The Atomic Bomb

The Atomic Bomb

Author(s):
Korry Sherrow


Grade Level:
11th grade U.S. History

Timeframe:
1 class period – 50 minutes long

Lesson Description or Explanation
Students will begin by sitting through a very brief introduction to the Atomic bomb used at the end of World War II. This intro will give the basic and necessary knowledge, figures, and events surrounding the Atomic bomb. After given this knowledge, a FACT/OPINION worksheet will be distributed to review the content that they just heard, in which students will be given many statements and are required to list them as a fact or a simple opinion (one that is common to the different sides of the issue). This worksheet will ultimately help them shape their thoughts and ideas for the final assessment piece of the lesson. The students will go online to a newspaper article database and search for actual articles written from the days immediately following the dropping of the bomb (both Japanese and American articles). With these articles and the worksheet’s statements in mind, they will then create their own newspaper articles reporting from the scene in Japan, one from an American paper and another from Japan. Presentations are welcomed but not necessary.

Indiana Curricular Standards
Standard 5: The United States and World War II—Examining the causes of World War II, the effects of the war on American culture and society, and the consequences for United States’ involvement in world affairs.


ISTE Standards
Standard 1: Basic operations and concepts
Standard 2: Social, ethical, and human issues

Assessments
Formative/Summative
Formative: there will be many tiny assessments going on throughout the lesson that will judge students’ understandings as we move along. The FACT/OPINION worksheet will assess the students’ understandings of the previous brief lecture on the Atomic bomb. Searching the database for articles will assess the students technological understandings of research.
Summative: the end results assessment of this lesson are the self-created articles written by the students from both sides of the event. Some students will be given the opportunity to present these in a reporter-style fashion (possibly for some extra credit), but each of them will eventually turn them in for assessment. A good article will touch on each side’s thoughts and feelings towards the event.

Prior Knowledge
Curricular Knowledge or Skills: A generalized understanding of the events of WWII that lead up to the dropping of the Atomic bomb.
Technology Knowledge: How to use a primary source database to search for example news articles, helping them form their own creative articles.

Technology
Internet Resources: (please list URLs)
http://access.newspaperarchive.com
Hardware: computers with internet access
Software:

Procedure
5 minutes—A brief lecture session on the facts and figures of the events involving the Atomic
bomb.
5 minutes—A FACT/OPINION worksheet handed out with questions and statements over the
previous lecture. The OPINION statements of the worksheets will come in to play later when the students will use them to help form their own newspaper articles.
20 minutes—students will get online to the above listed internet database and search for example articles to help guide them.
10 minutes—Students will use the opinions and other background knowledge gained from the previous steps in order to write their own articles. One article is to be written from the standpoint of a Japanese journalist, while another one is from the viewpoint of an America writer.
10 minutes—Students will be asked to share their creations. They have the opportunity to read them aloud to the rest of the class, or for the more outgoing, they could also pretend as if they were a reporter live on the scene and report from their (either Japan or America).

Differentiated Instruction
ESL
This lesson could be used for any self-exploratory activity in which online research would be used to guide a student’s learning. Instead of requiring everyone to research the Japanese/American side of this particular WWII event, I could assign the ESL students to research a different event (one that was already covered in a previous unit or one to be covered later), an event that would reach closer to his/her native country and language in order to enhance engagement.

Challenge/Extend
I could require every student seeking a challenge to present their piece of journalism to the class. Students would have to role play as if they were on the scene of the bombing and reporting just like an actual reporter would on the news today.

Special Needs
I could adapt this lesson into a partner activity in which a stronger student would be paired with a slightly weaker student in order to help with the research portion, along with the creative portion. This would give the stronger students a sense of being a “mentor” while giving the weaker students a good sense of producing a quality product.
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