A Soldier’s Perspective of War (LS-MT-272)

This learning scenario concentrates on the planning and writing of a diary entry in perspective of a soldier’s feelings and emotions during wartime. Apart from further developing their writing skills, students will also work on crucial 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, creativity and collaboration. The future requires our students to be critical thinkers and independent workers, and by working both individually and in groups on varied tasks, this learning scenario mirrors these important aspects of education.

Lesson Development

Prior to this lesson: Students are introduced to the book ‘Ann Frank’ by Isabel Sanchez Vergara. During this learning scenario, the students are encouraged to discuss war and the difficult times faced by civilians.

Introduction: The students are introduced to different images from Europeana Collections and they are required to come up with the lesson’s topic and objectives.

Activity 1: The students are required to use the application AnswerGarden to discuss the question ‘Are soldiers happy to do their job?’; Simple words, as well as complicated expressions, are expected to be shared.

Activity 2: The second activity focuses on planning the diary-entry. During this activity, the use of Lego Story Starters enhances the students’ different skills such as collaboration, discussion and creativity.

Activity 3: Students write their diary entry.

Conclusion: Students share their work as part of a presentation and constructive feedback takes place.

Addition to the lesson: The students are encouraged to write their diary entry on the app Lego Story Visualizer.

Final thoughts

The main focus of this learning scenario is active pupil participation. It aims to flow easily through set transitions into finally reaching the main target for the students to produce a diary entry. The setting of various interactive activities, Digital Literacy tools and artefacts are thought for the arousal of the students’ interest in the learning scenario.

Did you find this learning scenario interesting? You might also like:

• People’s Lives in World War I
• The great war through children’s lives
• Letters and Postcards from War Times

CC BY-SA 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana Collections.