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Role of Women During WWII

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Subject: History, Social Studies

Lesson Length: 35 - 40 mins

Topic: World War II and Women’s Identity

Grade Level: 5

Standards / Framework:

Brief Description: Students will understand the impact women had on the developing identity of the United States as it emerged from WWII as a World Leader. 

Know Before You Start: Students should have an understanding of the daily life of women pre-World War II.

Hook:

  • Introduce Rosie the Riveter, her origins, and what she represents.
  • Explore the purpose of using Rosie the Riveter in propaganda.

Activity:

  • Research the different jobs that women were able to do during WWII that were not open to them prior to the war. 

  • Create a one-panel comic that illustrates a specific role women had during WWII, e.g., aircraft industry.

Closure:

  • Share and discuss student comics.
    • What did this mean for women in the United States?
    • How did their participation in the war effort change the identity of the United States moving forward?
  • Display student comics digitally or in print. 

Differentiation:

  • Preteach vocabulary.

  • Provide background knowledge of women’s rights pre-WWII.

  • Allow students to work with a peer model.

  • Provide sentence starters as needed.

  • Provide a list of jobs that women held.

Resources:

  • Comic to print or display: Comic. 

Suggested Content Packs:

Suggested Story Starters:

Related Ideas

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Students will learn about discrimination, prejudice, and the attempted genocide of Jewish people during the Holocaust and the years leading up to WWII.