Spring 2013, Dr.

Morgan

Overview of Vietnam War ICP

Debra Ford, Natalie Hare, Larkin Ryan, Irene Wasnik, Dan White

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As we developed this ICP our goal was to have our students examine the Vietnam War from historical, sociological, and political perspectives. We wanted them to be able to understand the causes and effects of the war both home and abroad and explore these connections within their American History, Biology, English, and Visual and Performing Arts classes. We sought to do this by threading common themes across the disciplines, making sure that each lesson and activity examined these themes from a slightly different perspective. Our concept map helped us visualize these shared ideas and enabled us to streamline our different learning objectives for each classroom context. We chose to implement this ICP with 11th grade students to align with social studies curriculum and due to the mature and sometimes graphic content found in many of our texts and resources. We determined that 16 and 17 year-olds would be able to process such content at a higher level and formulate their own informed opinions based upon the knowledge that they encountered and developed. Students will view the Vietnam War through a sociological lens in all the curricular areas. There are many cross-curricular connections between the content areas within this specific perspective. After researching the intentions and impacts of the use of chemical warfare during the Vietnam War in science, students will discuss their perspectives on various issues, such as whether or not using these methods was appropriate and whether or not the American government should cover the medical costs that many Vietnamese and U.S. veterans are still incurring today. The Visual and Performing Arts lessons features music written by and about people who suffered long-term effects from the chemicals used

in the war, showing how the Vietnam War continues to effect people today. Students will also examine student protests and implications from these protests in Visual & Performing Arts, through the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song Four Dead in Ohio. This crosses into an analysis of propaganda examined in the History class. Hippie culture and the draft will also be discussed through the musical Hair. The relation between this topic and the propaganda and student protests for History and the Visual and Performing Arts are clearly seen. Finally, students can draw from the war poems activity in English to determine how a person's war experience continues to affect those who served and the generations who learn about them in the Visual and Performing Arts post-war attitude activity. Students will examine the historical perspective of the Vietnam War in a variety of ways. The decisions that the United States made in military strategies will be studied through lessons a simulation of guerilla warfare to enable students to understand the United States decision to turn to chemical warfare. In Biology students will study the impact of chemical warfare in the. Looking through historical lenses, students will be able to study how the planned impact of chemical warfare during the Vietnam War differed from the actual impact that occurred due to the war. Students will also study the short and long term ecological impact due to the use of chemical warfare. The historical impact of the war will be examined by completing activities in English class such as writing letters from home where students will write through the eyes of a soldier in Vietnam reflecting upon their experience in combat. In addition students will examine propaganda from both pro and anti war perspectives that will tie into Visual and Performing Arts through the use of songs and students protests. How the war was portrayed by anti and pro war supporters through the creation of propaganda, interviews and other primary documents will enable

students to understand how the American public differed in their opinions of the war. These different opinions will allow students to understand the complex history of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War and how the war is understood and portrayed in modern American history and culture. Lessons and activities from all of the content areas are incorporated within the political perspective, with many of the lessons topics crossing content areas. In American History the students will partake in a jigsaw activity where they will research the roles, actions, and impacts of the four presidents who served during the Vietnam War Era. The groups will present their findings to the class and respond to the research on the class Edmodo page to compare and contrast each presidents actions. This lesson ties in directly with science. In science the students will learn about the governments decision to employ chemical weapons and the burden of responsibility that might accompany the use of such weapons. These two lessons are interconnected as the use of chemical weapons was approved and employed by one, if not more, of the presidents, thus making it something that the students would have encountered during their research for both History and in Science. Also, in History, the students will view a documentary video about the Tet Offensive and the impact it had on the American home front. Using evidence from the video and any prior knowledge the students will write a position paper, either in support of United States escalation of the war effort or in opposition to it. For Visual and Performing Arts under the political concept the students will be watching the movie Hair in order to gain an understanding of the hippie culture that was prevalent during the Vietnam War era and how and why this culture formed an opposition to the draft. Through group discussions the students will be able demonstrate their acquisition of knowledge and

understanding of the topic. In English, towards the end of the unit, students will partake in a split class debate between those who were in support of the war and those who were against it. This activity connects to all of the other content areas. Since this is towards the end of the unit students will have gained a wealth of information about the Vietnam War, including actions and opinions from both sides of the war debate, in every content area. Therefore, the students will be able to pull from this learning and use the information as evidence to support their side during the debate. The strategies, concepts, and theories that were covered in this course helped and guided us in the creation of our ICP. We developed lessons and activities that incorporate technology, allow students to interact with primary and secondary sources, work independently and in groups, and read high-quality literature about the Vietnam War. We also gave students opportunities to expand their domain-specific vocabulary while activating prior knowledge in order to make meaningful, relevant connections. Additionally, we worked to build links between the content areas and to integrate focused literacy-building strategies into each. All of these intentional curricular decisions will help our students make connections across the content areas, immersing them in literacy-based activities and deepening their overall understanding of the Vietnam War.