Sebastian Kreindel
Unit: WWII and You
Topic/ Title: Appeasement, characters, and the start of the war
Teaching Date: Day 1.
Subject/ Course: World History II
Grade Level: Freshman/ sophomore
Time Frame: 90 minutes
Context/ Rational: Refer to Unit lesson content overview
SOL’s/ Objectives: In appendix of Unit
Essential Questions:
*Students will be able to identify and describe major players of World War II.
*Students will be able to contrast and compare the different ideologies of the leaders of WWII
*Students will be able to synthesize a hypothesis as to how WWI led to WWII.
*Students will be able to identify early battles of the War, describe the events, and predict where the war could have gone had the Germans, the Japanese , and the
Italians stuck to their course.
Standard WHII.12a. FROM THE SOLS
Students will also be able to: b) assess the social economic and political results of the war c) defend and criticize the stances of WWII leaders
Essential Questions:
1) What were the causes of WWII
2) What were the major events and who were the major leaders of WWII, and how were these leaders influenced?
3) How did the major events in the War change the tides?
4) How the war set the United States of America up to be a powerhouse?
Materials/ Resources:
Appeasement cartoons
Worksheet of major characters and bios

Powerpoint Lecture (s)
Content/ Instructional Strategies:
Warm Up: Bell Work will begin with a personal journal entry based on a cartoon of the appeasement era in Europe. Students will write what they are observing and how they believe it represents the era.
Hook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_W_Mc7QhVI (only the first 2 minutes 30 seconds)
Lesson: Students will be given guided nights for PowerPoint presentations on the major characters from WWII (this can also be done as a trading card activity).
As the PowerPoint is taking place, students will be filling out their major character bios—which will be checked as a class work grade.
Students will then receive PowerPoint lectures on the German invasion of Poland, the Fall of France, and the Battle of Britain.
Exit Ticket: Students will fill out an exit ticket before leaving class.
Differentiation: Instead of pausing this lesson after every character, student can be given biographical information on each character and asked to fill out the information themselves. It can be made more challenging to some students by providing each with a primary source written by the leader and having students hypothesize who could have wrote each document.
Adaptation: Students can also be given guided notes to make the formal note-taking process easier to follow.
Assessment: Exit Ticket Day 1:
1) Describe how the appeasement of Germany occurred
2) What type of historical information can you get from the cartoons?
3) Which World War II leaders do you find the most interesting and why?
WWII?
4) What do you think Great Britain and France should have done to prevent
5) What are the differences between the causes of WWI and WWII?
Homework: Students are to prepare two questions that they have about WWII
Reflection:
Students really enjoyed the cartoons. I felt this was a very effective lesson— but students did a poor job with the homework assignment. Instead of truly delving into which leader they found to be fascinating they would just answer what was

easiest to finish the assignment. I will need to find ways to ignite them into writing more. Students did a fine job filling out the worksheet but could use more direct instruction on what should and should not be copied down. From now on anything in red, students will be required to write down, and anything in black will not.
Materials:
Appeasement Political Cartoons

Name: Date: Block:
WWII Character Worksheet
Name
Franklin D.
Roosevelt
Position
U.S.
President
Relevance to WWII
Accomplishments Failures Why do I need to know this person?
Harry S.
Truman
Dwight D.
Eisenhower
U.S.
President following the death of
President
Roosevelt
Allied
Commander in Europe
Douglas
MacArthur
George C.
Marshall
U.S. General
U.S. General
Winston
Churchill
British
Prime
Minister

Joseph
Stalin
Soviet
Dictator
Adolf Hitler Nazi
Dictator of
Germany
Hideki Tojo Japanese
General
Hirohito Emperor of
Japan