- During WW1, the only way to correspond with someone any distance from you was either sending a telegram (a short little “blurb” with NOT a lot of information), or a letter. Phones were available; however, calling anywhere outside of one’s city or town was not feasible, let alone from overseas. So, letter writing was done by all, including future president, Harry S. Truman.
By April, 1917, the future leader was an American soldier, a “Doughboy”. He was a captain of an artillery company stationed in France. When Harry wished to communicate with his girl, Bess Wallace, back home in Independence, Missouri, he would write her a letter, often quite long in length.
Assignment: Students will be divided into groups of three or four. Each group will receive three/four letters written by Truman to Bess Wallace. After each person in the group has read each letter, the group will discuss what they read, then answer the following questions collectively. Students will need to choose one group member to write their answers.
Letter writing has become a lost art in our world of instant communication. Students will hopefully come to realize how long it sometimes took to write & receive information from someone they wanted to talk to.
- Analyze century old letters written by a soldier to his girl. In so doing, the student will become familiar with words, terms & phrases which they will possibly not be familiar.
- Come to understand the difficulty of communication more than a century ago. It was not instantaneous such as it is today.
- Appreciate that even future presidents were/are people often just like we are.
- Language Arts: MA1: Students will use agreed-upon rules for informal & formal discussions in small & large groups.
- MA 2.5: Summarize in a coherent way information & ideas learned from a focused discussion.
- Movie: “Truman”, 1995, produced by HBO.
- Text
- Notes from class
/hstpaper/fbpa.htm#subseries1-1
- Select WW1 letters from Capt. Harry S. Truman, AEF, to Bess Wallace.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/papers-harry-s-truman-pertaining-family-business-and-personal-affairs
Scroll down on this page to find the exact dates you need - Dates to be used:
April 17, 1918;
April 28,1918;
May 5, 1918;
June 14, 1918;
July 31, 1918;
August 13, 1918;
October 30, 1918;
November 29, 1918;
December 26, 1918;
February 18, 1919;
March 15, 1919;
April 24, 1919;
May 31, 1919
Assignment: Students will be divided into groups of three or four. Each group will receive three/four letters written by Truman to Bess Wallace. After each person in the group has read each letter, the group will discuss what they read, then answer the following questions collectively. Students will need to choose one group member to write their answers.
Questions to ponder.
1) From what location is Truman writing Bess? Why do you think that does’ he not always tell her exactly where he is?
2) Can you tell from his letters any feelings that he might have for her? Cite two examples directly.
3) What is the mood, or tone of his letter? Happy? Sad? Other? Again, cite two examples.
4) Can you tell from his letter s if she has recently written him? If so, what is his response? Cite an example.
5) Are there any words or phrases Truman uses with which you are not familiar? If so, which?
6) What must it be like to wait a month to find out information about someone for whom you care?
7) In general, what topics does he discuss with her? Anything intimate, at all? Provide two examples.
- Collectively, each student in his/her group will receive both a participation grade & a homework grade for the activity.
- Participation grade based on my observation of each student’s involvement.
- Homework grade will be based on a thorough answering of the question associated with the assignment.