World War II

Group Portfolio Project

In your assigned collaborative learning groups, you will be creating a portfolio on one of the following themes for World War II.

Each group will choose one of the following themes: (one theme per group)—words beneath the theme are vocabulary terms assigned that must appear in the writing assignments included in portfolio. There are other content elements in your textbook section on the theme that you should include as well, but the terms listed are required to appear in the three or four writing pieces.

  1. The Home Front
  2. War Production Board
  3. Rationing
  4. War Bonds
  5. Braceros
  6. Tuskegee Airmen
  7. “Rosie the Riveter”
  1. Internment of Japanese Americans
  2. Nisei
  1. War in Africa
  2. General Erwin Rommel
  3. General Dwight D. Eisenhower
  1. War in Europe
  2. Stalingrad
  3. D-Day
  4. Battle of the Bulge
  1. War Ends in Europe
  2. V-E Day
  3. Yalta Conference
  4. Holocaust
  1. War in the Pacific
  2. Battle of Midway
  3. Island hopping
  4. Guadalcanal
  5. Code Talkers
  6. Kamikaze
  1. Atomic Bomb
  2. Manhattan Project
  3. Hiroshima
  4. Attempts at World Peace
  5. Potsdam Conference
  6. Nuremberg Trials
  7. United Nations
  1. Changes in America and the World
  2. G.I. Bill of Rights

Your American History textbook should be your ONLY source for information-you must start with the textbook because all the themes and vocabulary are based solely from your textbook. Information for each of these themes can be found in Chapter 26 (pages 813-837)

If you feel you need to learn a little bit more about your topic to best write your creative historical fiction piece-then you may ONLY use one of the websites listed below:

  • PBS: The War:
  • National WWII Museum: (they have a section for students under the Learn tab but this site is great for accurate images)
  • The Library of Congress: (you will have to use the search bar to find your topic. This site is also an excellent resource for accurate images)
  • The U.S. Holocaust Museum:
  • The AZ State Department Virtual Reference Library: (best sources for use are: World Book and U.S. History in Context)

Be careful using Google image search or any other search engine for images because there are many, many inaccurate WWII images on the internet. For accurate images, use one of the provided sources as accuracy is part of your grade.

Each of you will choose ONE piece of writing you would like to complete for the group portfolio.

  • Each portfolio will include one of each of the following types of writing. Each group member must submit 1 of the writing options—there should not be 2 poems in a portfolio, for example. If you have a group of 4, there will be 4 pieces of writing, and if you have a group of 3, there will be 3 pieces of writing. It is up to you which type you would like to contribute, as long as there is a different type of writing from each student in the group.
  • 1 Poem
  • 1 Editorial (Persuasive)
  • Formal letter to the editor of a newspaper arguing on one side of an issue
  • 1 informal/friendly Letter
  • 1 Journal Entry

Length for individual works:

  • Poem must be a minimum of 16 lines and each line must have a minimum of 4 words. If you’d like to have more than 16 lines and include lines with less than 4 words, you may do so, as long as the minimum requirements are present.
  • Editorial, letter, and journal entry must all be a minimum of 1 complete page-however, if your handwriting is large, you might want to extend to a page and a half. This will be a total of two paragraphs, with each paragraph being 8-10 sentences. However, you may break up the paragraphs into more than 2 with a shorter number of sentences. The end result should still be 16-20 sentences.

All work must be bound together in a binder or a folder (with the prongs in the middle—do NOT put work into folder pockets and expect to turn in for credit). Stapling it all together in a packet will also not count for a portfolio. You are encouraged to use creativity in the portfolio presentation.

  • You also must have a table of contents that identifies the name of each piece of writing with the student name as the author. You should also put page numbers at the bottom right of each page and identify that page number in the table of contents as well.

You must include a cover sheet in your portfolio with the following:

  • Artwork
  • Title of portfolio-needs to state the theme: use the assigned topic as your title
  • Names of students in group

Please be CREATIVE! You can handwrite your assignment; however, it must still be legible. You must also include pictures and/or drawings to accent your work. Your written work must be ORIGINAL-written/created by you. It is acceptable to print pictures/photos and glue them in to the portfolio as you are not required to draw them yourself.

Individual Portion Due: ______

Group Portfolio Due: ______

Total Points: 50

World War II

Portfolio Project

Rubric

WWII Portfolio Project

Rubric

______Ideas & Content (10)

Your content should be historically accurate to your topic and to World War II. The ideas should be original work and should reflect the historical time period.

______Word Choice (10)

The vocabulary should be relevant to World War II and the chosen topic. Words can be misspelled…within reason to make your work original and creative.

______Voice (10)

Your voice should reflect the unique voice of the time period-WWII: the 1930s-1940s. Your work should be unique and original to you.

______/30 (Individual Grade)

______/20 Creativity & Organization (Group Grade)

All work should be creative and organized in a portfolio for presentation and display.

______/50 Total Points