Blended Learning Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: The Prelude of the First World War and Its Fallout

Objectives:
 Students will be able to apply their knowledge of international conflicts and relate it to
changes in global powers.
 Students will be able to analyze the key causes that led to the start of World War I.
 Students will be able to describe the effectiveness of the Treaty of Versailles based on
common knowledge of wars and global conflicts that occurred post-World War I
State Standards:
Standard 4: Demonstrate an understanding of how international competition and conflict
realigned global powers during the time period of 1885–1950.
 MWH.4.CE Analyze the significant causes of World War I and how the Treaty of
Versailles attempted to resolve future global conflicts.

Context:
This lesson comes after learning about imperialism and relates to how students learned
that imperialism led to economic and political competition between countries, as well as a sense
of nationalism. This lesson is being taught to show students how each Unit can be put together to
fit a puzzle of knowledge. Students will have come into this lesson with the knowledge of the
effects of imperialism, and previous knowledge of World War I, and will allow them to strongly
string together new and older knowledge to gain a better understanding. After this lesson,
students move on to the Cold War and the Modern World, particularly 1933 to the present. This
next unit will link the conflicts from World War I and II which led to further unrest later on, and
the changing relationships between countries. I will teach this lesson to also teach students how
to see international conflicts which will later relate to further wars in later units as well.
Data:
With this lesson just coming off the end of imperialism, students will not have the
greatest knowledge of the current lesson, so I will have 3 groups, each will teach the same thing
but in a different way. The way I will group them is that in every cluster of desks is a bowl with
slips of paper. On the papers is a number from 1 to 3, and students will pick a paper and then be
grouped together with their given number. At the end of the lesson, all the students will join the
Kahoot game I will have set up and will play it. With Kahoot, I can save the data at the end and
see which questions were answered wrong the most, and which questions were not missed. With
this knowledge, I can create a plan to go over what was missed the most and make sure they have
a better and stronger understanding.

Materials:
Part of the Lesson Materials Needed
Introduction  Notebook and Pencil
 Slips of numbered paper from 1-3
 iPads
 Textbook
 Smart Board
Teacher Directed  Textbooks or iPad (for online textbook only)
 Notebook and Pencil
 Whiteboard, Dry Erase Markers, and Erasers
Collaborative Station  iPads
 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wwi-lite-history-
challenge/id458500537
 Spreadsheets to record winners
Independent Digital  iPads (YouTube)
 Apple Headphones
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2ch4XV84s
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pFCpKtwCkI
 Notebook and Pencil
 Worksheet with questions aligned with videos
Closure  iPads
 Smart Board
 https://kahoot.it/

Detailed paragraphs from here on down.

Procedures:
Introduction (15 minutes):
This lesson will be prepped as class starts. The bowls of numbered papers will be set and ready
on group desks and I will let my students all come in. As they are all coming in, I will have the
Smart Board set up to show a diagram of my classroom, with 3 spots circled, each spot
designates where each group will meet, matching with a corresponding number. Along with the
Smart Board will show an app, and I will be telling students as they come in to quickly download
it to save time. When all my students are in, I will take attendance and explain briefly what
lesson is taking place today. After my brief explanation, I will start talking about what materials
each group will need and have the students take out what is needed. I will have them all put their
backpacks in a corner and then come back to their desks. I will have every student take a slip of
paper from the bowls, and as they pick a number, I will be explaining what will happen in each
group. Group 1 will be meeting with me and going over the reading in the textbooks. In Group 2,
students will use their iPads and use the assigned app which will be an interactive guide for
WWI, and in Group 3, students will use their iPads again to watch a video and use a
corresponding worksheet to answer questions. I will tell Group 1 to open their textbooks to the
pages of reading material, or if they do not have it and have their iPads instead, they can get on
the online textbook, and then I will put all the students in their groups and then start the lesson
plan.
Teacher Directed (20 minutes):
As soon as the introduction is over, I will have students be ready to go for our group. The
reading is only a couple of pages so it will not take up much of the time. I will have them answer
some questions as to what they might already know about World War I and the events leading up
to it. I will also ask randomly if they might know about the Treaty of Versailles and what it was
about. While I am asking pre-questions, I will have the students open their notebooks and write
down whenever a student answers a question correctly. Then I will use cotton-picking to have
students in the group read aloud sections until the reading is completed. As they read, I will have
them stop and pick another student to paraphrase or describe what was just read. I will do this to
test their attention while simultaneously testing whether or not they can understand what they are
reading. If a student can correctly describe what was in the text, I will make sure the other
students are on the same page. If any of them are still not understanding, I will ask them what
they know or what it is that they are having trouble with, and then fix that problem. I will also
have students write down anything I would find to be a potential answer to a quiz or test question
as well. After they have finished the reading, I will pair up each student into a pair of 2 to answer
the questions in the textbook. I will have each pair grab a whiteboard and marker and answer a
question, and each pair that can answer correctly will earn a half-point to be added on a quiz or
test later on. For the remainder of the time in the group, I will quiz them again on what I had
asked them before the reading and add more questions for them to infer or interpret, with each
pair using the whiteboards to answer and gain more points too.

Collaborative (20 minutes):

In this collaborative session, students will have the World War Lite App downloaded already to
save time and will be opening it and ready to do this part of the lesson. Students will pair up in
2’s with whoever they want and then take the assigned worksheet for this session. Every pair will
go in the app and click on all the features it has to show how the start of the World War I
happened and will also have an equally detailed guide to the Treaty of Versailles and what it was
about. After they go through the app, they will go to the quiz on the app and take it along with
the spreadsheet which will be used to mark a point. By the end of the quiz, whoever won in a
pair will switch groups with someone who won in another pair and they will play off, again
tallying for points. After a winner has been decided, one last pair up of winners will happen and
they will again, take the quiz and they will use the paper again to tally up their points. Each cycle
of quizzing will have different questions to make it fun and hard at the same time.

Independent Digital (20 minutes):

During this session, all the students will watch the CrashCourse Video on their iPads. They will
use headphones, and while they watch the video, there will be a detailed worksheet for them to
do to make sure they are paying attention. The video is shorter than the allotted time for this
session so students will have enough time to go back in the video to answer a question or if they
missed something. After that, they will watch the next CrashCourse Video - 2, which will follow
up after the last video and will be about the Treaty of Versailles and its effectiveness. Following
that, there will be a mini-quiz in Google Classroom to do which will have additional questions
related to the video as well. Each student will work alone to answer the worksheet and the mini-
quiz, and will turn in the worksheets at the end of class as a grade. This can also be used to make
sure they paid attention and did the work.

Closure (15 minutes):

After the groups are done, I will have them all go back to their desks like at the start of class. I
will turn on the SmartBoard and have them get on their iPads and join the Kahoot game I have
made. When they do the Kahoot I will pause after each question to go over any wrong answers,
and will randomly pick someone and have them answer why it was wrong. This is another way
that shows that everyone did their own work and focused as well. At the end of the game, I will
save the Kahoot game data to see if there were any heavily missed questions for me to work on
next time, and to also see which areas of this lesson needed extra teaching. As I save this game, I
will have them turn in the worksheets and they will leave class.

Rationale:
Multimedia #1: App (WWI Lite): I chose this app because of the adventurous sense it
has. In the app, there are passages as well as other great information to use to help teach this
lesson. It is like a textbook, but with an interactive quizzing system and it works to help put a
phrase or passage in other words so it is easier to understand. With it being an app, kids will be
more likely inclined to enjoy something technology related and will be able to learn from it
better than if they were just writing notes. It follows the standards and objectives because it
explains what led to WWI, as well as the what the Treaty of Versailles was, and how it was
supposed to work, but didn’t work as it should’ve. While it is an app from several years ago, it
fits several of the 8 points, such as interactive usability, learning goal acquirement, content
quality, and standards compliance. This app also allows users to make the font size in passages
much larger, which is great for slightly impaired students, and there is a speech button in the app
too which could work for visually implied students, and for students without disabilities.

Multimedia #2: Videos (CrashCourse): As someone who watched these videos in

classes before, I can say that these are amazing and fun to watch. Their videos align with all
standards and objectives of this lesson, and the hilarious ways it teaches content is great for
captivating students attention. Both of the videos watched go over what was made in the
standards. These videos are also of high quality as well, fitting in the points for learning goal
acquirement, content quality, and standards compliance, and reusability as obviously needed. As
someone with ADHD, these videos work great to always have something going on, and having
great and hilarious twists that can keep a distracted student focused and also let them have fun
while watching and learning, and these videos can also work for students of all types.

Multimedia #3: Website (Kahoot): As the last multimedia used, it is fitting to have the
class and lesson end on a fun note. This fits the standards and objectives by testing students’
knowledge, and if a question is missed by a lot of them, I can use Kahoot to show what the right
answer is and why it is right. It is also of high quality, fitting in for all 8 points, because of the
fun interaction it has and the way content is taught with it too. Kahoot is also a great tool for
ADHD students and even color blind students as well, as the shapes for answers can be used to
play too. Normal students can still enjoy the game and learn from it as well.