Intro to War Games and Screwtape Letters Jan. 5

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HISTORY
Today we began a unit on World War II. During this unit, we will be playing "War Games." Students are divided into teams, each of which represents a country from WWII (USA, UK, France, USSR, Germany, Japan, Italy, and China). The teams will compete for the prize of extra credit. When teams demonstrate excellence in academic knowledge  or teamwork, they can earn "army men" which count as points.

This week, each team will be working to prepare to tell an assigned story from WWII. Each team will tell their story on Friday and Monday, using creative and effective storytelling methods. Teams might use puppetry, illustrations, slideshows, songs, skits, etc. Stories will be evaluated on the following criteria:

1) Story helps the listeners understand the complex motivations of the characters (an entire nation might be a character).
2) Storytelling uses interesting and accurate details to bring the story to life.
3) Storytelling uses some of the 5 senses, including at least some type of visuals.
4) Story helps listeners understand true principles.
5) Story is well structured with a beginning, middle, and end.
6) Storytelling presentation is creative.

All members of the team must be involved in the research, planning, and presentation.

Class members will have one class period each day in preparation for Friday's presentations. I recommend groups stick to the following general schedule:

• Monday: familiarize yourselves with the topic; divide up the research
• Tuesday: conduct research
• Wednesday: outline the story, organize and plan
• Thursday: create any visuals, scripts, etc. and rehearse

Assigned topics:

Germany: Germany's economy before, during, and after the war (please include Germany's economy before the war, Germany's occupation of the Netherlands, and the welfare services of Dutch Latter-day Saints in helping rebuild Germany after the war)
Soviet Union: the Eastern front
England: the Battle of Britain
China: the Chinese Civil War and the Massacre of Nanking
Japan: Iwo Jima (should include background on island hopping, the Japanese mode and philosophy of warfare)
France: Resistance to Nazi occupation of France
United States (two stories): D-Day and Pearl Harbor
Italy: Mussolini

ENGLISH
Students worked on memorizing the following sentence from Man's Search for Meaning (p.66):
"[E]verything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

We began reading Screwtape Letters today. We reviewed what students already know about C.S. Lewis and Screwtape Letters. We then read together the introductory quotations by Martin Luther and Sir Thomas More, the Preface, and the first letter. This book is very dense: it has a lot of ideas packed very compactly into complex sentences with academic vocabulary. Thus it will require students to do a lot of decoding. During class, we practiced having students explain difficult sentences in their own words and defining vocabulary. Students will need to get into the habit of re-reading difficult passages, looking up vocabulary words, and applying concepts to concrete examples from their own lives and observations of the world we live in.

Today we asked why Lewis would begin this book with a letter about the value of argument and the need to connect ideas with our actions. It seems Lewis is inviting us as readers to reason carefully and to apply to our own lives the principles we see proven as true.

To help students do this, I will be asking them to complete an "Angel Letters" assignment (please see separate post).

HOMEWORK

• Memorization from Man's Search due on Wednesday
• Bring any resources you will need to conduct research for history in class tomorrow.