I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

The Consequences of Progress

Essential Question:

After studying the impact of technology of new weapons on World War 1, what correlation can be draw

Bridge:

Anonymity of Warfare

Content:

The Impact of Technology on World War 1

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: Students will make a visual display of the modern technology they feel will have the most impact in the future.

Activity: Ask your students to think about current technology and the technology they feel will have the biggest impact on the future. Then have them create a visual display showing the impact of those technologies on the future. When the visuals are completed have students explain their visual and how they feel it will impact the future. Draw students’ attention to technology’s impact on individuality in the future.

Assessment:Engagement. Everybody likes to make predictions about the future. Working on this assignment should get students thinking about the impact of technology.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: Students will write an essay exploring the impact of current technology on individuality.

Activity: Ask your students to think about the impact of technology on individuality and write an essay examining ways in which technology has made their daily lives less personal. When student essays are finished ask for volunteers to share their ideas with the class.

Assessment: Student essays can be collected and graded for content, style, and depth

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: Students will gain insight into the possible negative impact of current and future technology on their lives.

Activity: Have students pick a partner or form a group of three. Tell students that they are to choose a piece of current technology and plan a brief skit describing how that technology might make warfare increasingly anonymous.

Assessment:Amusement and Reflection. Students should have fun with this part of the lesson, but still be contemplating the negative impacts of technology

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: Students will understand the impact of technology on World War I.

Activity: Deliver a lecture over trench warfare during World War I. Emphasize that new and improved weapons (machine guns, long range artillery, poison gas) forced the nations of Europe into trench warfare and made indiscriminate killing possible. Describe conditions in the trenches and discuss the futility of battles like the Somme, Verdun and Paschendale always emphasizing the experience of the individual.

To supplement and emphasize your points about technology and its impact on the war you could show excerpts from any of the following movies:
All Quiet on the Western Front
Paths of Glory
Gallipoll
Legends of the Fall
You might also read selected passages from Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Robert Graves’ Goodbye to All That, and the poems of Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Seigfried Sassoon, or Billy Rose.

Assessment: Horrified. Students should be shocked by the horrible conditions and useless slaughter that took place during World War I.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: Students will apply what they have learned about the impact of technology on World War I to create an original letter written from the point of view of a World War I soldier.

Activity: Tell your students to pretend that they are a World War I soldier who has just survived a big battle. Then have them write a letter home to their family describing what took place and life in the trenches.

Assessment:Student letters can be evaluated based on the amount of information from the lecture they incorporated

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: Students will generate ideas for creative projects showing the effects current or future technology might have on warfare.

Activity: Students, either working in pairs or small groups, will meet and develop ideas for a short play, visual display, short-story, or poem that depicts their ideas about the impact of current or future technology on warfare and or technology as a deterrent to future warfare. Allow your students as much freedom to be creative as possible, but remind them to keep their works within the boundaries of good taste.

Assessment: Enthusiastic. Students should feel comfortable to explore their creative ideas and enjoy working collaboratively to create something that will entertain and enlighten their classmates

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: Students will refine and improve their creative projects by meeting with other groups.

Activity: Have student groups combine to form larger groups. Have each small group present their creative project to the larger group and instruct those not presenting to list ways to improve the creative projects, confusing elements within the project, and new ideas.

Assessment:Eager. After receiving their peer critiques each group should be eager to improve their creative project and ready it for presentation

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: Students will celebrate what they have learned about the impact of technology by presenting their creative project to the class.

Activity: Have student groups present their creative projects to the class. When all groups have presented lead a brief class discussion in which the idea of some negative impacts of technology for society.

Assessment:Pride. Students should be proud of their ability to demonstrate what they have learned creatively.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: