An APUSH Topics 7.11, 7.12, 7.13 Lesson Plan

A Student-Centered Approach Allowing For the Use of ChatGPT

The lesson plan that follows seeks to provide my 100+ APUSH students with a chance to use ChatGPT to explore the topic of World War II while working in small groups. I intend to use this lesson plan, for the first time, in class tomorrow and anticipate that it will take an hour and a half to complete.

Objective:

To provide students with a student-centered opportunity to learn what they need to learn as it relates to each of the below-listed APUSH CED topics:

• Topic 7.11 ‘Interwar Foreign Policy,’
• Topic 7.12 ‘World War II: Mobilization,’
• Topic 7.13 ‘World War II: Military.’

By “student-centered,” I mean that students will need to learn the necessary content on their own, as there will be no interactive slideshow lectures provided.

Expected Outcomes:

Students will be able to:

1. Describe America From 1931 to the Start of WWII: The student’s description should include mention of the following terms: Great Depression, New Deal, Isolationism, Neutrality Acts, Lend-Lease Act, Pearl Harbor Attack, and mobilization.
2. Describe African Americans During WWII: The student’s description should include mention of the following terms: Double V Campaign, Tuskegee Airmen, Executive Order 8802, Great Migration, war industries and labor opportunities, and segregation in the military.
3. Describe Women During WWII: The student’s description should include mention of the following terms: Rosie the Riveter, WACs, WAVES, War Production Board, labor shortages, rationing, war bonds, and Victory Gardens.
4. Describe Japanese Americans During WWII: The student’s description should include mention of the following terms: Executive Order 9066, Internment Camps, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Korematsu v. United States (1944).
5. Mexican Americans During World War II: 38th Infantry Division, Bracero Program, military service, migration, segregation in the military.
6. Native Americans During World War II: Navajo Code Talkers, Home Front contributions.
7. Describe American Military Strategy During WWII: Europe First Strategy, D-Day (Normandy Invasion), Island Hopping, Manhattan Project, Battle of Midway, Pacific and European Theater, Allied and Axis powers.
8. Describe Two Key Decisions by FDR During World War II: Four Freedoms Speech (1941), Executive Order 9066, and the internment of Japanese Americans (1942).
9. Describe Two Key Decisions by Harry Truman During World War II: The dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and the dropping of the second bomb on Nagasaki three days later (1945)

Methodology:

Students will work in groups of up to five and, while in those groups, have the freedom to access and utilize sources of their choice. These sources may include the textbook, information obtained through internet searches, or insights gathered from AI platforms like ChatGPT.

With fifteen minutes remaining in the class period, I will facilitate a knowledge-sharing activity. During this activity, one student from each group will be chosen to present what they have learned about one of the assigned topics.

Sidenote #1:

As mentioned at the outset of this post, I anticipate the lesson to take an hour and a half. Yet, given the breadth of topics, I wouldn’t be surprised if the students find it super challenging to learn what they need to learn in that timeframe.

Sidenote #2:

Typically, I’d conclude a lesson like this by administering some kind of assessment, if only to evaluate how effectively students have grasped the material.

At the moment, though, I’m not planning to go that route. But, I will give it some thought and if I do change my mind, I will probably do so by instructing the students to visit Class Companion a few days from now to respond to a set of Short Answer Questions (SAQs). I’m thinking questions like this:

1. Briefly describe ONE factor that influenced America’s isolationist foreign policy during the interwar period.
2. Briefly describe ONE effect of the Great Migration on African Americans during World War II.
3. Briefly describe ONE key decision made by President Harry Truman during World War II.

Here’s how I’ll create and assign my SAQs

Here’s how I prompted the Class Companion AI:

For APUSH topic (insert topic # and topic title), please provide six APUSH-style SAQs. Ensure that whatever questions you produce draw from the question stems listed below, as these are the most common APUSH-style question stems according to the CED:

Briefly describe one major similarity between
Briefly describe one major
Briefly describe one specific historical difference between
Briefly describe one specific historical similarity between
Briefly explain how one specific historical event
Briefly explain how one specific historical development
Briefly describe ONE perspective
Briefly explain ONE historical perspective
Briefly explain how ONE event or development
Briefly explain ONE specific way
Briefly explain how ONE major historical factor
Briefly explain how ONE person
Briefly explain ONE specific outcome
Briefly explain ONE specific historical impact
Briefly explain ONE specific historical effect
Briefly explain ONE specific result
Briefly identify ONE distinct factor
Briefly explain ONE reason
Briefly explain how ONE circumstance
Briefly explain how ONE major historical factor