Course 1 Final Project: UbD for WWI/Interwar Years/WWII Unit

Overview with Rubrics

This unit is one that I’m currently teaching to my 10th graders. It’s very broad, occupying the span of an entire quarter, so there are four assignments with accompanying rubrics, only three of which are technology-related. I’ve included an overview for each:

  • Propaganda Project
    • This project has the kids making a propaganda video by combining original video with clips downloaded from YouTube (and, I realize, ignoring all intellectual property rights of the respective creators – although I suspect this would fall under fair use). In doing so kids are supposed to synthesize their knowledge of both totalitarianism and propaganda into an original work.
  • Treaty of Versailles Rewrite + Rubric (Not a technology assignment)
    • Students evaluate the faults in the original treaty and then rewrite it, justifying their changes and also critiquing their changes from the historical perspectives of Britain, France, and the US.
  • Online Discussion Rubric
    • I ask students to do a fair amount of scored in-class discussion, but to address students who aren’t comfortable speaking for themselves in a group setting, I allow them to participate in an online discussion using our Moodle Forum. Students are expected to defend their own opinions and interpretations by identifying significant historical facts.The questions for this discussion are:
      • 1.Why did fascism become popular in the 1930s?
      • 2.What were the causes of WW2?
      • 3.Were the causes of WWI similar to the causes of WWII?
      • 4.Could WWII have been avoided? Should Britain and France have acted differently?
      • 5.Which countries today are isolationist?
      • 6.Is the United Nations today a more effective organization than the League of Nations?
      • 7.Agree or disagree:
        • a.Allowing Iran to get nuclear weapons is appeasement.
        • b.Countries should “preemptively” intervene and attack other countries before they are attacked themselves.
        • c.Isolationism can be a good idea to prevent yourself from getting into wars.
  • Prezi Rubric + Description
    • This assignment can be completed individually or in groups. Students identify key events in WWII and then create a timeline in Prezi. Additionally, students will need to analyze the cause-effect relationships of these events and evaluate their significance; the former will be accomplished especially by using Prezi’s Path tool.

The UbD Unit

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