Learning Context/ Introduction
The Great War of 1914-1918 significantly shaped the course of the Twentieth Century, both at home and abroad. How can this pivotal event be personalized and brought to life for students in the new millennium? Unfortunately, increasingly fewer survivors of the World War I era are alive today to directly share their recollections of this historical time. By delving into the unique resources of American Memory and by creating two World War I-period newspapers of differing perspectives, students can gain an enduring understanding of The Great War
Duration
4 weeks
Objectives
Upon completion of this unit, students will:
- utilize varied primary sources to develop a cohesive, comprehensive and historically accurate picture of the World War I era;
- analyze the historical impact of World War I on the U.S. homefront;
- broaden their technological expertise by learning Microsoft Publisher and producing two versions of a WWI-era newspaper; and,
- answer the following essential questions:
What can be learned about the American character from the manner by which the United States mobilized, prepared, and participated in a world war?
Were the political and military goals of the Great War worth the staggering loss of human life and social disruption?
How does the World War of 1914-1918 validate or contradict our feelings of patriotism and reinforce or tear down our pride and gratitude of being Americans?
How does the unfolding of World War I foreshadow the role of the United States as a prominent world power of the twentieth century?
Procedure
This unit consists of three lessons which can be taught sequentially. It is also possible to use a single lesson if time constraints do not permit devoting four weeks to the study of World War I. Before beginning the unit, we provide students with background knowledge of World War I. We view portions of the PBS series The Great War up until the entry of the United States into the conflict. As our American Memory World War I unit unfolds, we continue to watch remaining segments of the PBS videos.
Lesson One - Introduction to American Memory and Primary Sources
Lesson Two - American Leaders Speak
Lesson Three - Newspaper Project
Lesson One
This lesson will introduce you to the resources of American Memory. You will view several "Today in History" pages that focus on World War I events. How do you search for relevant primary source material? How can a photograph, newspaper article, song, or speech enrich your understanding of the Great War?
- American Memory consists of more than ninety collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library of Congress.
- You can browse a listing of all collections and use the search tool to locate primary source material. Do not think of American Memoryas an encyclopedia or textbook as it is more like a museum or archive with some unique resources or treasures to be found.
- Today in History has an archivesearch feature to locate material by full text, specific day, or month. Searching for "World War I" yields the following key pages:
- June 28, 1914 is an important date usually associated with the start of World War I. Browse the page.
- Click on the link to Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs.
- You can search for other WWI-era photos in this collection by using keyword search, typing in "world war 1914-1918" and setting pull down menu to exact phrase with number of bibliographic records returned increased to 500.
- The subject index browse feature suggests many useful subheadings under World War, 1914-1918.
- June 28, 1914 also has some interesting World War I-era sheet music.
- July 15, 1948 provides important background material on General Pershing.
Lesson Two
Actual sound recordings from the World War I era are available to us through American Leaders Speak. The Library of Congress holds fifty-nine recordings of speeches by U.S. leaders at the turn of the century. The speeches focus on issues and events surrounding the war and the subsequent presidential election of 1920.
- The American Leaders Speak collection is made up of recordings from The Nation's Forum. The collection represents an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans. In most cases, these audio files are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. The Department of State's Committee on Public Information (a governmental propaganda ministry) endorsed the Nation's Forum.
- The Gallery of World War I Speakers allows you to link to a particular speech and display the audio file and text. Listen to Franklin K. Lane's The Nation in Arms. This speech will be further studied in class using the American Leaders Speak Analysis sheet.
- You will be assigned a speech to analyze for homework using the American Leaders Speak Analysis sheet. There are eighteen speeches in the gallery. The speeches of Pershing and Lane (already analyzed by the class) will not be assigned to individual students. You will be given library research time to use print resources in order to respond to question #10 on the worksheet.
- When students have completed the lesson two assignment, the teacher will pay particular attention to the responses to question #9: "Select a theme, event, or issue mentioned or alluded to in the speech that you wish to further investigate". Your teacher will use this feedback to assign each student to a relevant department or topic for the newspaper assignment in lesson three.
Lesson Three
In this lesson, you will use your familiarity with American Memory and prior knowledge of WWI to create two WWI-era newspapers - each with an opposing viewpoint regarding American involvement in the war effort.
Each member of the class is serving on the staff of a World War I-era newspaper. One newspaper supports the war, the other paper opposes the war. If you are a reporter, it is your job to complete the sequence of tasks listed below. Additional instructions for just the publisher and editorial board are given in italics.
- Check with the Publisher of your particular newspaper and receive your assignment.
- View the newspaper Department Assignments page and note your duties and responsibilities.
- Go to the Newswire page of suggested American Memory links. Begin your research and be ready to report back on two potential sources to use for the basis of your newspaper article. Analyze these two sources by means of the Primary Source Analysis sheet.
- Share your initial findings when the Publisher reconvenes your newspaper staff. Discuss the links which you explored via the Newswire and analyzed via the Primary Source Analysis sheet.
- Publisher and Editorial Board meet to determine specific topic assignments for reporters. The assignments for the Photographic and Print Division are coordinated with the stories being covered by the reporting staff.
- Study the Newspaper Guidelines. Develop one particular article in depth as directed by your Publisher. Conduct additional research using the Research Library.
- Submit a rough draft of your article to the Publisher and Editorial Board for review.
- Publisher and Editorial Board prepare comments, suggestions for revision.
- Rewrite, polish and fine tune your article or photograph or print, following the feedback supplied to you by the Publisher and editorial staff.
- The Editorial Board is directed by the Publisher to produce a final version of each newspaper and to distribute copies to the entire class.
- Read the opposing viewpoint newspaper. Evaluate the other paper by means of a Peer Review form. The evaluation process is done at the departmental level. In other words, if you are a Mobilization Unit reporter on one paper, you review the work of a mobilization reporter on the other paper.
- Join in a general question and answer session and voice your concerns to the Publisher or Editorial Board. Engage in a discussion of the essential questions.
Resources
American Memory
Today in History
The African-American Experience in Ohio
African-American Odyssey
American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election
American Variety Stage
Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection
Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 - 1940
On the Homefront: America During World War I and World War II (an activity from The Learning Page)
Stars and Stripes
Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921
Support Materials
American Leaders Speak Analysis
Department Assignments
Lesson One
Lesson Two
Lesson Three
Newswire
Newspaper Guidelines
Primary Source Analysis
Research Library
Peer Review
Author
Scott Durham and Margaret Lincoln
Source
Reproduced with permission from the Library of Congress. Lesson Plan was created through the American Memory Fellows Program, and appears on The Learning Page.
