Art Lesson Plan Day 5-6

Propaganda in Art
Goals: Students will interpret underlying messages of artwork specifically used during
World War II as sources of propaganda to promote the war effort and women in the
workforce. Students will begin to understand what the purpose of each piece of art is
and the importance of its creation at the time of the war (the audiences it was trying to
reach).
Objective: Given various sources of artwork of womens role in the workforce including
posters, photographs, personal excerpts, advertisements, and commercials, students
will analyze and interpret the resources by writing a short paragraph of what each piece
of art means to them including at least two evidence-based details. Afterwards students
will get into their iMovie groups to discuss and share their responses to the various
sources of propaganda. Then in groups students together will answer prompt questions
corresponding to each source.
Standards:
Common Core Standards
RI.9-10.6 Determine an authors point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an
author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view on purpose.
W.9-10.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
SL.9-10.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (oneon-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts,
issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
New York State Learning Standards
The Arts
Standard 3- Responding to and Analyzing Works of Art
Standard 4- Understanding the Cultural Contributions of the Arts
ELA
Standard 1- Language for Information and Understanding
Standard 2- Language for Literacy Response and Expression
Standard 3- Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation
Standard 4- Language for Social Interaction
Pre-assessment data:
Students will be given an image of propaganda during the war. They will each look at the
picture and write comments next to it of what they think the picture represents.
Afterwards students will turn to the person sitting next to them (Think-Pair-Share) and
share their ideas.
Modifications/Accommodations:
-Give clarification and repetition regularly in directions and tasks
- Extended time for the completion of assignments

Diversity Considerations:
Students may not have a good understanding of World War II in their background
knowledge and may not know what the role of women really was during this time in the
United States. It may be hard for them to understand how woman were looked at and
valued at this time in history since it is much different from today.
Materials:
Pencil
7 images in packets
7 images with prompts in packets
Exit slip
Arrangement of Physical Space:
Students will start at individual desks. Then on the second day of the lesson students will
push desks together and get in their iMovie groups.
Anticipatory Set: For lessons 5 and 6, students will analyze propaganda resources
specific to the womens role during World War II. Beginning the lesson we will talk about
how women were viewed in society during this time and what was traditionally expected
of them. During the war womens role in society changed and they played a large part in
aiding the war effort in the United States when the men were gone fighting. They had to
step up and take over the jobs that men could no longer fill. Women were no longer seen
as housewives who stayed home to cook and clean. They were now out in the workforce
laboring in factories or working on cars or farming. Students will be given the opportunity
to share some of the roles that they believe women fulfilled at this time and compare that
to what women can do today.
Body Day 5:
The students will then be given 7 different mediums of art to look at including women in
advertisements, posters, photographs, commercials, and personal writings. The women
all represent a message in each form of art and display what life was like for them during
this war. Individually students will be asked to reflect on what each of the pieces of art
means to them or the message they got from them.
Closure Day 5:
Students will individually receive exit slips before they leave the classroom. On the exit
slip, there will be six short questions in order of 3,2,1. Students will answer and write 3
jobs women worked at during the war, 2 elements of propaganda they found in the
images, and 1 message they got from one of the images.
Body Day 6:
The following day (day 6), students will get into their iMovie groups and share their
interpretations (messages of each image) from the previous class. After they discuss,
the students will answer prompt questions that correspond with each piece of art
together. These questions include:
1. What do you think was the purpose of this cartoon? What is the underlying
message?
2. Describe the details of this image. What do you think was the authors intent?
3. After viewing this poster, would you say women were looked upon as vital to the war
effort? What parts of the poster support your argument?

4. What is the message this image is trying to send? What do you notice about the
womens work that may differ from womens work today?
5. What is the underlying message of this piece? Who is the target audience for this
artwork?
6. According to Lewis, what were women discovering about themselves during the
war? How important were they to society?
7a. Could these images be used as propaganda advertisements to attract women to
the industrial workforce? Why or why not?
7b. If you were making a propaganda advertisement, what would you include to attract
women to the workforce?
Closure Day 6:
Each group will select a spokesperson. The groups will be assigned an image and
question (out of the 7 images) to share with the class. As the teacher calls on the
groups, students will share their responses and review with the class about womens
role during the war.
Follow-up activities:
As a follow up activity, students will for homework be assigned to look up and find
images of the holocaust. This will give them an idea of what they will be reading about in
the play the next day.
Assessment: The students written messages, exit slip, and group discussion of
responses to the questions.

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-teachers/lesson-plans/workingwomen-of-wwii.html
1. What do you think was the purpose of this cartoon? What is the underlying message?

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-teachers/lesson-plans/workingwomen-of-wwii.html
2. Describe the details of this image. What do you think was the authors intent?

http://ctah.binghamton.edu/student/macchiano/macchianoprint.html
3. After viewing this poster, would you say women were looked upon as vital to the war
effort? What parts of the poster support your argument?

http://ctah.binghamton.edu/student/macchiano/macchianoprint.html
4. What is the message this image is trying to send? What do you notice about the
womens work that may differ from womens work today?

http://ctah.binghamton.edu/student/macchiano/macchianoprint.html
5. What is the underlying message of this piece? Who is the target audience for this
artwork?

This excerpt is a personal account by Sybil Lewis, which was taken from Mark
Jonathan's The Homefront: America During World War II.
The war years had a tremendous impact on women. I know for myself it was the first

time I had a chance to get out of the kitchen and work in industry and make a few bucks.
This was something I had never dreamed would happen. In Sapulpa all that women had
to look forward to was keeping a house and raising families. The war years offered new
possibilities. You came out to California, put on your pants and took your lunch pail to a
man's job. In Oklahoma a woman's place was in the home, and men went to work and
provided. This was the beginning of women's feeling that they could do something more.
We were trained to do this kind of work because of the war, but there was no question
that this was just an interim period. We were all told that when the war was over we
would not be needed anymore.
http://ctah.binghamton.edu/student/macchiano/macchianoprint.html
6. According to Lewis, what were women discovering about themselves during the war?
How important were they to society?

The following documents are photographs of women industrial workers during WWII.
The top photo is a punch press operator and the bottom photograph is of drill press
operators.

http://ctah.binghamton.edu/student/macchiano/macchianoprint.html
7a. Could these images be used as propaganda advertisements to attract women to the
industrial workforce? Why or why not?
7b. If you were making a propaganda advertisement, what would you include to attract
women to the workforce?