Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic, World War II, and supports the standard of analyzing the major issues of World War II. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of creative projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • What do you know about World War II?
  • Who do you think fought in World War II? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read aloud the description on the World War II topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding.
  • Assign one of the five Related Reading articles to each student. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the  World War II Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4:  DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about World War II while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie:  Create a documentary answering this question: What were the major events in World War II
  • Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying causes of major events of World War II, and their effects. 
  • Creative Coding: Code a museum with artifacts that represent major events of World War II. 

More to Explore

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of World War II with these topics: World War II Causes, Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Franklin D. Roosevelt

Time Zone X: World War IIChallenge players to put historical events in chronological order in this interactive timeline game.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments