Karen Blanks
CTSE CONCEPT LESSON PLAN
UNIT: World War I
DAY: Lesson will encompass 2 days.
CLASS: World History
TOPIC: Conscription
I. OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to:
1. Define conscription, draft, enlist, “volunteer army”.
2. Explain the basic parts of the Selective Service Act, its origin and current status, and current
requirements for U.S. citizens.
3. Analyze examples of types of military service and evaluate each example for the degree of
conscription and/or volunteerism using a more/less continuum line.
4. Develop and compile the criterial attributes of conscription from analysis of the examples from #3
above.
5. Apply the criterial attributes from #4 above to a new situation: Assess and Evaluate President
Obama’s proposed plan for the Civilian National Security Force for the degree of conscription
and/or volunteerism using a more/less continuum line.
6. Write a one to two page essay on conscription in the United States (this could involve any of the
information taught in class or additional research which students might wish to do outside the
material covered in this class).
II. MATERIALS
1. Chalk & chalk board.
2. Handout #1: The Draft
3. Handout #2: Four Examples
4. Technology: Computer with internet access, overhead projector, film clip of Barak Obama and
Rahm Emanuel (from CSpan, saved on flash drive)
5. Handout #3: Civilian National Security Force proposed by Barak Obama
III. Procedures:
A. Introduction:
1. The teacher will begin by writing two words on the board: The Draft, and then ask students to
share with the class their thoughts on what these words mean. The teacher will encourage
students to raise their hands when they would like to share, and the teacher will write their
contributions on the board. (hopefully the students will correctly identify the draft with
mandatory or compulsory military service, if not teacher will identify as such) When this is
complete, the teacher will distribute handout #1 to the students. After students have read this
handout, teacher will briefly describe the draft process and relate the draft to the word:
conscription (mandatory military service) & write “conscription” on the board also.
2. Teacher will encourage class discussion by asking how they would respond to a “new
draft”. “This could affect every one of you students”
3. Teacher will write “Selective Service Agency” on the board and ask students, “What does this
have to do with the draft?”. Teacher will write “Selective Service requirements” and ask
students, “What are the current requirements for U.S. citizens in regards to the draft?”
4. Encourage students to read the recent developments on the handout and to keep up with
new developments on the draft (as these could affect them directly).
5. Recap/review: Brief definition of “the draft” and “conscription”.
Good intro. Will you later dig deeper into other forms of conscription beyond America’s “draft”?
B. BODY OF THE LESSON:
1. Discuss briefly the concepts of “conscripted army” (or conscription) versus “volunteer army”. At
this point most students will see these concepts as polar opposites, and this can be visually
reinforced by writing the word “conscription” on the far right of the board, and the word
“volunteer” on the far left side of the board. Near the end of this brief discussion, teacher will
draw a line connecting the two words while saying “Sometimes these concepts are not so clear;
let’s look at some examples.” Nice spectrum.
2. Teacher will distribute Handout #2. Students will be divided into groups of 4 students each.
Each example will be read aloud by a student from the class. When all the examples have been
read aloud, teacher will instruct the students to discuss each example in their group and each
group will decide where to place each example on the continuum line with conscription on one
end and volunteer on the opposite end. After allowing 5 minutes or so for each group to do this,
teacher will ask groups where they placed each example and then encourage the groups to
debate until the class agrees where to place that example along the continuum line on the board.
Simultaneously, as each example is discussed, class will develop a criteria to define
“conscription”, and teacher will write this criteria on the board under the work “conscription” This
criteria will be developed by teacher asking open ended questions such as “How does this
example show conscription?”
3. Teacher will clarify concepts by reviewing the criteria which the students have compiled for
“conscription”, asking students if they would like to make any changes to their criteria list, etc.
C. CLOSURE/CONCLUSION:
1. (New Day) Teacher will begin by reorienting students to the concepts of conscription (reviewing
the criteria developed by students) and volunteerism. Teacher will then show Film Clip showing
Rahm Emanuel and Barak Obama discussing the proposed Civilian National Security Force.
2. After viewing film, Handout #3 will be distributed to all students. Handout will either be read
aloud by one of the students or students will be asked to read this handout silently. This handout
will review the major parts of the speech on the film (mandatory basic training for all citizens age
18 to 25 years, etc).
3. The criteria for conscription which the class developed (above) will remain on the board. Teacher
will ask students to assess and evaluate the proposed requirements of this program and apply
the criterial attributes of conscription (which the class developed) to determine where to place this
program’s requirements on the continuum line. Teacher will encourage students to debate and
decide as a class where to place this program along the continuum line.
4. Teacher will wrap up lesson by clarifying the class’s definition of conscription, how conscription
is not always easy to define when applied to practice, and briefly reviewing the completed
continuum line on the board.
5. Teacher will briefly list the important items to remember for test: (3 minutes) definitions of
“The Draft”, conscription, enlist, volunteer or volunteer army, Selective Service Agency & its current
requirements. Understand the concepts of conscription and volunteer and the way these concepts
can become blurry when applied to real life examples. Teacher will inform students of the test
format (short answer) and the requirement that they will write a one to two page essay in class on
conscription in the United States. . Essay can be about the classroom lesson on conscription or on
any additional information that they would like to write about the subject of conscription in the
United States. Encourage students to do additional research: Civil War conscription, World War I
and World War II conscription, current efforts to restart the draft, etc.
IV. EVALUATION: (Day Three)
1. Student mastery will be assessed by their ability to apply the concept and meet the objectives
listed in this plan. A short test with 5 short answer questions will be given. Students will also be
asked to write a short essay on conscription in the United States and wide latitude will be allowed
on the essay to encourage additional research on conscription in the United States. Essay will be
written in class.