Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/B-24D’s_fly_over_Polesti_during_World_War_I.jpg
This week I started working on my Google Site for my document based lesson on World War I. I am focusing my lesson on the human costs of war (death, injury, mental illness, etc.) My vision is to show students images, primary source documents (journal entries), poems, and excerpts from All Quiet on the Western Front. From these sources, they will uncover the human costs of World War I. They will see the physical and mental toll the war had on soldiers and the tragic loss of millions of lives.
To showcase their knowledge of the essential question (what are the human costs of total warfare?), students will take on the role of a soldier in WWI. As an assessment, they will write journal entries from the perspective of a soldier in the trenches during WWI. They should have 5-6 entries that reflect the information they learned through the document based lesson. (Amount of journal entries can be differentiated, if needed.)Creativity is encouraged! They will have an opportunity to peer edit in class.
Excellent essential question and your student product – journal entries from the perspective of a soldier – is a great output that will also serve as an assessment. Students could be asked to utilize some of the primary source material in their fictional accounts. It also opens the door for a follow up discussion regarding the extent to which the “student-written” accounts were “historically accurate.”