Unit Title The War To End All Wars Lesson Title Total

War and Life on the Battlefields

Goals & Objectives
Students will understand major turning points of the war and life on the
battlefront.
Students will understand what is meant by total war and why WWI was a
total war.
Given various primary source documents, students will consider what life in
the trenches was like for soldiers fighting in WWI and will relate to the civilian
population and total war by writing a diary entry taking on the perspective of
a civilian living through total war or a soldier in the trenches.
California State Content Standards
HSS 10.5 Students analyze the causes and course of the First
World War.
1. Analyze the arguments for entering into war presented by leaders
from all sides of the Great War and the role of political and economic
rivalries, ethnic and ideological conflicts, domestic discontent and disorder,
and propaganda and nationalism in mobilizing the civilian population in
support of "total war."
4. Understand the nature of the war and its human costs (military and
civilian) on all sides of the conflict, including how colonial peoples
contributed to the war effort.
Common Core Literacy Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a
primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key
events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.6. Compare the point of view of two or more
authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details
they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.
Driving Historical Question
How did war in the trenches impact the soldiers?
What is total war and what makes WWI a total war?

Lesson Introduction (Anticipatory Set/Hook/Accessing Prior Knowledge)

Time:
The teacher will introduce the lesson by showing a video clip of WWI
propaganda depicting the Germans as evil Huns. After the video, the teacher
will ask the students about what they saw. The teacher will ask the students
who was being targeted in the clip and how they were being depicted. The
teacher will then ask the students what the purpose of having a propaganda
film is.
Vocabulary (Content Language Development) Time: 5
Key vocabulary:
Total War
Civilian
Trenches

Content Delivery (Method of Instruction) Time: 45

Day 1: After the introduction, the teacher will introduce the class to the
concept of total war. The teacher will ask students to take out a piece of
paper and will ask them to take Cornell notes on the vocabulary that will be
presented in class. The title of the Cornell notes will be Life As A Civilian/Life
As A Soldier During WWI. On the left side of the notes, students will write
down total war. On the right side they will write down the definition that will
be given by the teacher. The teacher will then ask the students what civilian
means. The students will write this definition in their notes as well. The
teacher will go over the various ways that total war affected the civilian
population during WWI. The teacher will present the class with various
propaganda posters asking civilians to pay for bonds, enlist into the army,
ration food, etc. The teacher will also ask the students if they think
changing laws and modes of production during war is necessary for war time
success or if civilians should be left out of the conflict. The teacher will ask
the students how they would have felt living through this time and will ask
them to write down their reflection in their notes.
The teacher will then go over life in the trenches. The teacher will show
pictures of soldiers in the trenches. The teacher will introduce the students
to the idea of trench foot. The teacher will also call upon prior knowledge
and will remind the students that gas was being used as a weapon during
this war. The teacher will go over the effects of poison gas on the battlefield

as well as the other new technologies being used at the time. The teacher
will introduce the students to the concept of shell shock as well.
Day 2: The teacher will then pass out handouts with several primary sources
that further showcase what life was like for those living a civilian life and for
those who ended up in the battlefield. The teacher will instruct the students
on the correct way to look at a primary source document. The teacher will
tell the students that they must source the document, put the document in
context, close read document, and corroborate the document. The teacher
will go over these criteria with the whole class, using document A as the
example. The teacher will let the students know that they will have to write
a journal entry or letter that takes on the perspective of either a civilian
going through total war or a soldier fighting in the trenches. The diary entry
or letter must be at least four paragraphs long and must include details from
each of the documents provided. The documents must be cited within the
letter or diary entry to ensure that students used the primary sources
provided.
Student Engagement (Critical Thinking & Student Activities) Time:
Day 1: Students will be taking Cornell notes on the information given in class
and will participate in class discussion.
Day 2: Students will have class time to work on the document questions;
whatever is not finished will be homework. Students may answer the
questions to the documents in pairs. Students will have to read through the
primary sources provided and answer specific questions based on the
sources. The questions will ask the students how they feel about the primary
source provided and will ask the students to try to picture themselves during
that time. This will prepare students for the summative assessment that will
follow the lesson. Students should keep in mind when they are reading the
primary sources that they have to write a diary entry or letter from the
perspective of a civilian or a soldier. As they are reading the sources, the
questions provided will help the students place themselves in the time
period. Students would then have a day to work on their letters as
homework.

Lesson Closure Time: 5

The lesson will close with the teacher going over the assignment once again
and will answer any questions regarding the assignment. The teacher will let
the students know that this assignment
Assessments (Formative & Summative)

There will be a summative assessment for this unit. Students will be

required to produce a diary entry or letter from the perspective of either a
civilian experiencing total war or a soldier in the trenches.
Accommodations for English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with
Special Needs
English Learners: The documents would also have been modified to make it
easier to read. For example, some words in the kings speech have been
modernized. The primary sources provided do not solely focus on reading to
gain understanding. Students will be asked to analyze posters as primary
sources. These posters do not have much text so English learners will not
have to worry about difficult vocabulary. They will still be receiving the same
message from looking at propaganda posters but they will not have to read
heavy text to arrive at meaning. English learners would also benefit from
writing a letter or diary entry instead of a research paper. This assignment
asks students to consider historical empathy. They have to write from
emotion and successfully place themselves in the time period using the
documents provided. This type of writing is easier than writing a research
paper and English learners would benefit from this type of writing because
they are still getting the content necessary to conceptualize the content but
are presenting their knowledge in a way that is more accessible.
Striving Readers: The documents provided would have difficult vocabulary
defined within the text and students would be encouraged to use their
phones as a dictionary if they find a difficult word in the text. Striving readers
will benefit from the Cornell notes taken in class. Students would know the
vocabulary necessary to place the primary sources into context, which is
important to getting meaning from a document. By going over the
vocabulary and by going over what is meant by total war and showing
images of life on the battlefield, striving readers would be able to look at the
primary source documents and would understand that the document deal
with information presented in class. Striving readers can also work with a
partner to answer the document questions. Even though a striving reader
may have difficulty with decoding text, they will have a partner that will help
them with the documents.
Students with Special Needs: Students with special needs would benefit from
taking down Cornell notes. This specific type of note taking would act as
their graphic organizer. This will ensure that students will have the
information necessary to place the documents in context and the information
would be more accessible because it would be written down in a specific way.
This lesson is based on analysis and historical empathy and is asking
students to place themselves in the time period. The types of documents
students will have to analyze and how the contextual information is

presented in class, does not solely focus on writing. This would be a multimedia lesson that would engage all different types of learners.
Resources (Books, Websites, Handouts, Materials)
Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen
firstworldwar.com
ww1propoganda.com