Announcing World War II

In this unit, students get an overview of World War II while practicing their listening skills. They focus on selected events and situations from World War II that correspond with those that occur in the novel, Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson. This unit can be used as a companion to a Beacon language arts unit, Jacob Have I Loved – A Novel Study and a science unit, Twin Traits, or can be used as a separate, stand-alone social studies unit. These events and situations revolve around how America reacted to the adversity of war. Student groups create radio broadcasts about these events and situations, which they present to the whole class. The class, as the audience for these broadcasts, uses their listening skills to gather pertinent information on these events or situations, which will allow them to succeed on the summative assessment for the unit. The summative assessment mirrors the short- and extended-response items on the FCAT. The extended response section asks students to answer the question: How did America react to the adversities of World War II?