Historical Period
Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
Procedure
Photograph Analysis
- Make a transparency or distribute copies of Document 1 (Marines riding on an M-48 tank). Ask the students to study the photograph for 2 minutes. Then ask them to create a chart listing the people, objects, and actions in the photograph. Ask students to share with the class what they saw in the photograph. Direct students to answer the following questions:
- What can you infer from the photograph?
- What questions does this photograph raise in your mind?
- Where might you be able to find answers to your questions?
- How might you categorize this photograph? (Try to lead students to a category/topic they would be able to research relating to the war in Vietnam, such as battle tactics, weapons, tanks, or jungle warfare.)
- Create a caption for the photograph.
- Divide students into small groups and distribute one of the featured photographs to each group. The photographs can be printed from the digitized image, or they can be downloaded onto a disk and each group can work from the image on their computers. If your classroom has the advantage of the Internet, students can locate their photograph through the ARC Catalog by using the control number listed below for the assigned photograph. Ask each group to analyze their photograph as they did in Activity 1. Each group should categorize the photograph as a topic that will be easy to research and generate 2 to 3 questions from the photograph. Topics might include land warfare, air warfare, Marines in Vietnam, and roles of women serving in Vietnam.
Research and Present
- Using the questions generated from the photograph and the category they defined in Activity 2, instruct groups to conduct research in order to answer their questions and obtain information about the war in Vietnam relating to their category. Next, ask each group to create a presentation about their photograph and general topic. The format for each presentation should include a display of the photograph, an overview of the research they completed on their topic, and a reading of a caption they created for their photograph that was based on their research. Encourage students to be creative! Following the presentations, lead a class discussion on the foreign and domestic consequences of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Creative Writing
- Direct students to take on the role of an exhibit curator who has selected these photographs to create an exhibit that will help people understand the foreign and domestic consequences of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Direct student groups to write an exhibit script (story) that incorporates all of the photographs. Students may then share their scripts and discuss how their exhibits compare or differ.
- As an independent writing activity, ask students to write a review of one of the other group's exhibits.
Description
Teaching with Documents contains teaching activities built upon primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States. This lesson relates to Article I, Section 8, which grants Congress powers to raise and support armies and make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.
Primary Source Documents
The documents included in this project are from Record Group 127, Records of the United States Marine Corps; Record Group 111, Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer; and Record Group 428, General Records of the Department of the Navy. They are available online through the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) Identifiers:
532483
530617
530613
531453
531457
532439
532464
532465
532482
558512
532478
532500
558532
530617
530613
531453
531457
532439
532464
532465
532482
558512
532478
532500
558532
ARC replaces its prototype, the NARA Archival Information Locator (NAIL). You can still perform a keyword, digitized image and location search. ARC's advanced functionalities also allow you to search by organization, person, or topic.
ARC is a searchable database that contains information about a wide variety of NARA holdings across the country. You can use ARC to search record descriptions by keywords or topics and retrieve digital copies of selected textual documents, photographs, maps, and sound recordings related to thousands of topics.
Currently, about 20% of NARA's vast holdings have been described in ARC. 124,000 digital images can be searched in ARC. In keeping with NARA's Strategic Plan, the percentage of holdings described in ARC will grow continually.
This article was written by Linda Darus Clark, a teacher at Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio.
Source
The War in Vietnam - A Story in Photographs. Teaching with Documents initiative, http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/ accessed June 20, 2011
Used with written permission from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 3rd Learning has aligned this document with New York State Learning Standards at the Performance Indicator Level. NARA granted full permission and written approval for use of this content within NYLearns.org including text, images, and links.
Website(s)
The War in Vietnam - A Story in Photographs
