Topic: The Polish cause at the Versailles Peace Conference

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

7th‑grade students of elementary school

XXVIII. The rebirth of the Polish state after the First World War. Pupil:

2 ) presents the process of forging borders: the decisions of Versailles and the phenomenon of creation

Wielkopolskie Province and Silesian uprisings (west) – federal dilemma and incorporation result (east).

General aim of education

Students learn about the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles towards Poland.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to characterize the positions of the powers on the Polish demands;

• to describe the Polish territorial proposals;

• to list the decisions on the Polish cause at the Versailles Peace Conference.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• 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

1. The teacher asks students to do Exercise 1 from the e‑textbook - assigning titles to individual documents. Students review the knowledge about the Paris conference.

Introduction

1. The teacher explains the students the purpose of the lesson and the criteria for success.

2. The teacher refers to the homework (it will be the starting point for understanding further diplomatic games in Paris) and the economic situation of Poland. He talks about the efforts of its representatives for gaining compensation for war damages. Students check what was the result of these efforts - to do this they carry out Task 1 from the e‑textbook.

Realization

1. The teacher asks students to work in two- or four‑person teams. Each student from a given team receives another part of the material (I or II) to analyze / exercise to be done (work sheets prepared by the teacher). Students working on the same issues meet in expert groups. They discuss the subject of the assigned material, share doubts and order knowledge. Later, they return to „their own” double groups and pass on their ordered knowledge one by one.

2. Tasks for the expert I. The student examines the attitude of the superpowers towards the Polish issue at the Versailles conference. To this end, they execute Task 1 - they familiarize with an interactive illustration showing members of the so‑called Big Four. They try to use the knowledge from the previous lesson, embed the attitude towards Polish affairs in the international context, find geopolitical justifications for the attitudes of other powers. They search for supplementary information on the Internet. The teacher gives feedback to a group of experts working together.

3. Tasks for expert II. The student examines the activity of the Polish delegation in Paris, with emphasis on territorial postulates and the reaction of the decision‑making bodies to them. They do Exercise 1 - analyze the map in the context of postulates proposed by Roman Dmowski and answer the question. The teacher takes care of giving feedback to a group of experts working together.

4. Work on the return of experts (in pairs or in teams of two), in addition to transferring the knowledge to other colleagues, they should assume interaction between areas of knowledge obtained by each student: an attempt to look for manifestations of mutual interaction between politics, economy, etc. The common goal for each group is to understand that the decisions of the congress regarding the Polish issue were the result of Polish actions and the interests of other powers.

Summary

1. The work ends with a discussion of the issues introduced in the class.

2. The teacher asks the students questions:

   • What did you find important and interesting in class?

   • What was easy and what was difficult?

   • How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

   Willing/selected students summarize the lesson

3. Then the teacher gives the students an evaluation questionnaire, in which they will evaluate their own work, colleagues and the teacher.

Homework

1. The teacher sets the homework (it is not an obligatory part of the scenario), which is to read the excerpts from the conventions between Poland and the Free City of Gdansk (Paris, November 9, 1920), and then to do in writing Task 3 from the e‑textbook. The student explains what the privileged position of Poland in the Free City of Gdansk was.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

The Polish cause at the Versailles Peace Conference

The representatives of the Polish cause at the Paris Peace Conference were Roman Dmowski and the Prime Minister of the Polish government Ignacy Paderewski. Ultimately, the Treaty of Versailles awarded the Greater Poland to Poland. The Polish state also got the Danzig Pomerania, “cutting” the German state in half, which will be a cause of conflict in the future. Danzig was proclaimed the Free City of Danzig under the control of a High Commissioner of the League of Nations. Poland was granted certain privileges in the city. The fate of the Upper Silesia, Warmia, Masuria and Powiśle was to be decided in plebiscites. Poland and the other newly established countries not only had to sign the Versailles Treaty but also a treaty that guaranteed minority rights, also known as the Little Treaty of Versailles.