Lesson plan (English)
Topic: All quiet on the Western Front. Events on the Western Front until 1916.
Target group
7th‑grade students of elementary school
Core curriculum
7th‑grade students of elementary school
XXV. First World War. Pupil:
3 ) discusses the specificity of warfare: position warfare, maneuvering, action air and sea.
General aim of education
Students learn the specificity of warfare in 1914‑1916.
Key competences
communication in foreign languages;
digital competence;
learning to learn.
Criteria for success
The student will learn:
the most important battles on the Western Front between 1914‑1916;
conditions of life in trenches;
consequences of trench war.
Methods/techniques
activating
discussion.
expository
talk.
exposing
film.
programmed
with computer;
with e‑textbook.
practical
exercices concerned.
Forms of work
individual activity;
activity in pairs;
activity in groups;
collective activity.
Teaching aids
e‑textbook;
notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;
interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.
Lesson plan overview
Before classes
The teacher asks to recall the lesson: Europa schodzi ze sceny. Wybuch I wojny światowej.
Introduction
The teacher explains the students the subject, the purpose of the lesson and the criteria for success.
The teacher asks students to do Task 1. Students analyze the map and indicate the course of war on the western front, characterize its dynamics.
Realization
The teacher asks students to do Task 2. Students listen to the broadcast about the Battle of Marne. What role did Parisian taxis play in it? What were the consequences of the battle?.
The teacher explains what the position warfare was. In the lecture he uses the photographs posted in the e‑textbook.
Then, he invites students to talk about the social effects of the stabilization of the front. Students are doing the Task 3. They read a passage of text about the frontal life in Flanders at the end of 1914. On the basis of the text, they describe the behavior of soldiers fighting in the trenches of the western front. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback.
The teacher explains that similar attitudes disappear during the war. The reason is the attempts by the struggling parties to end the impasse, resulting in battles bringing massive victims in people. As a result of human losses, war enemies are dehumanized.
The teacher goes to the examples: he introduces students to the history of the Battle of Verdun and Somme and the methods taken by the Germans, British and French to break the front.
Summary
Students do Exercise 1. They organize information about activities on the western front. After completing the exercise in conversation with the teacher, they justify briefly the famous wording about the Western front during World War I: „all quiet on the western front.” They give arguments for and against. The teacher explains the source of this wording: the novel by Erich Remarque. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback.
The teacher assesses the students' work during the lesson, taking into account their input and commitment. For this purpose, he may prepare an evaluation questionnaire for self‑assessment and evaluation of the teacher's work and other students.
Homework
The teacher sets homework (it is not an obligatory part of the script), which is the written execution of Task 3 from the e‑textbook.
The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson
Terms
wojna pozycyjna – wojna, podczas której obie walczące strony zajmują silnie umocnione pozycje; między walczącymi stronami znajduje się tzw. ziemia niczyja, nad którą żadna ze stron nie ma kontroli.
przedpiersie okopu – część okopu, nasyp ziemny chroniący przed pociskami nieprzyjaciela, stanowiący podparcie obsługiwanej broni.
ziemia niczyja – pas ziemi między okopami walczących stron, poza kontrolą którejkolwiek z nich
ofensywa – natarcie
zasieki – zapora z drutu kolczastego
Bitwa nad Sommą – największa i najkrwawsza bitwa I wojny światowej pomiędzy wojskami państw Ententy (głównie angielskimi) a Cesarstwem Niemieckim. Zakończyła się zwycięstwem państw Ententy. W wyniku jej trwania (lipiec‑listopad 1916) śmierć poniosło ponad milion ofiar.
Bitwa pod Verdun – bitwa pomiedzy Francją a Niemcami trwająca od lutego do grudnia 1916 r. W czasie jej trwania obie strony poniosły ciężkie straty tracąc po blisko 350 tys. żołnierzy. Zakończyła się taktycznym zwycięstwem wojsk francuskich.
Bitwa jutlandzka – największa bitwa morska I wojny światowej stoczona między marynarkami wojennymi Wielkiej Brytanii i Cesarstwa Niemieckiego 31 maja i 1 czerwca 1916 r. Taktyczne zwycięstwo odnieśli Niemcy, którzy utracili mniej okrętów i poległych marynarzy.
Texts and recordings
All quiet on the Western Front. Events on the Western Front until 1916.
For the Germans, blitzkrieg was a solution to the lack of strategic resources. This means its basic goal was to crush France and take over its industry, and then move to the East and win against Russia. After the war started, the Germans indeed reached Paris really quickly. However, the French managed to stop the German attack in the Battle of the Marne. That battle irreversibly ended the traditional war manoeuvres in Western Europe. Thus, trench warfare started which pushed millions of soldiers into trenches for a long time. The trenches had hundreds of kilometers and they ran along the front line. In 1916, after two years of dramatically long conflict, Germany as the first attempted to break the Western front. From the end of February until June of 1916 battle of Verdun was fought. In July of that year the counteroffensive was initiated. It was launched by the British and the French (Battle of the Somme). Soon, battle of Verdun recommenced. However, none of those battles that took place simultaneously until the end of 1916 changed the front line.