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Making WWII History Feel Real with The National WWII Museum 3/4

Becca Horowitz

Each year, WWII feels a little farther away from our students’ lived experience. At the same time, it's easy for students to see the war as something that was bound to happen—and bound to end the way it did.

  • How do you push back on both distance and inevitability?
  • Do you center personal stories, letters, or oral histories?
  • Highlight moments of uncertainty or turning points?
  • Explore the choices individuals and nations faced in real time?
  • Use simulations or role-play to surface real dilemmas?

On March 4 at 7 pm ET (Zoom), educators from The National WWII Museum will share classroom-ready resources focused on the American experience of the war as well as its causes and consequences.

Point right Register here: www.oerproject.com/.../Event-Registration

Before we gather, what’s worked for you in helping students bring historical thinking skills to the causes and consequences of World War II--without flattening this history into an inevitability?

  • The Political Party Platform activity is a great one for helping students understand why the promises of the Nazi party may have sounded appealing at the onset, given the historical context of the Great Depression.

  • The WWII legacy seminar tonight was really good.  What an amazing resource the WWII Museum is.  I was there in 2008 when it was just the "D-Day" museum.  I need to go back!  When it comes to WWII history in my classes, I tend to focus on highlighting personal stories and the oral histories.  There are some great websites which contain letters from various conflicts, and I find these to be the most impactful on students researching and learning about something that happened SO LONG ago.  In my American History through War class, we have units which investigate the Medal of Honor recipients, and have a unit where the students write authentic letters from their choice of eras.  In the letter writing unit, one of the ways I convince kids that these skills matter is by telling them about a real career field-  Hollywood authenticity expert!  A modern movie set has one or a full team of people who are tasked with making the actors look and sound as if they were from that period of time being depicted.  That's a cool job, right??  

    It's still a work in progress, but I'm also dabbling with a "choose your own adventure" WWII story, of course being helped with AI, but in the style of the books from the 80s that we're so dang popular with my gen.  Imagine a Google Slides Adventure, where you click choices to find out if you make it off Omaha Beach or not.

  • Part of hooking students into the study of WWII is looking at the personal stories of soldiers. The National WWII Museum has a great collection of oral histories that are excerpted for classroom use.  And more cynically, looking at what's happening in the world right now, the unprovoked war with Iran, and the current ignoring of international protocols and processes that were put into place at the end of WWII such as the UN and the Geneva Conventions make it easy to bring WWII into focus. 

    I had the good fortune to be a part of the National WWII Museum's programming a couple years ago that focused on highlighting war in the Pacific and using oral history, which does seem overlooked in world history classes overall. It's such an amazing resource.  Their From Collections to the Classroom sets are really wonderful resources for teachers who are tight on time, and their specialty collections on specific topics such as Women in WWII.  There are so many resources that are there! https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers

    I've also been on their Educator Advisory Board.  They are currently looking for new advisory members, and this is a really great way to get involved if you have a passion for teaching about WWII. It seems more important than ever for students to understand the toll and devastation this war had on the world, and why we don't want to be involved in escalating conflicts around the world.