A World At War!

Standards

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has provided standards that must be met for history classes that cover World History, using the time period from the 1450s to present history. The range where this material is covered is from grade 10 to grade 12.

A.

Identify and evaluate the political and cultural contributions of

individuals and groups to United States history from 1890 to Present.
 

- Political Leaders (e.g., Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt)

• Military Leaders (e.g., John Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower)
  
• Cultural and Commercial Leaders (e.g., Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Langston Hughes, Alan Greenspan)
  
• Innovators and Reformers (e.g., Wilbur and Orville Wright, John L. Lewis, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King)

historic sites important in United States history from 1890 to Present.
 

- Documents (e.g., Treaty of Versailles, North Atlantic Treaty, Neutrality Acts)

• 20th Century Writings and Communication (e.g., Coolidge’s “The

• Historic Places (e.g., Ellis Island, Pearl Harbor, Los Alamos)

• Belief Systems and Religions (e.g., 20th century movements, religions of recent immigrants)
  
• Commerce and Industry (e.g., corporations, conglomerates, multinational corporations)
  
• Innovations (e.g., the Tin Lizzie, radio, World Wide Web)
  
• Politics (e.g., New Deal legislation, Brown v. Topeka, isolationist/non-isolationist debate)
  
• Settlement Patterns (e.g., suburbs, large urban centers, decline of city population)
  
• Social Organization (e.g., compulsory school laws, court

• Transportation and Trade (e.g., expansion and decline of railroads, increased mobility, Internet)
  
• Women’s Movement (e.g., right to vote, women in the war effort, Women’s Peace Party)

Reflection on Standards

By creating a newspaper covering World War I, students are able to gain complete and thorough understanding of the events that led to and during World War I. This thorough understanding satisfies Standard D. Even though there is freedom throughout this lesson as to what specific topics can be covered, students must have one role on the group focused on the military aspect of the WWI, a primary or secondary documents created in the war, as well as the social, economic, and political affects on the United States during and after this war, since the viewpoint of the war is taken as a newspaper company in the United States.

Students will get a better understanding of the role that an important and vital politician or military leader played in World War I. To accomplish this, the "letter role" role-plays as a major political or military leader and the view of the war. They will understand primary and secondary sources, and the aims by each country in making them. The Headliner role, or even the editorial role, can discuss the primary document that was created as a result of the Great War. They will understand the major points of the documents, as well get an understand for each countries' aims and goals that were trying to be accomplished. Also, students will understand the results of the war. Students will be able to understand the social, economical, and political affects of this war on U.S. citizens. The editorial role can examine how the completion of the war affects the United States differently than how it was affected during the war. Then the student can show how this correlates to social and political movements of the United States.

By requiring one role to be focused on these individual topics, students are able to grasp a complete view of the war from the United States' viewpoint on World War I. This allows students to not only learn about their topic discussed in their role, but the topics discussed through the other roles because each group would present different ideas about different topics and events, or even the same event. This allows for greater knowledge of the war and the impact that World War I had on the United States and on the world.

Resources

In order for this lesson to go as smoothly as possible, there are certain resources that must be made available to the students. The following are needed to implement this lesson:

- Classroom textbooks

- World wide web access

- Microsoft Word

- Internet Explorer/Firefox

- Class notes, study guides, and worksheets can also be used

- Paper for the artists as well as colored pencils or markers

- Construction paper (if newspaper isn't created online using Word)

All of this work done in the lesson can be supervised by the teacher as student may ask questions to clear up directions or ideas for their specific role in their groups. However, the majority of lesson should be done within the group and between its members in order to further enhance interpersonal skills.

Evaluation
 

In

order to determine whether or not this lesson was successful, we must look at the final products, the newspapers. Students should have been able to identify the key events and vital documents and people involved with World War I. Content used in the articles should be accurate and precise, as well as the presentation should be done through memory since this is just further repetition of the major highlights of the Great War. Although the project will be graded as a group, the presentation of each part in the newspaper will be done on an individual basis. Furthermore, at the end of the lesson and presentations of the students' final project, an assessment (Assessment) will be handed to each member of the group and filled out to assess each members role in the group. To determine whether or not students have a satisfactory understanding of the content is in the student evaluation page.

 

Example Newspaper