Steffaney Wilcox

Lesson Plan
Ed Tech 1
Professor Vega

World War I Geography & Propaganda Lesson Plan

NYS Standards:
History/Social Studies Standard 1: Key Ideas and Details: 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.
History/Social Studies Standard 2: Craft and Structure: Analyze how a text uses
structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.
History/Social Studies Standard 3: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Compare and
contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
Technology Standard 1: Computational Thinker: Students will develop and employ
strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of
technological methods to develop and test solutions.

Objectives:
1) Student will be able to identify the major countries involved in WWI and their
locations, testing their regional knowledge using an online geography quiz.
2) Student will be able to define the term propaganda and its uses in war, using
knowledge from the course and the online primary source collections used in
class.
3) Students will create propaganda/war posters similar to those used in WWI in the
United States, citing primary sources used inside class and through an online
collection.
4) Students will be able to state the advantages and disadvantages of using
propaganda/war posters throughout WWI.
5) Students will be able to interact with multiple online resources, testing their
knowledge, giving them additional content on WWI or assessing their ability to
interact with different technical sites.

Introduction of Learning Activity:

Students will be learning the beginning stages of World War I, setting the scene
for what is to come later in the war. This lesson aims to teach students the regions in
which WWI was fought, in addition to the war propaganda which was created during the
time period. This lesson will teach students the progression of the war through
animated maps, giving a detailed look into the geography of the war, as well as through
primary source war posters of the time. Motivation for this topic will come from the
analysis and creation of propaganda posters similar to the primary sources we will be
studying. The geography portion of this lesson will be tested through an online
geography challenge/quiz.

Provide Information:
The instructor will begin the lesson by outlining the beginning of WWI and the
countries involved. By using maps on the board, the instructor will show the students
what portions of the World were affected by WWI and who the important countries
involved were. Using a printed handout to identify the key alliances throughout the war,
students will be able to identify involved countries. The instructor would then segway to
using the animated map from the BBC, teaching students about the first few stages of
WWI.

Animated Map: The Western Front: 1914-1918

Stage 1: The creation of alliances throughout Europe in 1914.
Stage 2: The Schlieffen Plan was created by the Germans, as they feared a war on two
fronts, to go through neutral Belgium to encircle Paris, France.
Stage 3: The British attempted to stop the German Advancement through France but
were forced to retreat.
Stage 4: The German forces were then attacked by the French, causing both sides to
dig in trench warfare begins.
Stage 5: Race to the Sea: Both forces attempted to outflank the other, racing to the
north to the sea.
The animated map of the Western Front continues to outline more of the war but
this is the extent of what would be used in this class period. This section of the
animated map is helpful to outline the beginning of the war to the students, giving some
context to the geography of the war and the beginnings of trench warfare. After this
section of the lesson plan is complete, the instructor would have the students log onto
the Traveler IQ Challenge website, select Europe and begin the quiz to test their
retained geographical knowledge for 5 minutes.
The instructor will then introduce the BBC World War I site, emphasizing the true
stories of people throughout the war and the articles which give additional information
about WWI. Additionally, students can test their knowledge outside of class in a few
games to discover what they remember about WWI. Future classes would continue to
teach WWI using the animated map of the Western Front and other sources.
 During the last portion of class, the instructor would introduce the topic of war
posters and the term propaganda. Using primary sources from the Calisphere website,
the instructor would highlight 2-3 posters, demonstrating how to analyze the content of a
poster to the students. The instructor would then create small groups to have the
students practice analysis of a poster then share their findings with the class as a
whole.
Analysis of a war poster includes discussion of any text used in the poster, prior
knowledge of the time period, analysis of the images, what the authors intent was, and
the overall message of the poster. The discussion of the text would include whether it is
dialogue or description, what the tone of the text is, and any other context of the written
words which could act as a clue for the intent of the poster. The prior knowledge could
highlight key features of the poster or give the student the ability to make inferences of
the poster. The analysis of the images would include the use of color, the portrayal of
the characters, what the setting is, or what is being depicted. The intent of the author
includes both the analysis of the images, the text and any prior knowledge of the time
period. The overall message of the poster encapsulates all of these features. The
instructor would then assign an assessment for the course in the form of an assignment
on creating a war poster.
For homework: Create a WWI propaganda/war poster similar to the primary
sources discussed in class. Use the Calisphere website to browse other primary
sources within the collection of American Posters from World War I. In addition, review
the animated map of the Western Front and have fun discovering more of the WWI BBC
website.

Provide Practice:
Throughout the section of the lesson where the animated map of the Western
Front is used, the instructor should be asking the students questions and giving the
students time to ask questions as well. The Traveler IQ Challenge would provide the
students with practice of their geography skills. Throughout the demonstration of
analysis of posters, the instructor should be asking the students questions about each
section. When the students break into smaller groups they will conduct analysis of their
poster, demonstrating the skills the instructor presented. As they are in small groups,
this is a low stress environment where each student has the opportunity to discuss their
opinions. Then each small group would present their findings to the class, as a group,
giving each student an opportunity to present what they know. The homework and
additional website provides students with the practice of their knowledge of WWI as well
as practice the development of a WWI related poster based on the steps of their
previous analysis.
Review the Activity:
The instructor would verbally summarize what they went over in the animated
map of the Western Front, the alliances of WWI and the uses of propaganda in WWI at
the conclusion of the class. This would occur prior to the assignment of the homework,
to make sure students had time to ask questions or review any portion of the class. The
introduction of the BBC World War I site would act as a place for students to ask
questions prior to the propaganda/war poster section of the class. The presentations of
the discussions from each small group would act as a review of how to analyze a war
poster before the homework assignment is introduced.

Assessment:
Assessments of this class would take place in a number of different ways.
Throughout the first section of the class, the instructor would use an informal
assessment of the students knowledge by gauging their engagement in the geography
and animated map of the Western Front. A more formal assessment would take place
while the students are testing their geographical knowledge, with the instructor walking
around the classroom, visually seeing where students are. The next section of the class
includes the discussion on war posters used in WWI. The instructor would rely upon
student participation during their demonstration of poster analysis to see if students are
paying attention. While in the small groups, the teacher should be walking around the
room, asking each group questions about their analysis of their poster. Verbally asking
students questions as a whole class about their small group discussions would act as a
final assessment for this class period. For homework, however, the assignment
includes both a creative element, knowledge of WWI, use of primary sources, and use
of technology to be presented and graded when handed in.

Resources:

The Traveler IQ Challenge: This website has a multitude of geography challenges which
you can test your knowledge in different regions or the entire world. Tests capitals,
famous places, and world heritage sites.

BBC Animated Map of the Western Front 1914-1918: This activity takes students
through the stages of World War I, using an interactive map to teach both the locations
of events and the progression of the war throughout Europe. Each section of the map
provides an explanation of that section and details its significance.
Calisphere: American Posters from World War I: This website holds collections of
primary source documents including a collection of posters from the United States in
WWI.

NYS Common Core Standards for History/Social Studies: This section of the NYS
Common Core Standards page details the different standards for History/Social Studies.

Technology Standards: This website includes the standards for teaching using
technology to better teach students content specific subjects.

BBC Timeline: Small timeline of WWI including sections detailing the western front
timeline, the home front, the outbreak of the war and events throughout each section.

BBC World War I: Includes timelines, true stories of people in the war, games, articles,
and poems. Interactive website for students to use to discover stories of people living in
WWI, timelines of events throughout WWI, and games which test their use of
technologies of the war such as gas, tanks, planes, etc.