Sarah Wieking

Author: Sarah Wieking

Target Students: 10th/11th Grade History Students

Historical Skills: Sourcing and Contextualizing

The Road to Nazi Power:

This lesson will be imbedded into a unit on World War II. Therefore, students should already know about the devastation that Germany faced in the post-WWI era. They will know that they endured a dramatic economic recession resulting from the Versailles Treaty and the Great Depression. They will understand the helpless aura of the nation at that time. As a review, we will highlight elements that led to Hitler’s rise to power.

Students will be asked to consider why Hitler was able to gain so much power and support so quickly.

Examples for students to consider: Hitler promised the downtrodden citizens a new and better life, as well as a new Germany. The Nazis attracted the unemployed, the young, and the lower middle classes.

Students will be asked to write down their own definition of Nationalism and then share it with their neighbors. Then a few will share them with the class. Specific elements of nationalism will be emphasized as a class: a feeling of superiority over other countries and the feeling that nations should act independently of each other.

Students will be asked to consider nationalism in Germany and the background knowledge that they know of that time when watching the propaganda video.

The Power of Propaganda:

Then the class will briefly go over the definition of propaganda and how students think it could have been employed in WWII Germany.

Students will then watch the propaganda film: Triumph des Willens (1935). By Leni Riefenstahl

Before they begin watching, each student will be divided into “element groups” and asked to consider one of the following key aspects of the film: the soundtrack, the tone and noise of crowds and speakers, and the visual elements.

The class will watch the opening scene of Hitler flying into Nuremberg and then Hitler’s speech at minute 55:00.

Starter thought provoking question: What do you think Hitler’s entrance from the sky symbolizes? ——- Students will write down their own answers and then share with each other, hopefully noticing that his descent from the sky alludes to his representation as a “savior”.

Activity:

As a class, students will look at a timeline of events in pre-war Germany. The teacher will guide them into noticing the events in the year 1924, the year before the propaganda was filmed. Students will therefore notice that on August 2nd, Hitler became president in addition to chancellor. Furthermore, on August 19th, a plebiscite was held to determine Hitler’s support. 90% said that they approved of his powers. For a timeline: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/nazi-germany/nazi-germany-timeline/

Students will then meet with the other members of their “element groups” and share their findings about the significance of the elements they noticed. Then they will split into groups of three with those of different “element groups” and share their new ideas. They will be asked to consider their answers in answering the future questions.

Students will be asked to answer these following questions in small groups:

Sourcing Question: Who was the intended audience of this propaganda film?

Contextualizing Questions:

What is significant about the date that the film was released? (March 28, 1935)
How does the video reflect the overall mood of the country during that time?
How does our background information support what is seen in the video?
How can we see nationalism at play in this video?

Their answers will be shared to the whole class and we will write down answers on the board to show connections. Then students in the different element groups will contribute significant features they noticed that help support these answers.

Then students will be asked the essential question in a quick write:

Why did so many ordinary German citizens rally behind Hitler and join the Nazi Party?

We will go over this as a class after they have completed writing their individual answers.

Reflection:

I think that this mini lesson may need some work in its structuring. When I teach this, I want to ask these same questions and ask students to perform these tasks, but I hope to find better methods in doing so. It definitely needs to fit within an overall unit of WWII, hopefully in a world history class so that students also understand the significant after-effects that WWI caused for Germany. The main purpose of this lesson is to approach learning about Germany in WWII from a unique angle. I want students to see what led up to not simply a war, but how a desperate country rallied behind a man who promised change and a brighter future. Therefore, ordinary citizens joined a political party that we could hardly fathom ever joining. I want students to put themselves in the shoes of German citizens of the time and realize just why Hitler was able to gain so many supporters. This lesson will build upon previous lessons towards lessons on the beginning of WWII. Students will also learn about the power of nationalism and propaganda through this lesson.

Creator: Georg Pahl

Date of Publication: September 1934

Archive: Bundesarchiv.de Bild 102-04062A

Sgt. Johnny Clem

This is a lesson study on a lesson designed for an eighth grade Language Arts class.

Content

In this lesson students will partake in silent reading, quick writing, oral reading, and reading comprehension. Students will spend ten minutes at the start of class silent reading and reflecting on their reading using evidence from the text to support their reasoning. Students will then engage in a brief lesson on historical fiction. Students will learn that historical fiction pieces could be in the form of either movies or novels, so long as they are partially historically accurate and partially fictitious, thus illuminating a historical event or time period. Students will also learn about the battle of Shiloh and drummer boys in the civil war in order to gain context for the short story, The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury. Students will then learn, through reading The Drummer Boy of Shiloh what life was like for a drummer boy during the civil war. Students will also make connections between this historical fiction piece and the actual events of the battle and therefore what it would have been like for Johnny Clem, a drummer boy, at this battle. Students will also discover through the introductory lesson and the reading just how significant drummer boys in the Civil War were. After reading through this short story, students will use their recall, inference and citing skills in order to answer nine questions about the text.

Process

In terms of materials, this lesson plan will require students to have their SSR books, their journals in order to write their quick writes, and their literature textbooks which contain Ray Bradbury’s short story The Drummer Boy of Shiloh and accompanying reading questions. In the beginning of the class, students will read their SSR books silently and individually after reading the agenda for the day. After ten minutes of silent reading, students will listen to instructions for their quick write. They will then use the prompts on the overhead to silently write a quick response for ten minutes as the teacher circulates the room keeping everyone on track. The key is for students to refer to evidence in the text to write their responses. Next the class will listen to and engage in an introduction to the short story, featuring a lesson on historical fiction and drummers in the civil war. The lesson will begin by defining historical fiction. The teacher will ask the students if they have any guesses of what historical fiction is, then the teacher will provide a definition. Next students will be called upon to share possible historical fiction examples. Then the activity is concluded by a visual of a varied selection of historical fiction pieces. Next students will learn about the Battle at Shiloh, where the story takes place- its date, location, generals, specifics and so on. After looking at some visual representations of the battle, students will also learn about drummer boys in the civil war, specifically about Johnny Clem, the boy that the drummer in the story is most likely based off of. They will listen to drum calls in order to understand the significance of the drummers’ job- calling out the general’s orders. Then students will all participate in popcorn reading the short story as the teacher occasionally pauses the reading to ask guided reading questions in order to keep students on track. In this way, students are expected to refer to the text in order to participate. Students will then be asked to answer the “recall” and “interpret” questions regarding the story as well as a quick write on the significance and purpose of the drummer boy’s job. After they have completed these, they will turn them in, or finish them the next day. All of this is meant to be in-class work.

Product

By the end of this lesson plan, students will have produced a quick write in response to their silent reading, as well as answers to the recall, interpret, and analyze questions regarding the short story. Throughout the lesson they will also be asked to participate in reading aloud with the class. Their quick writes will demonstrate their ability to use evidence and examples from their reading to explain their answers to the question. This could be in the form of making connections, analyzing, or reflecting on the text. The reading questions that relate to the short story will ask them to recall facts from the story in addition to interpreting and analyzing pieces of the story. They will also produce a quick write on the significance of the drummer boy- using what they learned from both the short lesson on drummer boys as well as the story.

Evaluation

The lesson will be assessed through the students’ quick writes and their answers to the questions pertaining to the short story. I will also be able to assess their oral reading skills as students read out loud to the class. Their understanding of the reading will be constantly checked through their answers to the guided reading questions.

What kinds of thinking will students need to do to participate in the lesson?

Students will need to practice their critical thinking skills in this lesson. They will be asked to make connections between the civil war and this historical fiction piece. Students are expected to interpret and make inferences about the text in order to answer reading questions.

To what extent do students have options or choices regarding these lesson components?

The lesson provides students with several opportunities to choose between options. Students have already selected the SSR books that they want to read all unit long. There will also be five different prompts that they can choose from in order to write their quick writes. However, students will be required to read Bradbury’s short story and to write answers to the selected questions about the short story.

Reflection:

The peer review of my lesson study was extremely helpful for me. I added quite a bit after we went over it together. I got some excellent feedback and suggestions for different activities. After discussing my lesson study, I added the certain elements to the historical lesson piece. This lesson went very well overall. There were a few bumps, particularly in transitions. But students were very engaged and really enjoyed the visuals and the examples of the drum calls. It went mostly as I had planned, just maybe a bit behind schedule. The end result was incredible. My students completed an excellent final product and showed great understanding.

Image Credit: Sgt. Johnny Clem (1863),
The Library of Congress Call Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-34511
Notes: Photograph shows identified young soldier in uniform; he served in Co. C, 22nd Michigan Infantry Regiment from May 1, 1863 to September 19, 1864.