WWI and WWII for 8th grade

[Bokons]

I am using MFW Creation to the Greeks this year with ds 7th grade. He has already told me that next year for 8th grade, he would like to learn about WWII, so I thought that I could put together some resources for WWI and WWII, but focus on WWII since that is what he is interested in (and my older ds19 said that we can't really study WWII without learning about WWI first). 

What are some books and other resources that you would recommend for a whole year's study on WWII (or most of the year, as long as ds doesn't get bored)? 

Thanks so much!

[FairProspects]

This is essentially what we are doing this year. It's hard to completely describe because I'm a secondary history and English teacher, so honestly, I'm just teaching it. Some of the books we are using are:

Textbooks - Human Odyssey Vol. 3, SOTW 4, DBQ project mini-Qs in World History vol. 3

Novels/autobiographies/plays - The War Horse, The Diary of Anne Frank (both play and diary versions), The Devil's Arithmetic, Hitler's Canary, Under a War Torn Sky, Code Talker, Farewell to Manzanar, Year of the Impossible Goodbyes, The House of Sixty Fathers, and I'm debating The Book Thief.

With an advanced, less sensitive student, you could potentially also use Night or The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

The Great War YouTube channel is awesome.

Look for some of Lori D.'s posts  - she has very comprehensive lists of resources on these topics.

Edited October 25, 2018 by FairProspects

[Kareni]

In 9th grade, we used a hodgepodge of materials when my daughter covered the time period 1700 to 2000.

Here are the resources (non-fiction, literature, videos and music) that we used that cover from about 1900 through the WWII era.   Be aware that we are fairly liberal so some materials might not suit all families.

The Century for Young People by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster
Critical Thinking in United States History, Book Four, Spanish-American War to Vietnam War by Kevin O'Reilly
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Nutcracker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Mstislav Rostropovich conducting
Winsor McCay: The Master Edition (The Sinking of the Lusitania)
Claude Debussy: La Mer, Nocturnes, Jeux, The Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez conducting
The Battleship Potemkin (video)
'Broadway, Blues, and Truth' from RESPECT: A Century of Women in Music
Botchan by Soseki Natsume (translated by Umeji Sasaki)
Many Lives, Many Stories by Kathryn Abbott and Patricia Minter
Witness by Karen Hesse
Influenza 1918 (video from PBS)
New Orleans Rhythm Kings and Jelly Roll Morton
Antarctica by Walter Dean Myers
War Game by Michael Foreman
Mao Tse-Tung and His China by Albert Marrin
'The Butcher Boy', 'The Garage'and 'Rough House' from The Best Arbuckle Keaton Collection (video)
Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Women in Ragtime
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Charles A. Lindbergh: A Human Hero by James Cross Giblin
Inherit the Wind (video)
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
All Quiet on the Western Front (video)
The Depression and New Deal by Robert McElvaine
Cabaret (video)
Radio Comedy Classics: Jack Benny Program and Fred Allen Show
Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren
Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman
Rabbit-Proof Fence (video)
The Verse by the Side of the Road by Frank Ransome, Jr.
Elvis Presley title album
Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Fanfare for the Common Man (New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein)
1940s House (video)
Diary of Anne Frank
North to Freedom by Anne Holm

Regards,
Kareni

[Bokons]

Thank you, FairProspects, 

Those are great ideas, and I will look up LoriD's posts. I loved The Devil's Arithmetic! Did you know there is a movie based on the book? But of course, the book is way better. 

[Bokons]

Wow, Kareni, 

That's a huge list. I'll have fun going through all of those books to see what I would like to use with ds next year. He does not love reading, so I will have to try and find books that will interest him, or do some as read alouds. 

 

 

[ScoutTN]

We are doing late modern this year and among the books my 8th grader will read (that have not already been mentioned) are:

The Hiding Place

When My Name Was Keoko

Bohoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy (youth edition)

Sgt. York (1941 movie)

I am David (North to Freedom retitled)

also some picture books like Mercedes and The Chocolate Pilot. These we do all together since I have a younger student too.

 

[Kareni]

On 10/26/2018 at 2:28 PM, ballzy said:

That's a huge list. I'll have fun going through all of those books to see what I would like to use with ds next year. He does not love reading, so I will have to try and find books that will interest him, or do some as read alouds. 

I agree that it is a long list.  My daughter was a big reader though, so it worked for her.  Do note that there are also videos and music included in the list.

Best wishes to you both; it sounds like a great study.

8 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

I am David (North to Freedom retitled)

That book brings back memories as my grandmother read it to us when we were children.

Regards,
Kareni

[Ellie]

11 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Sgt. York (1941 movie)

And then y'all could also read the book. Sgt. York was actually involved with the movie. There were some changes from the book, but not enough to matter.

[cintinative]

Not for a full year, but to supplement: the OUP book series "A History in Documents"   They are composed of all primary source documents with brief descriptions between them. Note there are personal stories in these and some of them are disturbing. Most of them were available via interlibrary loan.

https://www.amazon.com/World-War-History-Documents-Pages/dp/0199731527   WWI

https://www.amazon.com/World-War-II-History-Documents/dp/019533812X  WWII

https://www.amazon.com/Hitler-Nazis-History-Documents-Pages/dp/0195152859  Hitler and the Nazis

They also have books on: Modern Japan, Revolutionary Russia, The Depression and the New Deal, The Soviet Union and Russia (1939-2015), etc.

A mostly complete list: 

https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/p/pages-from-history-ph/?cc=us&lang=en&

 

[Bokons]

Thanks, everyone for your suggestions! I'm glad that I have the opportunity to start planning now. I've never come up with our own thing to do before, so it'll be a learning experience for me. 

I can see that we'll be doing a lot of reading next year, and watching some videos. Other than having ds write reports and narrate, what are some fun and interesting things we could do with these resources, and ways to document his learning? 

[HollyDay]

The World Wars (Usborne)

Hakim's History of US (appropriate volumes)

Number the Stars

Snow Treasure

Hiroshima by John Hersey

It Began with a Parachute by Rang

There are other books we used and several dvds.  I'll check my bookshelf later.....

 

[merylvdm]

There is a Twitter account that tweets as if it was WW2 - https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII. It would be fun to follow that.

And I posted a host of ideas on fun projects in another thread in this section of the forum that is related to interactive history. I have taught WW2 at our local co-op and I have 2 unit studies I created on it and there is no shortage of material and cool things to do. There are a number of Choose Your Own adventure books for example. And there are some online games and simulations. You can put together a really awesome year that he will never forget!!

[Bokons]

On 11/21/2018 at 8:16 PM, HollyDay said:

The World Wars (Usborne)

Hakim's History of US (appropriate volumes)

Number the Stars

Snow Treasure

Hiroshima by John Hersey

It Began with a Parachute by Rang

There are other books we used and several dvds.  I'll check my bookshelf later.....

 

Thank you for the suggestions, HollyDay. 

On 11/25/2018 at 3:08 PM, merylvdm said:

There is a Twitter account that tweets as if it was WW2 - https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII. It would be fun to follow that.

And I posted a host of ideas on fun projects in another thread in this section of the forum that is related to interactive history. I have taught WW2 at our local co-op and I have 2 unit studies I created on it and there is no shortage of material and cool things to do. There are a number of Choose Your Own adventure books for example. And there are some online games and simulations. You can put together a really awesome year that he will never forget!!

 

Thank you, merylvdm. Your unit studies look great! Does it matter which one we do first for WWII? Too bad I missed your sale 🙂. 

[merylvdm]

19 hours ago, ballzy said:

Thank you for the suggestions, HollyDay. 

 

Thank you, merylvdm. Your unit studies look great! Does it matter which one we do first for WWII? Too bad I missed your sale 🙂. 

 

Not really - though  I supposed the Year by Year one would be good to get the overview of what happened and then you can get more specific with the Who's Who.