Popular Culture & the United States Home Front during WWII

For my final project, I would like to incorporate popular culture into a unit designed to teach students about the United States Home Front during World War II.

I am going to research this area, & I have done so a little bit already. I would really like to focus on rationing, the role of women (employment, housewives, "Baby Boom", etc.), and the role of minorities. I have found some background information on Wikipedia so far, but I need to look for other resources still.

To give you some background on the 3 areas I intend to cover, here is a brief overview. Again, this is from Wikipedia, so I will be able to go more in depth once I gather more information.

Rationing - Many products were not being made/built during WWII such as vehicles, and new homes & appliances. Other products like meat, butter, sugar, coffee, gasoline, tires, shoes & clothing were all rationed. Each person received a coupon book. Many people supported this idea, but there people called the 'black marketeers' who were buying these items without their coupon book. These people were prosecuted by the government.

Roles of Women - Women started working more, & this is when the "Rosie the Riveter" was first introduced. The women were now working jobs that were usually only held by men. Being a housewife was becoming difficult while certain products were being rationed, and many women found it difficult to juggle both the housewife role and a job. The "Baby Boom" also came around in this time period, since many couples waited to marry until after the war. From 1941-late 1950s, is considered the Baby Boom era.



Role of Minorities - The FEPC was created, which stands for the Fair Employment Practices Committee, which allowed for minorities to hold jobs, regardless of their race or religion. The Japanese Internment Camps were being held in the United States, however this ended later when the Roosevelt stated, "Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry."

These ideas I would like to touch upon & use to create my unit. I may go more in depth with some areas more so than others. This is just a general idea of the information I wish to include.
I will then relate these issues to popular culture today, by the activities we do in class, after learning these lessons.

Some ideas for activities:
1. Rationing - I will have my students ration what they use today on a daily basis within the home & classroom. I will give them a ration book, just like during WWII, with coupons they are able to use. I am still thinking as to what items I would want them to ration.

2. Roles of Women - I will have my students compare and contrast the jobs today, with the jobs women held during WWII, and write a paper about this. This area could also get into more issues regarding appropriate dress and behavior of women during this time.

3. Roles of Women - I would like my students to create a blog of a typical male/female's life during WWII, up until their age of about 12 or 13 years old. I would like them to compare what the child does in their life, with what the student does in his or her own. (This activity is still in the making. I'm not sure where I want to go with it yet!)

4. Minorities - I think it would be fun to hold a simulation in class, of what it would be like to be in an internment camp, to a certain extent. I would have my students go through things, not torture, but other forms of punishment. Like, no recess, staying in their seats for a certain about of time, etc. (This activity is still in the making too.)

These are a few activities I have in mind. I hope to think of others as I start doing more research. This is the schedule I hope to follow in the next few weeks:

Week of March 24th-28th: Look for/get resources online & in the library.
Week of March 31st- April 4th: Think of lesson ideas for each content area.
Week of April 7th-11th: Work on Lessons for Rationing
Week of April 14th-18th: Work on Lessons for Roles of Women
Week of April 21st-25th: Work on Lessons for Minorities
April 28th-29th: Put bibliography together & do any final touches to the paper.

Hopefully I'll be able to follow this schedule somewhat. I will try to start my research next week, but this is what it will be like once Spring Break is over.