Learning Activity

Isolationism After WWI: The League of Nations

Subject Area

Social Studies

Grade(s)

Overview

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Content Standards

Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 6

SS10.6.3
Identify causes and consequences of World War I and reasons for the United States’ entry into the war.

Unpacked Content

Vocabulary

WWI
Lusitania
Zimmerman Note
alliances
militarism
imperialism
nationalism
modern warfare
isolationism
Treaty of Versailles
League of Nations
Red Scare

Knowledge

Students know:

The causes and consequences of U.S. involvement in WWI (sinking of the Lusitania, the Zimmerman Note, Alliance System, Militarism, Imperialism, and Nationalism).
The roles of military and civilians played in WWI.
The impact of technological advances of WWI on modern warfare (machine guns, tanks, submarines, airplanes, poison gas, and gas masks).
How to locate countries involved in WWI on a map and boundary changes that occurred after WWI.
The factors contributing to isolationism in the United States after WWI (Treaty of Versailles debate, Red Scare, League of Nations).
Strategic locations of military bases in Alabama.

Skills

Students are able to:

Locate places on a map.
Read and interpret primary source documents.
Cite evidence to support historical events.

Understanding

Students understand that:

There were many reasons for United States entry and involvement in World War I and there were causes and consequences of this involvement.

Interdisciplinary Connections

Phase

After/Explain/Elaborate

Learning Objectives

Students will explain the isolationism in the United States after World War I by examining the creation of the League of Nations.

Activity Details

See advanced preparation section for information on how to set up teacher and student accounts on ReadWorks. If this is the first time you and your students are using the website, you may want to model part of this activity for students before they begin the activity independently.

This activity would be best utilized after a unit on World War I, as it will focus on one of the events that occurred after WWI, the creation of the League of Nations.

1. Have students sign on to their ReadWorks account. Tell them to click on the informational article you assigned, "World War I & the Great Depression: The League of Nations". Direct students to read the article through one time, this time they are simply focusing on reading for comprehension.

2. Tell students they will read the article again, this time they will be annotating the text for specific details. As students read the text a second time, they should highlight the reasons that the League of Nations was created (causes) in orange. They should highlight the effects of the creation of the League of Nations in green.

Note: To annotate text on the website, highlight the text on the computer screen using the mouse. Right-click on the highlighted text, then select the color that would apply to the highlighted text.

3. As a final assessment, the students will answer the Comprehension Question set that is paired with the text on ReadWorks. The students can (and should) look back at the text as they answer the questions; they can even view the questions and article in a split-screen mode. There are ten questions total; seven multiple choice questions and three short answer questions. You may wish to require students to answer the short answer questions in complete sentences.

Assessment Strategies

As a formative assessment, view the students' annotations as they work to ensure they are able to discern the difference between the causes and effects of the creation of the League of Nations.

As a summative assessment, view the students' score on the comprehension questions provided on the Assignments & Progress tab on your teacher account on ReadWorks. The multiple choice questions are graded automatically. You will need to grade the short answer questions on the website, which provides sample answers to help judge each student's response.

Acceleration and Intervention

Variation Tips

This article has two additional Vocabulary Question sets. You may wish to assign students these question sets as well to practice and assess English Language Arts skills.

Background and Preparation

Background / Preparation

ReadWorks is a website that provides K-12 teachers with free literacy resources (About ReadWorks). ReadWorks has literary and informational texts on a variety of subjects and reading skills. You may narrow your search using grade level or Lexile level, making this website a wonderful tool for differentiation. Students will complete their work digitally, and you will provide their score and feedback digitally. This makes it easy to go paperless for this activity.

Prior to implementing this activity, you will need to sign up for an Educator Account on ReadWorks. After setting up an account, create a class from the Class Admin tab, this will provide you with a Class Code to give to students. Next, use the Find Content tab to search for the informational article that will be used during this activity, "World War I & the Great Depression: The League of Nations". After navigating to the article, click on the blue Assign button to assign it to your class.

Each student will need access to a digital device, such as a tablet or laptop. The first time students enter the website they will need to enter the Class Code that is listed on your Class Admin page.

Digital Tools / Resources

World War I & the Great Depression: The League of Nations from ReadWorks

https://www.readworks.org/article/World-War-I-the-Great-Depression-The-League-o…

Approved Date

2018-06-02

Author

Owner (Author)

habradley

Learning Resource Type