Discover America’s Female War Heroes…The WASPs

World War II was a time when women were considered second to men, but in the Air Force, this was not the case. Many women contributed to the war effort in various ways, and the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) were no exception. These inspirational women flew the same planes as their male counterparts and faced the same dangers and responsibilities. All these things show us how they were fearless.

We’ve created this short reading passage and constructed response informative writing prompt to introduce your students to this fantastic group of women and teach them how to write a constructed response paragraph. This two-page resource consists of the following stages of writing development.

1. Students will read a short history passage including facts about the WASPs and the character trait of determination. Students will learn about their role in history and how their fearlessness demonstrated good citizenship. 
2. Students will complete a R.A.C.E.S. graphic organizer to plan their responses.
3. Students record their answers as a constructed response paragraph and use a checklist to verify that all parts are included.

With this passage, nonfiction writing prompt, and graphic organizer, students can learn about the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots, answer critical thinking questions, and write their own constructed response paragraphs using the R.A.C.E.S. paragraph model.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

In addition to independent student work time, use this worksheet as an activity for:

• Guided reading groups 
• Lesson warm-up
• Lesson wrap-up
• Homework assignment
• Whole-class review (via smartboard)

Reading Enrichment for Gifted and Talented Learners

• Challenge your fast finishers to extend their constructed response topic into a research project or informative essay development activity. 
• Provide your students with books to read in your classroom library.
• Have your students use websites or trade books to learn more about the WASPs’ determination and fearlessness during World War II.

Differentiation Strategies for Struggling Students

• Support struggling writers or ESL students by providing sentence frames to aid them in constructing their sentences.
• Read the passage together and highlight ideas that could be used as evidence and supporting details.

Easily Download & Print

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource. 

To save paper, we suggest printing this 2-page worksheet double-sided. 

Additionally, project the worksheet onto a screen and work through it as a class by having students record their answers in their notebooks.

This resource was created by Kirstin Sowers, a teacher in Illinois and Teach Starter Collaborator. 

Don’t stop there! We’ve got more activities to shorten your lesson planning time:  

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