Skip to main content

Teacher Resources

How Important is Industrial Production During War?

Goal:

To evaluate the importance of war production by analyzing primary documents from World War II.

Prior Knowledge Needed:

Students must understand the concept of industrialization.

  1. One day prior to starting the lesson ask the students to define “industrialization” on a piece of paper.
  2. Collect each sheet.
  3. At home read over the student responses.
  4. Determine by the student responses if you need to give the students a 5 minutes lesson on industrialization.

Lessons

War Production Webpage

  1. Objectives:
    1. Understand the significance was wartime production in the outcome of the war.
    2. Create a persuasive letter to send to factories telling them the important role they play in the war effort.
  2. Procedures:
    1. Break students into pairs or small discussion groups.
    2. Students will follow the direction (and website) to complete the assignments.
    3. The teacher can make this activity into stations.
    4. The teacher can create 2 stations. One activity at each station around the room.
    5. Make sure that each station has a enough photocopies of the activity for each member in the group
  3. Timeframe:
    • One to two class periods

Labor Webpage

  1. Objectives:
    1. Evaluate the role labor has in a national effort to win a war.
    2. Examine the increase of shipyard workers between 1935 and 1942.
    3. Investigate the effect women had on homefront war production.
    4. Inspect the increased need for skilled workers in N.J.
  2. Procedures:
    1. Complete all of the following activities. Students may complete the assignments individually or in small discussion groups. They do not need to be completed in order.
    2. The teacher can make this activity into stations.
    3. The teacher can create 4 stations. One activity at each station around the room.
    4. Make sure that each station has a enough photocopies of the activity for each member in the group.
  3. Timeframe:
    • One or two class periods.

Propaganda Webpage

  1. Objectives:
    1. Examine propaganda posters as they relate to war production, labor, and women.
    2. Create a propaganda poster relating to the importance of war production, labor, and women.
  2. Procedures:
    1. Have the students examine the propaganda posters and answer the two questions below.
    2. Break the students up into pairs. Each pair will create their own propaganda poster relating to war industry, the relationship between labor, management and/or government, and women in the workforce.
    3. Possible criteria:
      • must have a picture/drawing that is attention grabbing
      • must have a caption explaining/inferring the message of the poster
      • must be neat and orderly, easy to understand
  3. Timeframe:
    • Half period for analyzing the posters.
    • Two to two and a half class periods to create the poster.

Final Assessment

  1. Have the students create a portfolio with all the information they have gathered and answers to the questions.
  2. Students will write an evaluation paper dealing with the importance of industry and labor during World War II. They must show evidence of their evaluation in the paper. The paper should be 1-3 pages in length depending on the grade level.

Additional links for teachers/students