Digital Unit Plan Template

Unit Title: World War II

Name: Andrew Cousar

Content Area: Social Studies (World History)

Grade Level: 10

CA Content Standard(s)/Common Core Standard(s):

10.8: Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.
10.8.1: Compare the German, Italian, and Japanese drives for empire in the 1930s, including the 1937 Rape of Nanking, other atrocities in China,
and the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939.
10.8.2: Understand the role of appeasement, nonintervention (isolationism), and the domestic distractions in Europe and the United States prior
to the outbreak of the war.
10.8.3: Identify and locate the Allied and Axis powers on a map and discuss the major turning points of the war, the principal theaters of conflict,
key strategic decisions, and the resulting war conferences and resolutions, with emphasis on the importance of geographic features.
10.8.4: Describe the political, diplomatic, and military leaders during the war (e.g., Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Emperor
Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower).
10.8.5: Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, especially against the European Jews; its transformation into the Final Solution; and the
Holocaust that resulted in the murder of six million Jewish civilians.
10.8.6: Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United
States, China, and Japan.

Big Ideas/Unit Goals:

Leaders of the war (10.8.4)
Prelude to the war in the 1930s (10.8.1)
Major turning points of the war/Axis and Allied geography (10.8.3)
End of the war/human costs of the war (10.8.9)

Unit Summary:
The focus of this unit will be one of the largest conflicts in history: the Second World War. Students will first learn about the leaders and nations
involved in the conflict, as this information will be crucial to the unit. Next, students will become familiar with the rise of totalitarianism in the
1930's, and how these dictatorships contributed to the outbreak of war in 1939. Major battles and turning points of the war will be another
significant focus of the unit, where students will learn about the overall outcome of the war. Finally, students will learn about the Holocaust, and
the ultimate human, economic, and political costs of the war.

Assessment Plan:
Entry-Level:
Brainstorm Activity

Formative:
Guided Notes
Axis and Allies World Map
Leaders and Countries Quiz
Battles Graphic Organizer

Summative:
Analytical Essay

Lesson 1
Student Learning
Objective: 1. Students
will be able to identify
the key figures and
leaders of World War II
(Roosevelt, Churchill,
Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini,
Hirohito), as well as the
countries to which they
belong (USA, Great
Britain, Germany, USSR,
Italy, Japan).

Acceptable Evidence
(Assessments):
Guided Notes
Axis and Allies World
Map

Lesson Activities:
Students will first be introduced to the topic of World War II by participating in a brainstorming
activity where students will find a partner and create a list of 3-5 examples of the Second World
War in pop culture. Next, students will listen and watch the teacher deliver a lesson about the
leaders and countries involved in the Second World War with the use of a PowerPoint
presentation. Students will be given a worksheet containing a set of guided notes, and will be
expected to fill in their notes along with the presentation.

Acceptable Evidence:
Guided Notes (formative)
Battles Graphic
Organizer
Quiz

Lesson Activities:
Students will work in pairs to read the assigned portions of the textbook to learn about the
important battles of the Second World War. In addition, students will also have to use the
information they find in the textbook to complete a thought web graphic organizer. This
graphic organizer will require students to find six different battles, three from the European
theater and three from the Pacific, as well as relevant information about each battle (dates,
outcome, etc.).

Lesson 2
Student Learning
Objective:
2. Students will
understand the role of
key battles and decisions
in the overall course of
the war, as well as the
results of these
decisions/battles.
Lesson 3

Student Learning
Objective: 3. Students
will understand the
consequences of the
Second World War,
including the human,
economic, and political
cost of the war.

Acceptable Evidence:
Analytical Essay

Lesson Activities:
Students will be given an entire class period to individually write one-page analytical essays.
Specifically, students will have to address the causes and consequences of the war, as well as
the total human, political, and economic cost of the conflict. In order to successfully complete
this activity students will be given a rubric along with the prompt, so they will know the
expectations for the structure, grammar, and content of the essay.

Unit Resources:
Modern World History textbook
PowerPoint presentations
Leaders and Countries Quiz
World Map
Battles Graphic Organizer
Analytical Essay prompt
Rubrics

Useful Websites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/
http://spartacus-educational.com/2WW.htm
https://www.ushmm.org/
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html