MRS. LIEUTENANT Lesson Plan

Grade Levels: 9-12

Subjects:

  • Language Arts
  • History
  • Social Studies

Description:
The assignment will be to write a guest blog post entry for the website www.MrsLieutenant.com about one event in the novel and relate it to the U.S. fighting in the Vietnam War at that time.  This blog post will include a brief description of the event as well as the student’s own opinion about what happened.

Concept:
By focusing on one event, students will have the opportunity to delver deeper into what they thought about that specific event.

Objectives:
Students will better understand:

  • The opposing views regarding the Vietnam War during that time period.
  • The integration of African-Americans at that time – only six years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
  • The U.S. military then as well as the commitment of men and women who now serve.

Activities and Procedures:
Discuss the style and elements of a blog post:

  • Typed single spaced with double spacing between paragraphs and no paragraph indentation and with short paragraphs.
  • Headline: Use words that someone might search on Google for, such as:Vietnam War, Civil rights, Kent State University shootings, U.S. Army
  • Length of the post: Between 300 and 500 words
  • To indicate linking to another article from the post, underline the anchor text words (the important words that serve as the link) in the guest blog post; then put the URL of the article in parentheses at the end of the paragraph in which the link occurs.

Example:
The April 30, 1970, announcement of President Nixon’s decision to go into Cambodia was immediately met by strong opposition, including by the students at Kent State University. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings)

Assessment:
Students should read their blog posts aloud to the class. The different events can be discussed in terms of these issues:

  • Racial prejudice
  • Religious prejudice
  • Geographic prejudice
  • Cultural prejudice
  • Vietnam War opinions
  • Military service: draft then vs. all-volunteer army today
  • Comparisons to the U.S. deployment today in Iraq and Afghanistan

Additional Activities:
Teacher can arrange with book author Phyllis Zimbler Miller to speak to the students through a teleconferencing software that she has available.

Teacher can submit the best class guest blog post to Phyllis to include on the ww.MrsLieutenant.com website with credit to the individual student, the class, the teacher and school.

Recommended reading list for the Vietnam War compiled by blog War Through the Generations.

Email pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com to arrange for a group book discount.

FICTION TEACHES U.S. HISTORY

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