Interwar Era Unit Plan

HEADING
Kate Collier 20th Century Conflict, 7th grade 2 90-minute periods & 1 45-minute
period/week
Interwar Era

OVERVIEW/ RATIONALE
This two-month long unit is designed for a 7 th grade 20th Century Conflict course.
Constructed around essential questions and enduring understandings, students will be
actively and critically engaged in materials and content from the Interwar Era. Specifically,
students will learn and come to understand the tumultuous political climate of the 1930s,
the chaotic economic situation of the 1930s, and changing gender roles and relations of the
1930s. In addition, students in their small group sessions will continue to read and explore
themes in one of two novels, either Stay Where You Are and Then Leave or All Quiet on the
Western Front, which focus on life on the home front or on the front lines during WWI,
respectively.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Government
1. What is power?
2. How is power gained, used, and justified?
3. Why do people fight?
4. Is conflict inevitable? Desirable? Avoidable?
5. What is worth fighting for?
6. How are governments created, structured, maintained, and changed?
7. What happens in the absence of government?
8. How did totalitarian governments rise throughout the world?
9. What is revolution?
10. How did communist governments rise throughout the world?
Geography
1. How did geography play a role in the Interwar Era?
2. How did varying populations within geographic borders effect the Interwar
Era?
Economics
1. What are economic systems?
2. What effect do economic systems have on society?
3. How are economic resources distributed?
4. Why did the world experience the Great Depression?
5. How did the Great Depression change the world?
Gender Roles
1. What is suffrage?
2. How did womens gender roles change or remain the same in different
countries?
3. What caused them to either change or remain the same?
Primary/Secondary Sources
1. What is the purpose of using both primary and secondary sources?
2. Why do we need to critically evaluate what we read?
3. How does reading fiction help to acquire factual information?
Writing
1. How does each step in the process impact your writing?
2. What am I trying to achieve through my writing?
3. How can we use evaluation and reflection to improve our writing?

1
 Presentation
1. How does each step in the process impact your presentation?
2. What am I trying to achieve through my presentation?
3. How can we use evaluation and reflection to improve our presentations?
4. What makes an effective presentation?
Research/bibliography
1. How do I find information? - how and where do I locate sources?
2. What resources are available?
3. How do I know it is a good source?
4. How will I give credit to my sources?
5. How will I record the information I find?
6. What tools can I use to organize my thoughts and information?
Group work
1. How can I be a good group member?
2. How can I learn to work together effectively towards a common purpose
with others?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS/GOALS/OBJECTIVES
Content/Enduring Understandings:
o Students will be able to identify the political, economic, and social conditions
that existed within the Interwar Era.
o Students will understand how these combined conditions caused WWII.
o Students will be able to compare and contrast different types of political
governments and economic systems.
o Students will be able to understand why and how womens roles changed in
between the World Wars.
Skills/Goals/Objectives:
o Students will develop skills in analysis of primary and secondary sources.
o Students will draw explicit connections between literature and history to
understand deep knowledge of wartime events on the home front and/or
front lines during WWI.
o Students will understand that writing is a process.
o Students will understand that the use of proper formats (spelling, grammar,
structure) results in effective communication in writing.
o Students will understand that writing is a tool used for thinking, learning,
and communicating.
o Students will practice presentation skills.
o Students will understand that the use of proper formats spelling, grammar,
structure results in effective communication in presentations.
o Students will learn where to find reputable historical information.
o Students will understand how to cite sources in MLA format for information
and pictures.
o Students will learn organization skills in recording research.
o Students will learn what it means to be a good group member.
o Students will learn how to collaborate with their peers.