Romance, War, and What We Learn!

Romance and War, Can they Exist in the Same Place?

Students will explore World War II, the music, and how it affected romance and the lives they left behind.

Click on the above poster and explore the many websites that will provide interesting and relevant information for this project.

If we have heard it once, we have heard it a thousand times from kids, “why do we have to learn this?” and despite our reluctance to answer, we know that it is a great question that sometimes we don’t have the answer to give.   The shift from content based teaching to guided inquiry learning may be one of the best motivating factors that have developed in the field of education.  As educators embrace the shift from a teacher-center lecture to a “community of learners,” and assignments are built around the interests of students, we will observe the change from the doldrums of content material to “schools that provide healthy inquiry communities where interaction is dynamic and challenging gradually build a broad range of social skills.”  (Kuhlthau  11).  Tapping into the social skills of students and incorporating them into the learning process will bring meaning and motivation to their learning endeavors.

During his collaboration with Mrs. History, the school librarian took one look at her lesson on World War II and had a brilliant idea for stirring it up and making it more interesting for the students.   In an article, he recently read by Sherry Crow, she stated, “When students help design their own projects, have input and choice in the topic, and are encouraged to ask their own questions as they investigate they are more willing to and interested and they may learn more too.” (Crow, 50).   He decided to test this idea as he witnessed the doldrums that came with the assignment in the past, and knew that any subject could have a hook to capture the interest of a student.  It was just a matter of what that hook would be.

The two of them set established a time for Mrs. History to bring in her tenth graders.  They had read about World War II in their history books as part of the World Cultures curriculum, so they had background knowledge, but what Mr. Bookweb decided to do this time was to get to the emotion of the era, to hit the teenagers in their hearts. He selected several videos that he found on the Internet of songs from the era. 


Songs with corny names and lyrics, like “ Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else but Me,” and “I’ll be Seeing you in all the old Familiar Places, “ and printed out the lyrics.  
On the page, he placed the following statistics,  416,800 American military personnel were killed in World War II, and in a group discussion, he asked the students to write down what they felt after hearing these songs, what were they about, how did the loss of almost a ½ million American men effect the economic and society after the war?  He asked the students to pick a song from the list, and reflect on the role love played in sending young men off to fight a war and how the girlfriends and wives of these soldiers were forced to cope in a world turned upside down.  He asked them how they would feel if they had to go to a war overseas tomorrow and leave behind their girlfriends, boyfriends, moms, dads, and family members.  He asked them to generate some thoughtful and meaningful questions that these emotions stirred up the idea of war and going to war.

As part of their research project, students will examine the society of the United States during and after the war, and choose several  songs from the era, compare and contrast the message behind the songs.  What are they singing about? Why are they singing?  How do you feel when you listen to these  songs?  Is the message still moving?  How do they compare to the music you listen to? Are the themes different or the same?

Romance.  Soldiers went off to war, and their girlfriends or newly married brides stayed home. What was life like for the soldiers?  What was life like for the women they left behind?  What was life like when they returned home?  Does romance play a role in war? 

The Assignment:   World War II:  Here’s looking at you, kid?

Beautiful clothes, horrible villains, romantic music, and romance.   All the elements of a great movie or a terrific book, but this was real life for 132 million Americans in 1941.  

In her article, Ms. Crow discussed that students may not completely understand how to do a project, and it is through instructional support , such as scaffolding techniques, adult guidance, peer collaboration that the gap between what a student is capable of doing can be closed as he gains confidence and knowledge in completion of the process.  Mr. Bookweb will use scaffolding techniques such as the K-W-L  graphic organizer to determine what students know/feel  about love, about war, and guide them toward learning how the casualties of World War II had an effect on romance and life in the American society.  While tapping into two things, teenagers are passionate about, music and romance, the librarian and teacher  of this course through scaffolding and guidance can provide a motivation to learn more about the era to complete a project of their choice that will showcase their understanding of the problem and the outcomes of war.

Works Cited

Crow, Sherry R. "Information Literacy: What’s Motivation Got to Do with It?”  35:4 (2007) Knowledge Quest. Web. 24 Jun 2013.

Kuhlthau, Carol C., Leslie K. Maniotes and Ann K. Caspari. Guided Inquiry; Learning in the 21st Century. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2012. Print.