German Newspaper Project

Lesson Objectives: Through this project, students will research and create a German newspaper

that reflects their knowledge and research. In this project, students will be using the material

presented in class, the textbook, and internet websites to find material and create a newspaper.

The goal of this lesson is for students to connect to the information that was discussed in class

about Germany. Over the previous two class days, I will have been instructing about Germany.

This lesson is a summative assessment about Germany that allows students to be creative in an

educational environment. This assignment is planned to take three class days to complete and

will require the use of computers.

Lesson Objectives in Blooms Taxonomy Format:

Students will recognize important information about the rise of German Nationalism.
Students will use information that they research to create an interesting newspaper about

German history.
Students will distinguish important information about the rise of Germany in a project

that forces them to select specific information and details.

Students will design a project that forces them to think about the information presented in

class and in their research.

School Learning Targets:

I can explain the basic principles of the political thought movements of the 1800s- liberalism

and conservatism, and explain which populations supported each movement.

 1. I can define nationalism and describe its origins and growth in Europe.

2. I can identify the causes and effects of the revolutions in the Balkans, France, Austria,

Russia and Germany and analyze the effects of nationalism or liberalism in these

revolutions.

3. I can identify the key players in and compare and contrast the unification movements of

Italy and Germany.

Pre-Instructional Activities:

Coming into this class period, I will give students a handout and rubric about the project that

they will be working on. I plan to show students an example of the assignment and then walk

them through exactly what they are expected to do for the assignment. I will end with showing

students examples of what real newspapers look like so that they can base their newspaper ideas

on real examples.
Class activity: After I finish instructing about the project, students will begin working on the

project. During the class period, students will be allowed to organize into groups and begin

working on the project. Students will be able to use their textbook, class notes, class power

points, and internet sources other than Wikipedia. Student groups will be assigned to write four

articles in their newspaper. These articles will need to consist of: a biography, current events,

letters form a German citizen, and one article discussing their national pride. Each article must

be one paragraph long.

The biography must be about someone mentioned in the text book. Students will be assigned to

research this person and write about them. This article must discuss the persons life and why

they are important as well as one picture. The Second article about current affairs will discuss an

event that we talked about during the lesson. The letter form a German citizen asks students to

think from the perspective of a person living in Germany during the 19th century. This article

asks students to describe the changes taking place in German territory mentioned during the

lesson. The article on German pride asks students to write about nationalism in Germany and

why or why not the writer feels pride when they think of the developing Germany. This article is

suppose-to tie the theme of the unit with this lesson specifically (nationalism is the theme of the

unit).

Independent Practice: During this lesson, students will independently research and create their

newspapers using the notes, textbook, and websites. This will only be guided by the guidelines in

the lesson handout. Students will have the opportunity in this lesson to be creative and apply

their knowledge of the content to the project by a means that is comfortable for them.
Differentiating Instruction: This assignment will be differentiated in several ways. For non-

English speaking students, they will be asked to only write two of the articles. This is because

non English speaking students will have to read a substantial amount of material. Because this

will be challenging for students who have a hard time reading English, this will take a long time.

Students who are non- English speakers will also have extra time to do this project. Students who

have reading disabilities or extended time will be given extra time to complete this project.

Students with Autism will be required to complete the entire project but they will have the

opportunity to work alone if they so choose.

Closure: The closing of this assignment will be on the third day of class when these project are

due. The following day we will have a discussion about what they enjoyed/ thought about the
project and what they learned through the completion of this project.
Resources:

Textbook: The Content presented in this lesson focuses on the textbook Chapter 10 sections 1

and 2. The Students text book is Prentice Hall World History from 1500-Present.

News Paper Assignment

You and your partner are editors of the local News Paper, The Second Reich Post. This newspaper

has a few requirements that everyone needs to meet.

First, there has to be a celebrity bio, and we want to know it all: Where are they from? Why are they

important? When were they alive? And most importantly, why you thought they were special enough

to be chosen for your bio column. Please include a picture so that we can see who you are talking

about. (This person should appear in your book Chapter 10 sections 1&2)
We also need to have a current affairs section. This section should highlight current events taking

place in Germany. Did Bismarck start another war? Is there a new railroad being built? How are the

schools treating our young students?

Please include one letter from an average German citizen. We want to know how they feel about the

changes taking place in Germany. Has their life changed at all? Make sure that these letters are one

paragraph in length and discus how THE COMMON CITIZEN FEELS about current events.
Last but not least, Country Pride. Include one article discussing why you are feeling prideful about

your country. Are you feeling extremely patriotic? Are you afraid of the strength of our military? Let

us know.
 Your sources cannot be Wikipedia.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

These projects are meant to be a creative assignment that helps you think about the growth and

strengthening of Germany. Please have fun, include pictures along with insightful information. Do not

include information that does not pertain to this lesson, and make sure that all work is classroom

appropriate. Groups will search using laptops for information pertaining to this lesson.

This project will be graded according to the rubric on the back of this page.

Grade 1-3 4-6 7-9 10-12

Creativity Students followed the Students were not very Students came up with Students took unique

teachers example creative and put little original themes and used ideas and wrote from a

completely and did not effort into their ideas. interesting pictures. carefully constructed

demonstrate original Articles were original point of view in their

thinking in their projects. ideas and students put articles.

effort into their project.

Content Students used only the Students used the text Students used the text Students used the text

textbook and no outside book and one other book and two other book and three resources

information. OR content was source. Content was sources. Content was from credible websites.

not relevant to this project. mostly relevant to the relevant to the lesson. Content was all relevant

theme of the lesson. to the theme of this

lesson
Class Students were not working One partner completes Partners work together Partners work diligently

at all in class/ student groups most of this project, and during the class period, and efficiently during
Participation
do not work together. group is not focused in and are diligent through class, both partners

class. most of the class period. complete equal amounts

Partners do mostly equal of work.

amount of work.
Professionalism Project is not neat or well Project is organized Project is well organized Project is neatly and

done. however, many with few grammatical professionally done, few

grammatical errors errors. to no grammatical errors.

remain.