World History teaching resources for the high school classroom: lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes and simulation games for KS3, IGCSE, IB and A-Level teachers.
This unit forms part of the World War One materials at ActiveHistory:
Causes of World War One
Life in the Trenches in World War One
Causes for Germany's Defeat in World War One
Remembrance Day: Activities for all Year Groups
Battlefields Trip: itinerary, workpack and follow-up activities
Origins of WW1 and WW2: Comparisons and Contrasts
A. What was the Social and Economic Impact of World War One upon two of the Countries Involved? |
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| 1. | Wiki Project In this worksheet, students are allocated different research projects about World War One upon which to produce a wiki page [samples available here]. |
| 2. | Essay Task In this worksheet, students consider the types of questions that come up in the exam, and use the wikis produced by each other to plan and then write an answer. |
B. Why did Germany and her Allies Lose World War One? |
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| This unit directly follows the IB unit on “What was the social and economic impact of World War One upon two of the countries involved?” As a result it is designed to make use of much of the earlier material. An important point for students is that "Germany and her Allies" does NOT mean just "Germany", just as "The Western Allies" does NOT mean just "Britain"! |
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| 1. | Essay Project: Gathering the Information [interactive] Students begin by using interactive running dictation exercise to complete this worksheet. This will enable them to get a thorough grounding in the political, military, cultural and economic reasons why Germany and her allies lost World War One. It will also get them to consider whether Allied strengths, or the weaknesses of the Central Powers, were more important. They can also conduct an analysis of which short term events were most important - using this interactive jigsaw-table exercise. |
| 2. | Essay Project: Video Work If a documentary video is available on this theme, this would be a good time to watch it. I show the documentary "Western Front: 1918" by Richard Holmes, which is not available for commercial purchase, but the Great War Box Set has some excellent material too. |
| 3. | Essay Project: Linking and prioritising, writing up the essay |
| 4. | Essay Project: Interactive Essay-Planning Tool [interactive] Students then use this interactive essay planning tool to submit a suggested way of linking the four factors, and get - at the simple click of a button - a very detailed model essay plan suggesting not only the content of each paragraph but also - crucially - how they should be linked together. In addition, hyperlinks are provided throughout the text of keywords so that students can easily conduct extra research. |
| 5. | Sourcework Project: Why did Germany and her Allies Lose World War One? A sourcework exercise in the style of the International Baccalaureate. There is also a generic markscheme and suggestions on how to structure each answer. |
| 6. | End-of-Unit Fling the Teacher Quiz [interactive] 30 possible questions in this quiz based on the information in the worksheets within this unit. |
| 7. | Play Your Dates Right Quiz World War One, 1914-1918 - a good way to round the unit off! |
| 8. | 20 Question Factual Test: Why did Germany and her Allies lose World War One? This 'gap fill' test ensures that students end up with a useful revision aid covering the main socio-economic, political and military factors from the perspective both of Allied Strengths and Central Powers' weaknesses. |
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