Propaganda

  Usha's comments in Blue. Your name: Jena Johnson

**Initial Reading and Assessment of Textbook Treatment of the Topic**

Name of Gr. 10 Textbook examined: Canada: A Nation Unfolding

Name of more "scholarly" source examined: "Marching to Armageddon: Canadians and the Great War 1914-1919" by Desmond Morton and J.L. Granatstein. __Your Initial Thoughts:__ The textbook has a very brief treatment of propaganda during World War I. There is a very short description of propaganda posters, as well as a selection of 6 posters placed throughout the chapter. The text also contains some questions to help students examine the posters and assess their audience, effectiveness, and message. Primarily, the posters deal with recruitment, buying Victory Bonds, and contributing to the Patriotic Fund. I think it would be worth looking at other approved Grade 10 textbooks to see if the other books deal more with the topic of propaganda. The scholarly source did not explicitly deal with propaganda, but references to posters are included in sections dealing with recruitment and English/French relations and perspectives, funding the war (Victory Bonds, war stamps), dealing with food scarcity (conserving food), and caring for returning soldiers (Patriotic Fund). It deals a little deeper with the reasons for the need of propaganda, as well as some of the specific images used. It did not provide visuals of every poster or genre mentioned, however, and some of these were hard to track down online. In general, both the text and scholarly book give the impression that propaganda was not a major issue in the history of World War I -- not to say that it didn't happen (it certainly was used as Canadian units became desperate for recruits), but that it is not controversial to scholars in the sense that scholars recognize the need for it and accept it, and that there were no substantial dissenting/opposing forces at play (compared to World War II where Germany, notably, was providing ample propaganda for the other side). The World War I propaganda also appears unsophisticated compared to what is developed later. __**Key Learning**__ Students will understand how propaganda was used during the first World War and why it was effective (ie. what aspects of Canadian identity did it make use of).

__**Critical challenge**__: Which poster (or posters) was/were the most effective, and why?

__**Skill developed**__ The students will develop skills at critically analysing visuals and learning what makes a compelling visual. This will allow them to begin to think about the ways they would develop their own compelling visual for their summative assignment.

__**Dimension of Historical thinking**__ Evidence and Interpretation (examine recruitment and other propaganda posters and then determine who they were targetted at, and how they did this (use of symbolism, appeal to patriotism, etc)).

//Specific expectations from curriculum:// -assess the influence of Great Britain and Europe on Canada's participation in war and peacekeeping (in this case, WWI) -explain the causes of World War I ... and how Canada became involved -describe Canada's and Canadian's contributions to the war effort overseases during World War I describe Canada's and Canadian's contributions to the war effort at home during World War I ... as well as some of the effects the wars had on the home front (eg. munitions industry, Halifax explosion, women war workers) //Other background knowledge:// -Canada's relation with Britain (in terms of autonomy) -a concept of the ethnic/cultural makeup of Canada (and regions within Canada) during World War I -understanding of French-Canadian culture //Skills// -analytical skills
 * __Background Knowledge__**

__**Criteria for Judgement**__ a) Criteria for effective war propaganda -strong appeal to patriotism -specific target audience -relevant images and slogans that will evoke emotion in audience -clear meaning -eye-catching b) Criteria for compelling visual (that they will create for their summative assignment) -specific purpose -specific audience -effective images and slogans that appeal to the audience -clear meaning -eye-catching

__**Habit of Mind**__ Attentive to Detail or Critically Minded

__**Thinking Strategies**__ Explain the Image - using a sheet similar to the one we used for the picture of the boy with the donkey - and have them make observations and then inferences, and layer think-pair-share on to that. __**Critical Thinking Vocabulary**__ Critique (Criteria, Evaluation, and Analysis would also be good)

__**Mental set**__ Show an audiovisual clip of an advertisement for a popular product (that they are all familiar with - I used one of the Mac vs. PC ads). Have the class - in groups - discuss what messages the ad is trying to convey to the consumer, how they attempt to do that, how realistic the claims are, who their target audience is, etc.