America In World War II ‖ The World Before the Attack on Pearl Harbor

By: Enith Arely Marcos

Goals & Objectives
Goal: Students will learn about the important events that were occurring in Europe before World
War II.
Objective: Students will learn about the different regimes that were taking over Europe (in Italy,
the Soviet Union, Germany and Japan) and about American’s involvement in the war before the
attack on Pearl Harbor by doing completing a timeline and writing a paragraph.

California State Content Standards

11.7 Students analyze America’s participation in World War II
1. Examine the origins of American involvement in the war, with an emphasis on the
events that precipitated the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Common Core Literacy Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy, RH. 11.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or
secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key
details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy, RH. 11.9. Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and
secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among
sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy, WHST. 11.9. Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.

Driving Historical Question

What was happening in Europe before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor? What was American’s
role in the war before the attack?

Lesson Introduction (Anticipatory Set/Hook/Accessing Prior Knowledge) ‖ Time: 10 minutes

Lesson will begin with students watching the youtube.com video, “Attack on Pearl Harbor-
History” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBdIR7_B3JA). Students will then have 2
minutes to answer the question, “What do you think led to the attack on Pearl Harbor?” During
this time students can access their prior knowledge and write down something the already know,
something they read about or something they want to learn about. After they are done writing,
students will engage in a whip around in which everyone must share one thing that they wrote in
their paper. Repeat answers will not be allowed. (This activity is designed to that students
become curious and are excited to do the reading because through the reading they will find out
what world events were occurring before the attack on Pearl Harbor)
Vocabulary (Content Language Development) ‖ Time: 5 minutes

 Joseph Stalin
  Totalitarian
 Benito Mussolini
 Fascism
 Adolf Hitler
 Nazism
 Isolationism
 Neutrality Acts
Content Delivery (Method of Instruction) ‖ Time: 30 minutes (will take place concurrently
with timeline)
Students will learn about new governments in Europe and American isolationism by doing a
close reading. The reading will inform students about the new governments that were being
established in Italy, the Soviet Union , Germany and Japan before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Students will also learn about isolationism and American’s involvement in the war before the
attack on Pearl Harbor. Students will learn all this information by pre-reading and doing a close
reading of their textbook (pgs. 529-535) and identifying the main ideas of the text ( in the
timeline that they were provided with at the beginning of class) After they are done with the
reading, students will review the information on their timeline and prepare for the formative
assessment that will take place at the end of class.

Student Engagement (Critical Thinking & Student Activities) ‖ Time: 30 minutes (will take
place concurrently with Reading)
Pre-Reading: Before students begin the reading the teacher will explain to students what the
reading will be about and why it is important for them to know this information. After the
teacher has explained this, she will instruct all students to open their textbooks and turn to pg.
529. The entire class will follow along as the teacher reads all the headings and sub headings in
the reading as well as when the teacher explain the definitions of the bold face words in the text.
Furthermore, before they begin reading, students will read the questions that have been provided
to them in the timeline.

Close Reading: In order to complete their close reading, the teacher will use the Jigsaw reading
comprehension strategy in order to ensure that all the students remain engaged.
Step 1: The teacher will begin by placing students in homogenous groups of 4.
Step 2: Each group will be assigned two boxes of the timeline, which they will be responsible
form completing.
Step 3: Once students are in groups, they will take turns doing the reading of the sections that
they were assigned (students will take turns reading paragraphs).
Step 4: While students are doing the reading they will identify the main idea(s) of that portions
of the text. With their group members they will decide which information is irrelevant and which
information is crucial to their understanding of history.
Step 5: Once all groups are done identifying the main ideas to their assigned sections, students
will be randomly selected to share their answers (main ideas) with the rest of the class (all
students will have to share during the class discussion). While one student is sharing, the rest of
the class will be filling in their timeline and making sure that they add the main ideas for each
section of the reading. The teacher will lead the classroom discussion. She will be responsible for
explaining concepts that students are not understanding and will also explain why some pieces of
information are not important and don’t need to be included in the timeline.

Note: The timeline has Italicized text, which indicates the textbook section that they have to read
(ex: Failure of the World War I Peace Settlement) and bold text, which will provide them with a
question that will help them identify the main idea(s) (ex. How did the treaty of Versailles fail
to secure justice and peace?) During this time the teacher will walk around and check for
understanding.

Lesson Closure ‖ Time: 5-10 minutes

At the end of the reading assignment students will have a formative assessment in which they
will have to write a 1-2 paragraph response answering the question that is written in the last box
of their timeline. Question: Before the attack on Pearl Harbor there was lots of turmoil happening
around the world. Briefly explain what was happening in countries like Italy, Russia, Germany
and Japan before the attack. Also, do you think that Presidents Roosevelt’s decision to help
China contributed to the attack on Pearl Harbor? Explain why or why not. All students must
submit their response to the teacher before leaving class.

Assessments (Formative & Summative)

Formative:
-Students will identify the main ideas of the various sections of their reading. They will write all
this information on their timeline.
-At the end of the close reading and after they complete their timeline students will respond to a
question in 1-2 paragraphs (Question: Before the attack on Pearl Harbor there was lots of turmoil
happening around the world. Briefly explain what was happening in countries like Italy, Russia,
Germany and Japan before the attack. Also, do you think that Presidents Roosevelt’s decision to
help China contributed to the attack on Pearl Harbor? Explain why or why not.)

Accommodations for English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with Special Needs
 Students will only be responsible for one portion of the reading and will have the help
and support of their group members when identifying the main idea of the text.
 The timeline has Italicized text, which indicates the textbook section that they have to
read (ex: Failure of the World War I Peace Settlement) and bold text, which will provide
them with a question that will help them identify the main idea(s) (ex. How did the
treaty of Versailles fail to secure justice and peace?)
 The class will engage in a classroom discussion in which students will get a chance to
share their main idea with the rest of the class and students will get an opportunity to
learn from each other.
 During their formative assessment, students will be allowed to use their timeline.
Resources (Books, Websites, Handouts, Materials)
 Littell, McDouglas, “The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century” textbook