EDUC 440
Paul Graham
October 23, 2009
SOL VUS.11b, End of World War II Lesson Plan
Title: Turning Points in World War II: The Invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord)
Audience: 11th graders, high school secondary education
Class Time: ~50 minutes
Prior Knowledge and Instruction:
The Invasion of Normandy lesson plan is taught during the middle of the class’ unit on the End
of World War II (VUS. 11b). By viewing the Unit Organizer for this lesson, the teacher can
identify that the Invasion of Normandy (Highlighted in Red) comes after the lesson taught on
Stalingrad and before the lesson taught on Iwo Jima and the decision to drop the atomic bomb.
This should give the instructor and students perspective on how Operation Overlord affected the
overall progress of the Allies in World War II. Before coming to class students should have a
general knowledge of the Invasion of Normandy including important people, places, events, and
outcomes of the operation. This knowledge should have been basically taught at the middle
school level and again in their World History II courses. As a result, students should already
know the date of the invasion, June 6, 1944 (D-Day) and the countries that were involved—The
Allies: the United States and Great Britain; and the Axis: Nazi Germany. Students should also
know the two American landing sites at Omaha and Utah beaches. Finally, there ought to be at
least a general comprehension that Overlord allowed the Allies to create a new front in Western
Europe that eventually led to collapse of Nazi Germany months later. Greater details of the
battle taught in this lesson should give the students a firmer command of the significance of the
Invasion of Normandy in the overall scheme of World War II.
Objectives:
SOL: VUS.11: The student will demonstrate knowledge of World War II by:
b) describing and locating the major battles and turning points of the war in
North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific, including Midway, Stalingrad, the Normandy
landing (D-Day), and Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb to force the surrender
of Japan.
NCSS: NCSS themes the lesson touches on:
II. Time, Continuity, and Change
III. People, Places, and Environments
VI. Power, Authority, and Government
IX. Global Connections
1. Students will be able to identify the significance of the Invasion of Normandy in the greater
scheme of World War II by filling out a Fact, Question, Response (FQR Chart)
2. Students will be able to demonstrate how important the Invasion of Normandy was to both the
Allies and the Axis through the answers given on their FQR Charts.
EDUC 440
Paul Graham
October 23, 2009
3. Students will be able to demonstrate the concerns and demands of the various military and
political leaders involved in the preparation and execution of the invasion by filling out their
FQR Charts.
4. Students will be able to categorize the technological and geographical challenges of the
invasion for both the Allies and the Axis by filling out their FQR Charts.
Teaching Strategies:
1. Before the start of class, write the quote about D-Day from Barbara Kingsolver on the board.
Also include the questions accompanying the quote. When the students arrive and are settled,
have them read the quote over a few times and answer the questions on a separate piece of paper.
Make sure to have the students reflect on Kingsolver’s words and what they mean. The students
should apply their knowledge of D-Day and its significance in leading the Allies to victory over
Nazi Germany in Europe. Have the students hold on to their answers and leave them in their
notebooks. 5 min.
2. Tell the students to get out their unit organizers on the “End of World War II.” Tell the
students that they will be learning about the Invasion of Normandy and how the battle fit into the
greater perspective of World War II. Inform the students that they will learn how this battle
related to the topics learned in the days before this lesson and in terms of what they will learn in
the upcoming days. Hand out the FQR (Facts, Questions, and Responses) chart on the Invasion
of Normandy to the students. The students should already know how to do a FQR chart.
You should have a transparency of the FQR chart so you can fill it out on the overhead as
answers are given. Ask the students to fill in the “F” or fact section to determine what they
already know about the subject. To get them thinking about their prior knowledge, model a few
answers about D-Day. For example, fill in on the chart that the Invasion of Normandy was also
known as “Operation Overlord,” or that it occurred on June 6, 1944. 5-10 min.
3. After going over some answers with the students about their prior knowledge in the “F”
section, see if the students have any questions about the Invasion of Normandy, D-Day, or about
the western theater in general during 1944. Have them fill these answers out in the “Q” or
questions section. To model some answers for them you could write down “Was the Invasion
successful?” Or you could also write, “How many casualties were incurred on D-Day?”
Questions like these should help students consider how significant the operation was to the
overall outcome of World War II. 5 min.
3. After filling out the “Q” section, open up Google Earth and open the KMZ presentation
entitled “End of World War II: D-Day.” After the file opens, scroll in to the Invasion of
Normandy tab (highlighted in dark red) so that the Cotentin Peninsula and the five Normandy
beachheads are in full view. Tell the students that they are going to be listening to Supreme
Commander Eisenhower’s speech to the troops before D-Day. Afterward, they will watch two
videos about the Invasion of Normandy from the History Channel series “D-Day to Berlin.” As
the students listen to the audio clip and watch the videos, they should be filling in more of their
FQR charts for any facts they might learn, questions they might still have, and the responses they
find to their questions. The responses should be written in the “R” section of the worksheet. 2
min.
4. After all the students are clear about the directions, click on the fire tab entitled “Invasion of
Normandy.” A large window should appear with an original draft of Eisenhower’s speech to
the troops before D-Day. There is a blue hyperlink above the letter from American Rhetoric.com.
Click the link and when the site appears, click the “play” button right below the photograph.
EDUC 440
Paul Graham
October 23, 2009
This should begin to play the file, while it does so, click back onto Google Earth so the students
can see the copy of the letter and they can follow along. 3 min.
5. After the speech is finished, remind the students how important this speech was to the troops
before the operation was launched. Then remind them of the videos they are about to watch.
The first video is about the invasion itself and discusses how difficult it was for the Allies to
succeed. It also demonstrates the sort of dilemmas the Germans faced once the Allies landed on
the beaches. The video finishes by detailing the Allied advances by the end of D-Day. Click on
the red fire tab entitled “D-Day, Part I.” A window should appear with an embedded You Tube
video. Click the play button and remind the students to continue to fill in their FQR charts. 9
min.
6. After this first video is finished, exit the window and then click on the red fire tab entitled “DDay, Part II.” Tell the students that this video is primarily about the events after D-Day, which
involves the Allied advance off the beaches and into mainland France. The video illustrates that
this area of the country was difficult for the Allies to traverse. This allowed for heavy German
resistance and forced the Allies to advance slowly over the course of two months. Click the play
button and, again, remind the students to continue to fill in their FQR charts. 7 min.
7. After the video is finished, ask the students what they felt about each video and Eisenhower’s
speech. They should be getting answers off their FQR charts. Call on students to share their
answers with the class. To model, share your own sentiments about each video. Until the end of
class, discussion should be facilitated about how significant the Invasion of Normandy was and
why it was a turning point in World War II. You should also ask the students to consider how
challenging the invasion was for both the Allies and Germany. With the help of their FQR
charts, students should be able to contribute about 5-8 minutes of conversation. At the very end
of class, collect the FQR charts from the students. 9 min.
Total Lesson Plan Time = ~50 minutes
Materials Needed to Teach This Lesson: Computer, FQR Chart, Overhead Transparency
Projector, Google Earth, You Tube, pencils, paper, engaged minds.
Assessment of What Students Learned: Assessment will be demonstrated: through student
responses of their FQR charts. By students filling out the facts they learned, questions they had,
and responses they gave, the teacher should accurately assess how much each student learned
about D-Day. Depending upon the extensiveness of the answers, the teacher can decide whether
to continue more on the Invasion of Normandy the next class day or move on to the next topic in
the unit organizer.
LATER: Students will be able to apply their knowledge learned in this lesson plan through the
unit test. Test questions specific to this lesson plan include but are not limited to:
What was the significance of the Invasion of Normandy in the greater scheme of World
War II?
On which date did the Invasion of Normandy occur?
Accommodations for Special Needs: Teachers can modify this teaching strategy for students
with special needs by printing out Eisenhower’s speech and giving it to them to read for
EDUC 440
Paul Graham
October 23, 2009
themselves. Another strategy would be to fill in part of their FQR chart so that they have models
to help them while they watch the videos. Two Facts, two questions, and two Responses would
be filled in for them so they can think of more ideas. If the teacher does not feel like the student
did enough, then they can give the URL addresses for the videos so they can work on it at home.
If student does not feel they completed the assignment, then they can ask the teacher for more
help and the URL addresses for the video.