Unit : The Interwar Years, 1918-1939 Overview: This lesson will be taught to high school sophomores in mid-March at a high school in Virginia. The "Interwar Years" unit will last 4 days, plus a 5th day for a test. Provided pacing holds true, I will begin teaching students about the rise of dictators in the interwar period on the third day of the unit. This lesson is designed to kind of bridge the gap between SOL Standards 11 and 12a pertaining to the World History II course. It will, ideally, help review the information in Standard 11 while preparing students to achieve Standard 12a. Lesson objective(s): 1. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the economic developments during the Interwar Period by citing causes of worldwide depression (SOL WHII.11). 2. The student will demonstrate knowledge of the worldwide impact of World War II by a) explaining economic and political causes [of the war] (SOL WHII.12a). 3. By completing this inquiry-based lesson, students will be able to understand how events and conditions of the Interwar Period laid the foundation for World War II. 4. Students will engage with primary and secondary sources by critically reading, annotating, and analyzing these documents. 5. Students will use primary and secondary documents to locate evidence to answer the inquiry around which the lesson is organized. Procedure: Activity 1: 1. Students will be organized into 6 groups with roughly equal numbers in each. 2. Once students have been grouped, they will remain in these groups for the majority of the lesson and will be rotating to 6 different stations. 3. At each station, there will be a different document(s). (See Appendixes A-F). Each document(s) at each station relates to at least one of the SOL-relevant (WHII.12a) causes of World War II. These causes are: I. Failures of the Treaty of Versailles II. Aggression by totalitarian powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) Subject: World History II Grade Level: 10th Day of Unit: 4 Topic: Setting the stage for World War II SOL Standard: WHII.11/WHII.12a Kind of Lesson: Inquiry Inquiry Question: What conditions in the Interwar Period helped cause World War II?
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Unit:
The Interwar Years,
1918-1939
Overview: This lesson will be taught to high school sophomores in mid-March at a high school
in Virginia. The "Interwar Years" unit will last 4 days, plus a 5th day for a test. Provided pacing
holds true, I will begin teaching students about the rise of dictators in the interwar period on the
third day of the unit. This lesson is designed to kind of bridge the gap between SOL Standards 11
and 12a pertaining to the World History II course. It will, ideally, help review the information in
Standard 11 while preparing students to achieve Standard 12a.
Lesson objective(s):
1. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the economic developments during the
Interwar Period by citing causes of worldwide depression (SOL WHII.11).
2. The student will demonstrate knowledge of the worldwide impact of World War II by
a) explaining economic and political causes [of the war] (SOL WHII.12a).
3. By completing this inquiry-based lesson, students will be able to understand how
events and conditions of the Interwar Period laid the foundation for World War II.
4. Students will engage with primary and secondary sources by critically reading,
annotating, and analyzing these documents.
5. Students will use primary and secondary documents to locate evidence to answer the
inquiry around which the lesson is organized.
Procedure:
Activity 1:
1. Students will be organized into 6 groups with roughly equal numbers in each.
2. Once students have been grouped, they will remain in these groups for the majority of
the lesson and will be rotating to 6 different stations.
3. At each station, there will be a different document(s). (See Appendixes A-F). Each
document(s) at each station relates to at least one of the SOL-relevant (WHII.12a) causes
of World War II. These causes are:
I. Failures of the Treaty of Versailles
II. Aggression by totalitarian powers (Germany, Italy, Japan)
Subject: World History II
Grade Level: 10th
Day of Unit: 4
Topic: Setting the stage for World War II
SOL Standard: WHII.11/WHII.12a
Kind of Lesson: Inquiry
Inquiry Question: What conditions in the Interwar Period helped cause World War II?
III. Nationalism
IV. Weakness of the League of Nations
V. Appeasement
VI. Tendencies towards isolationism and pacifism in the U.S./Europe
VII. Economic depression
4. Before beginning to read the documents, the teacher will review the above potential
causes of WWII with the students together as a whole class. These will be written on the
board for student reference during the inquiry lesson activity.
5. Students will be given X minutes at each station (will depend on class/students).
I. At each station, students will read or "read" through the documents at that
station.
II. Students will then write down which of the SOL-approved causes of WWII
that document best supports on their inquiry worksheet (Appendix G).
6. After rotating through all the stations, the groups will have to pick which of the causes
they think was most responsible for causing WWII and give an explanation as to why.
I. The teacher will mark tally marks on the board next to the causes as students
select/nominate them for most influential cause.
Activity 2: 1. Teacher will direct the lesson to the rise of Hitler to power in Nazi Germany.
I. Students will also be given a primer on the film Triumph of the Will, so that
they have the necessary context/background knowledge before watching.
2. Students will receive a worksheet with questions about the Leni Riefenstahl film,
Triumph of the Will (Appendix H).
I. Link for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4gVcHE2HcU
3. Students will answer the questions on the worksheet about the film.
Assessment: Formative
Small group work/cooperation, worksheet on stations, engagement during
Triumph of the Will, Triumph of the Will questions
Document A:
Article 231of the Treaty of Versailles
(aka the "War Guilt" Clause) _____________________________________________
In November 1918 the fighting in the first Great War ended with the signing of the armistice. In
the summer of 1919 after six months of negations the Treaty of Versailles was signed. This
treaty did many things. One of the more impactful articles in regards to Germany was article 231.
This was the first article in part VIII of the Versailles Treaty called Reparations.
Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, known as the War Guilt Clause, was a statement that
Germany was responsible for beginning World War I. It reads as follows:
"The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts
the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and
damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their
nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed
upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies."
The War Guilt Clause was added in order to get the French and Belgians to agree to reduce the
sum of money that Germany would have to pay to compensate for war damage. The article was
seen as a concession to the Germans by the negotiators. It was bitterly resented, however, by
virtually all Germans who did not believe they were responsible for the outbreak of the war. This
article was a constant thorn in the side of the Weimar leaders who tried to meet the terms of the
agreement while trying to have these terms modified.
Document B:
Graph and Political Cartoons
Document C:
Political Cartoons
Document D:
Political Cartoon + Speech on Munich Agreement by Neville Chamberlain
… We had populations inflamed to a high degree; we had extremists on both sides ready to work up
and provoke incidents; we had considerable quantities of arms which were by no means confined to
regularly organised forces. Therefore, it was essential that we should quickly reach a conclusion,
so that this painful and difficult operation of transfer might be carried out at the earliest
possible moment and concluded as soon as was consistent, with orderly procedure, in order
that we might avoid the possibility of something that might have rendered all our attempts at
peaceful solution useless. . .
I pass from that subject, and I would like to say a few words in respect of the various other
participants, besides ourselves, in the Munich Agreement. After everything that has been said
about the German Chancellor today and in the past, I do feel that the House ought to recognise
the difficulty for a man in that position to take back such emphatic declarations as he had
already made amidst the enthusiastic cheers of his supporters, and to recognise that in
consenting, even though it were only at the last moment, to discuss with the representatives of other
Powers those things which he had declared he had already decided once for all, was a real and a
substantial contribution on his part. With regard to Signor Mussolini, . . . I think that Europe and the
world have reason to be grateful to the head of the Italian government for his work in contributing to
a peaceful solution…
Ever since I assumed my present office my main purpose has been to work for the
pacification of Europe, for the removal of those suspicions and those animosities which have so
long poisoned the air.
Document E:
Excerpts from Hitler's Obersalzberg Speech
… After all there are only three great statesmen in the world, Stalin, I and Mussolini.
Mussolini is the weakest, for he has been able to break the power neither of the crown nor
of the Church. Stalin and 1 are the only ones who visualise the future. So in a few weeks
hence I shall stretch out my hand to Stalin at the common German-Russian frontier and
with him undertake to re-distribute the world.
Our strength lies in our quickness and in our brutality; Genghis Khan has
sent millions of women and children into death knowingly and with a light heart.
History sees in him only the great founder of States. As to what the weak Western
European civilisation asserts about me, that is of no account. I have given the command
and I shall shoot everyone who utters one word of criticism, for the goal to be obtained in
the war is not that of reaching certain lines but of physically demolishing the opponent.
And so for the present only in the East 1 have put my death-head formations' in
place with the command relentlessly and without compassion to send into death
many women and children of Polish origin and language. Only thus we can gain the
living space [lebensraum] that we need. Who after all is today speaking about the
destruction of the Armenians?
… To be sure a new situation has arisen. I experienced those poor worms Daladier and
Chamberlain in Munich. They will be too cowardly to attack. They won't go beyond a
blockade. Against that we have our autarchy and the Russian raw materials.
Poland will be depopulated and settled with Germans. My pact with the Poles was
merely conceived of as a gaining of time. As for the rest, gentlemen, the fate of
Russia will be exactly the same as 1 am now going through with in the case of
Poland. After Stalin's death-he is a very sick man-we will break the Soviet Union. Then
there will begin the dawn [and spread] of the German rule of the earth…