Target Audience: Grades 6-12
Subjects/Skills: History (World History classes, U.S. History classes)
Artifacts and personal stories can bring history to life, making the material more accessible to students and giving them a deeper connection with it. In partnership with the International Museum of World War II, GBH produced a collection of resources for PBS LearningMedia centered around using artifacts and primary sources to understand history. The collection includes several elements, all centered around learning and teaching with artifacts:
- An interactive lesson (IL) exploring wartime propaganda , “The Power of Propaganda in World War II,” in which students explore a variety of propaganda and are then asked to write an essay weighing the risks and benefits of propaganda.
- A series of videos on the varied roles of international women in World War II, specifically women in combat, on the job, and a broad look at women’s lives.
- An interactive game in which students learn about how young people experienced World War II; students choose from among 8 profiles and are presented with artifacts and context connected to the profile of their choosing.
- A series of professional development videos offering teachers frameworks and strategies for teaching with artifacts.
- Stand-alone artifact galleries to be used with students, offering supports for teachers to utilize the strategies presented in the PD video series.
Reach/Impact
Since publication in December 2018, the collection has been viewed by over 60,000 users and garnered more than 100,000 pageviews.
An attendee to a webinar for educators about the collection said...
I really like the format of the resources, with outlines, questions, videos, and interactives. Clearly this was well-researched, and leads to easy teaching!
Contact Us: education@wgbh.org.