SUBJECT: CANADA AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR

SOCIAL STUDIES 11

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

Historical Understandings
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Establish Historical Signicance Use Primary Sources Identify Continuity and Change Analyze Cause and Consequence Take an Historical Perspective Understand the Moral Dimensions of History

Rationale
The aim of the rst lesson is to hook the students into the unit; by the end of the class, students will hopefully be excited about or at least interested in the coming unit. The goal is to engage students through having them participate in historical perspective taking; students should begin to wonder how individuals experienced the early 20th century and the dramatic changes that were underway. The imagination should be engaged through a number of questions:
1. 2. 3.

What was it like to live in the early 20th century? What was Canada like 100 years ago? Considering the relative peace and air of modernity of the time, what could compel the world to go to war?

Learning Outcome(s): Students will begin to...

-Apply critical thinking skills in through assessing primary documents (photographs, written accounts, videos, etc.) -Demonstrate eective written, oral and graphic communication skills -Examine Canadas identity and role in the First World War

Assessment
Formative
Collect Year 2100 Predictions and group placemat activities to assess where students

beginning knowledge is at.

Class discussions should give a sense of where students are at.

Summative
No summative assessment in this lesson

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DURATION: 75 MINUTES

SUBJECT: CANADA AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR

SOCIAL STUDIES 11

Materials
A/V Equipment Video(s): Vancouver 1907 and London 1912 Unit Introduction Handout Year 2100 Predictions PDF slide for projector Pre-WWI Society Primary Source set (x6) Sheets for Placemat activity (x6)

Procedures
1. 2. 3. 4.

(5 Minutes) Attendance (10 Minutes) Unit Introduction Handout: Introduce the focus of the unit, the guiding questions of the whole unit, etc. (10 Minutes) Videos: Vancouver 1907 and London 1912. Watch both videos and have students list the notable sights in the videos. (10 Minutes) Using the videos as a starting point, work through a Think, Pair, Share seeking to answer the question, What was life like in the early Twentieth Century? How was Vancouver dierent that London, England?
Students answers can be recorded on the board. Leave adequate space for classroom

dialogue. Close discussion with a note on how understanding the past is quite dicult because ultimately we werent there.

5.

(15 Minutes) Put up Year 2100 predictions PDF on the board. Depending on the make up of the class, this activity can be done in pairs or individually. Explain the activity - students are to imagine and make predictions for life 100 years from now. The aim of the task is to have them see just how far removed we are from the time we are studying. Work to be collected at the end of class. (15 Minutes) In groups of four, students will examine the Pre-WWI Primary Source Sets and complete a Placemat activity which seeks to answer the following two questions: What was Western society / culture like in the early 20th century? and In what ways was society changing before the outbreak of war in 1914?
What the documents show is that Western/European society was in ux and had

6.

aspects that were at odds with each other; women were being accepted into the sciences and in education, modern thought was based on reason, logic faith in human progression, and religion was seen as coming to an end (Freud, Nietzsche), art was modernizing, while at the same time, imperialism and the White Mans Burden was widely accepted.

7.

(10 Minutes) Closure: Come back together as a class to discuss what students found. Attempt to ll in any blanks or confusion surrounding the primary sources. End on a

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DURATION: 75 MINUTES

SUBJECT: CANADA AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR

SOCIAL STUDIES 11

variation of the question: Considering the relative peace and air of modernity of the time, what could possibly drive the world to go to war?

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DURATION: 75 MINUTES