Final

One unit I want to try to incorporate into a 20th Century United States history class is an examination of the use of cartoons in the propaganda machine. During World War II, the United States government all but took over the Disney animation studios, and used the studios to create numerous wartime propaganda cartoons. Similar action was taken at Warner Brothers and most of the major animation studios at the time. These cartoons had themes ranging from the dehumanization of the Nazis and the Japanese to appeals for Americans to buy war bonds. Because animated cartoons are a visual medium, the possible roles of technology in the unit are extensive. From simple uses like using computers and televisions to show cartoons to students, to far more complex applications, like using computers to allow students to construct their own cartoons, technology could play a seemingly endless number of roles in the unit.
The unit would begin by describing the historical framework in which these cartoons were created. As this unit would be taught within, or directly following, the larger topic of World War II, this shouldn’t be much of a challenge. Using both computer and video sources to display these cartoons to students, the class will be exposed to a wide variety of wartime cartoons from several different animation studios. Because there were many cartoons created during this time period, most likely these examples would highlight the better-known or most controversial examples. Some potential examples could include the Oscar award winning “Der Fuehrer’s Face”, Disney’s “Education for Death”, or cartoons with questionable moral and social issues like Warner Bros. “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips.” After watching these cartoons, within the proper context, students would be able to choose from a variety of different assignment types.
Some ideas of assignments stemming from these cartoons could include student-created cartoons relating to present day social issues, podcasts describing the benefits and concerns with this type of propaganda, or formal presentations focused on specific cartoons complete with PowerPoint models and video clips. By providing several different possible assignments, students will be able to interact with technology in different way and would also be able to choose a format focused towards their personal interests. Depending on the depth and complexity of the assignment, a formal paper related to the topic might be used, but could be eliminated providing that the assignments have enough depth.
This unit will hopefully engage students with a topic that is often overlooked when dealing with the home front during World War II. The topic can be extremely interesting and engaging for students and can also provide a wonderful format to incorporate multimedia elements. This assignment could have some classroom management issues, as it allows students a great deal freedom, but I feel that if approached properly, these issues could be kept to a minimum. Even if the assignment is a bit of handful, I think that the potential for both technology usage and individual inquiry could make this assignment extremely important.

Resources

www.teachers.net :  The website of the man, the myth, the legend Dr. Harry Wong!!  While Harry Wong does seem to love talking about himself, the website does provide a lot of useful information about the teaching profession and is a valuable resource.

www2.scholastic.com/browse/teach.jsp :  This website is extremely commercial, but it does seem to have some useful lesson information and might have some interesting information.

www.oregon.gov/ode :  The Oregon Department of Education website.  This site has the guidelines for subject instruction and lesson plan creation, as well as many other resources for teachers, including links to other resources.