Teacher Packet

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A Teacher‘s Guide to the Vietnam Era Educational Center

HERE ARE SOME SAMPLES OF THE MATERIAL INCLUDED IN THE TEACHER PACKET THAT YOU RECEIVE ONCE YOU HAVE BOOKED YOUR TOUR AT THE VIETNAM ERA EDUCATIONAL CENTER.

Preparing Your Class

In the weeks before your scheduled class visit, you may wish to share with your students the above description of a tour of the Vietnam Era Educational Center and the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. Having your students engage in related activities might arouse further curiosity. You will find in this pre-visit packet, several reproducible student activity sheets. These have been designed to help you prepare your students and get the most for your class out of your upcoming field trip.

Before your visit, you may ask your students to complete an activity or two in the classroom. You might assign another activity to be completed while at the site, using the Educational Center‘s exhibit as a source of information. Back again in your classroom following your visit, you can use an activity sheet to encourage follow-up discussions.

Please review these student activity sheets to determine which ones will best compliment your own lesson plans. Choose ones that will serve your needs as educational activities before, during, and after your class visit. If you would like your students to complete one or more of these activities while on tour, or if you have a project of your own design or selection and you‘d like our tour guides to adapt your tour accordingly, please call ahead so advance preparations can be made. Additional teaching aids in this kit include a blank map of Southeast Asia; a Vietnam War chronology, a bibliography, a glossary, and an acronym guide (the "Initials" brochure).

Your Comments

A post-visit feedback form will be mailed to you, so that you can help us in our continuing efforts to improve our services to educators and pupils. You may elect to send us your assessment only, or you may give each of your students the opportunity to share their comments with us.

Thank you for choosing the Vietnam Era Educational Center as the destination for your planned class field trip. Please don‘t hesitate to call if there‘s anyway our staff and volunteers can help make your visit a more rewarding experience.

Introduction

Students and teachers can use these activity sheets for structured investigations of the exhibits in the Vietnam Era Educational Center, as well as for pre-visit preparation and post-visit reviews. A variety of investigative activities are included which encourage users to establish connections between the chronological timeline exhibit and other exhibit elements, such as the interactive video kiosks, letters and photographs and the oral history theater excerpts. When reviewing the Site Visit activities during pre-visit planning, teachers should determine the time requirements for successful completion of the activities selected for student use. [Note: This is merely a sample. The regular Teacher‘s Guide packet, which is mailed only to teachers who have a confirmed booking for a school tour, contains the complete version of the activity portions seen here, as well as additional activities, and includes answer keys for the teacher‘s convenience.]

PRE-VISIT ACTIVITIES

Activity #1

Before you visit the Vietnam Era Educational Center, write down your thoughts about the following questions. After your visit, answer the questions again based on what you learned. How different are your two answers to each question?

Why and how did the war begin? What were the Vietnamese fighting for? Why was there a North Vietnam and South Vietnam?

Activity #2

Set up your paper in two vertical columns. In the left-hand margin, list the ten terms shown below, leaving 3-4 lines after each word. On the left-hand side of the paper next to each word, record the images and associations that come to mind. Don't consult other resources or ask your teacher for help--just put down what comes to mind for each word. Leave the right-hand side blank.

1. WAR

2. THE MILITARY

3. VIETNAM

As you encounter the Vietnam Era Educational Center exhibits, compare your first impressions of these 10 terms with the information you read, see and hear. Write down new information and impressions of the terms as you encounter them in the exhibits. Discuss the comparisons and contrasts you develop between your pre- and post-visit impressions with your peers and your teacher.

Activity #1

Read the two quotes at the outset of the exhibit regarding U.S. foreign policy. Put each quote in your own words.

John Quincy Adams:

Harry S. Truman:

As you encounter the Educational Center exhibits, gather information that appears to relate to each quote. At the end of your visit, answer this question.

QUESTION

Place the following main events in chronological order as you view the exhibits. Number the events from 1 - 20. Dating the events is optional.

___________ Civil Rights Movement Date:____________

___________ Tonkin Gulf Incident Date:____________

___________ Geneva Accords Date:____________

Activity #8: Initials Scavenger Hunt

The following initials are abbreviations found throughout the exhibit. Complete the following while viewing the exhibit. Perhaps you already know some of them!

1. DRV = D _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of V _ _ _ _ _ _

2. PTSD = P_ _ _ T _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ S _ _ _ _ _ D _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3. NLF = N _ _ _ _ _ _ _ L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ F _ _ _ _

Activity #9: Matching

Complete the following matching column of important names and places.

___ Ho Chi Minh A. 1st POW from 1964-1973

___ Vo Nguyen Giap B. Director of North Vietnamese policy

___ General Westmoreland C. Divided by the Geneva Accord

Activity #10: True or False

Using the information you learned from the exhibit, try to determine if the following statements are True (T) or False (F).

____ 1. The Geneva Accords were used to rejoin North and South Vietnam.

____ 2. "Search and Destroy" was a military tactic to kill the Viet Cong.

____ 3. The Tet Offensive was the attack on government offices in South Vietnam by the Viet Cong.

POST-VISIT ACTIVITIES

Activity #1

Activity #2

Take a look at your history textbook, specifically the section on the Vietnam conflict and U. S. anti-communist policy from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. Based upon what you've encountered in the Educational Center exhibits, what would you change in your textbook account of the Vietnam era? Are there sections you might delete or add to the textbook? Are there areas of the Educational Center exhibit which need modification? Working with a partner, answer these questions, using specific examples from the Educational Center exhibits to support your key points.

Activity Reminder

Don‘t forget, Pre-Visit Activities #1 and #2 both asked for your impressions about certain topics before your visit to the Vietnam Era Educational Center. Now is the time to go back to those activity sheets and answer the same questions again, using what you learned during your visit to the site. Compare your answers. How well do they match? Were you surprised that some of your answers differed from your first impressions?