World War II Espionage

 

Designed by
Patrick Adams
J. Covington, Oak Lawn, IL 60453  

Introduction | Content Areas | Standards | Implementation | Resources | Evaluation | Variations | Conclusion

This unit will cover the state goals dealing with political systems, economics, history, and geography. It is a problem based approach which students will enjoy.

This lesson covers the rise of Hitler and his government's policies in Germany. The question students will answer is 'Why should America be involved with the problems in Europe?'  Students will role play the parts of secret agents in 1939 and their mission will be to gather intelligence about Hitler and his plans.

This lesson involves world history and  language arts at the sixth grade level. It may also be used at fifth grade or higher.

• State goals 14, 15, 16, and 17 are addressed for Social Studies at the late elementary level
• Students will learn about different political systems, rights of citizens, changes in U.S. foreign policy, and human rights issues

Students will be working with a partner for this project. They will will use critical thinking skills to gather information, sort out what they need, analyze it and then create their own reports and a graphic organizer (a poster with pictures and captions) to be used in a class presentation. The lesson will take about three weeks teaching in 45 minute blocks. It will take more time if students did not read a novel about this time period in language arts class to gain some background information. The more role playing done in class as secret agents the more successful the unit will be for the students. The student role is as follows.

Here is your Mission:
    You will be inserted into Germany by parachute to gather intelligence . Once you have done your work you will be extracted from the city of Bonn by a small plane.  Once you are back on U.S. soil you will brief the President.

Your team will work together and both of you will:

• develop a separate report explaining why the U.S. needs to become involved in WWII in Europe.
• create one color picture web organizer, between the two of you, explaining your written report in pictures with short captions. You may draw the pictures on your own or use computer printed pictures.

Your report must include answers to the following questions.

• What problems does Germany have after WWI and why?
• How do these problems help Hitler gain power?
• What is Hitler's plan? Will he try to expand the country of Germany? If so what is he going to do?
•  What do you recommend the United States Government do about Germany's policies?

You and your partner will need to do research and discover the secret answers to the above questions.

Remember, if you are caught by the German High Command the U.S. Government will deny your existence.
Good Luck!

General "Reach for the Sky" Adams

• a class set of social studies books with a chapter on WWII
• library books about WWII
• a 3 week time period in your plans with 45 minute blocks of time
• class note taking skills
• one teacher with knowledge of the World War II time period

• a class set of novels about WWII ( The Devils Arithmetic or Number of the Stars)
• Teach as a language arts unit  prior to teaching it in social studies class
• internet access
• computer access for Hyper studio projects, Claris slide shows, or Power point presentations
• movies (Devils Arithmetic, Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful, or others)
• badges for each student for security clearance
• banners around the class about top secret activities
• inserts made on Print Shop for badges
• file folder marked top secret for each team with their mission outlined for them and for keeping their documents
• podium for the presentations
• Yahooligans http://www.yahooligans.com/
• World Book Online http://www.worldbookonline.com/
• The History Channel http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/index.html

You will know this unit is successful because you will be able to observe the students progress as they do their research and create their graphic organizer. The students will be developing a report explaining why the U.S. needs to become involved in WWII in Europe, and creating one color picture web organizer. You may create a rubric to grade each part of the unit, the report, the web organizer, and the class presentation. If you would like you may create this rubric together as a class or on your own.

If you are ambitious you may create multiple roles for the students to play besides secret agents.

Students will retain this knowledge and enjoy learning about history because it is designed to be interactive and uses a problem solving approach. The students are responsible for their own learning and only need the teacher as a guide on their journey.