. in WW1 in the context of their local community and how it relates to the state and country.

Time Allotted: 2 hours

Activities: Students were first introduced to the vocabulary list and then asked to show which countries were involved in the war on the map. Clips from Niall Ferguson's War of the Worlds was shown to give a background on the start of the war. Audio files were played of Archduke Ferdinand's death and funeral and first hand accounts of the war. Music samplings were also heard. Students then discussed what was happening in Europe with what was happening in America. Timelines of America's wars from 1861 (War between the States) to entry in WW1 (1917) were shown and discussed. Questions such as "Why did the US not get involved in 1914?" and "How did the war affect the average household?" were discussed. Students discussed the sinking of the Lusitania and arms running. Students discussed income levels between New York union workers, Detroit auto workers, and Rural farm workers. Students discussed inflation between 1914 and 2014 (2,208% btw) and what the gold standard means. Students then learned about rationing in the US and Britain; created their own ration book and discussed menu planning. Students were divided into 'family units' and given a weeks rations to create a menu from. Students worked collaboratively to break down an average 2014 weeks menu and see what ingredients they would need to purchase, then went to a historic grocery and checked the costs. Discussions on rationing, home economics, and women's roles took place in the store. Students discussed the benefits and problems associated with keeping a garden and animals during the war and also discussed social standing and problems that arose in their local community because of them. Students then took a WW1 recipe for an eggless, milkless, butterless cake and baked/taste-tested it. Discussions on emergency shelter and legal penalties for breaking regulations were discussed. Video clips of PBS's Frontier House, BBC's Victorian Farm, and PBS's 1940's House were shown. Replica newspapers and pamphlets were passed out and discussed. Class ended with students huddled in a closet, all lights out, and the sounds of a zeppelin attack echoing around them.

Assessment: More time needed. This could easily have been a week long class with more in depth coverage on each topic. As it is we merely scrapped the surface. Students did have a better understanding of what specific families and women in particular had to contend with during the war years, however, we did not get to adequately discuss the difference between lives on the US home front and British home front; namely, the scale of destruction in the UK and Europe. Program worked well with the students learning styles. Would have been more engaging to see/hear more first hand accounts from our geographical area to really hit home with the students.

Learning Style: Blended, face-to-face with technological resources added (video & sound).

Pictures:

WW1 Cake Making

Making Ration Books