America Enters World War I

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The Basics

Subject Area and/or Course Title:

American History

Targeted Grade Level:

7

Time Required:

Two to three 90-minute classes

Related Standards:

• MN State Social Studies Standards, Grade 7: 2: Pose questions about a topic in United States history, gather and organize a variety of primary and secondary sources related to the questions, analyze sources for credibility and bias; suggest possible answers and write a thesis statement; use sources to draw conclusions and support the thesis; present supported findings, and cite sources.
• MN State Social Studies Standards, Grade 7: 20. As the United States shifted from its agrarian roots into an industrial and global power, the rise of big business, urbanization and immigration led to institutionalized racism, ethnic and class conflict, and new efforts at reform.

Author

Casey Metcalfe, 2015

The Lesson

Introductory Narrative to Lesson:

This lesson focuses on life on the home front in the years 1915-1919; specifically the beginning of war in Europe. In the pre-war years, the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat in 1915 deeply affected the American psyche and cultivated a distrust of Germany. However, in the years following, President Woodrow Wilson advocated an isolationist policy saying America should “exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment”. In contrast, former President Theodore Roosevelt encouraged intervention following Germany’s declaration of war on Belgium.  When the United States officially entered the war in 1917 (following the interception of the Zimmerman Telegram), the image of the Lusitania was used across propaganda mediums to mobilize Americans to participate in the war effort through enlisting, rationing, and limiting political speech.

Lesson in Context

Preceding this lesson, students will have basic understanding of the broad political causes of World War I (MAIN acronym) and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Essential Questions

• What motivated American entrance into WWI?
• How did the United States persuade citizens to join the war effort?
• How did Americans help the war effort on the “home front”?

Learning Objectives

• Students will analyze the various perspectives regarding American intervention in WWI during the years 1914-1917. 
• Students will define the term propaganda, describe its purpose during WWI, and evaluate its effects on the behavior of the American public.

Lesson Activities

DAY ONE:

Daily Bellringer (5 minutes)

What does it mean to “isolate”? When is a time that an individual/country might choose to isolate itself? Students will be prompted to share their definitions and an example of isolation. Teacher should guide students towards contextualizing question in terms of the previous lesson regarding the causes of World War I. (“Why would the United States decide to isolate themselves from European affairs in 1914?”)

Tough Choices: Roosevelt vs. Wilson (15 minutes)

The class will be split into two groups: One will analyze excerpts from Woodrow Wilson’s Appeal for Neutrality (1914) and the other will analyze Theodore Roosevelt’s America and the World War (1915).  Students will work with table partners. After seven minutes, students will switch passages.

• PASSAGE A: “My thought is of America… This great country of ours… should show herself in this time of peculiar trial of a Nation fit beyond other to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency of dispassionate (unemotional) action; a nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the world.” President Woodrow Wilson, Appeal for Neutrality, August 19, 1914
• PASSAGE B: “Our true course should be to judge each nation on its conduct, unhesitatingly to antagonize every nation that does ill at the point it does it.  And equally without hesitation to act…One of the greatest of international duties ought to be the protection of small, highly civilized, well-behaved and self-respecting states from oppression and conquest by their powerful military neighbors…I feel in the strongest way that we should have interfered, at least to the extent of the most emphatic diplomatic protest and at the very outset--and then by whatever further action was necessary--(when Germany invaded Belgium)”.  Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, America and the World War, 1915

• Wilson’s Appeal for Neutrality (1914) What does it mean to be “neutral” in a conflict? If you were living during this time, how would you feel about a war beginning in Europe? What is Wilson trying to keep the United States from doing in his Appeal for Neutrality? Does Woodrow Wilson want America to isolate itself from the war? How can you tell?

  Roosevelt’s America & World War (1915) What does it mean to “antagonize” another nation? Which European country is the “small, highly civilized, well-behaved and self respecting state” that Roosevelt is referring to? Who is the “powerful military neighbor”? Roosevelt wanted the United States to “act without hesitation”. What do you think Roosevelt suggests the United States do? Does Theodore Roosevelt want America to isolate itself from the war? How can you tell?

Brief Review (5 minutes)

Teacher should review responses with class as a whole when students have finished. Afterwards, ask students “Which one of these two men is President in 1914? Woodrow Wilson. “Based on Wilson’s views, what do you think the United States did when war broke in Europe?” Stayed out of the war, stayed neutral, isolated itself.

Cloze Notes: Introducing the Lusitania (10 minutes)

Teacher gives brief historical context about submarine warfare in the Atlantic Ocean and the final voyage of the British passenger ship. Students will follow along and annotate using iPad application Notability. Underlined text indicates blanks for students. Students will be expected to fill in blanks and add supplemental notes.   Question for students: Now that Americans have died, will the US join the war?

• On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania (a British passenger ship) was torpedoed by a German submarine. (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/RMS_Lusitania_coming_into_port,_possibly_in_New_York,_1907-13-crop.jpg) A second explosion followed shortly thereafter, and the ship sank in only 18 minutes and killed 1198 passengers and 128 Americans.  Germans had signed treaties stating that they would not attack passenger ships. However, the German Embassy took out an advertisement in the London newspaper warning passengers of the danger of Atlantic travel during wartime.  The passenger liner was carrying war munitions in the cargo hold. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_RMS_Lusitania#/media/File:Lusitania_warning.jpg)

Brain Break – 5 minutes

Story Behind the Song– “When the Lusitania Went Down”  (20 minutes)

Students will listen to/analyze the 1915 song, “When the Lusitania Went Down” by Charles McCarron & Nat Vincent. Students will be supplied lyrics for the song and complete the “Story Behind the Song” questions with a new partner. Students should be primed for the dated nature of the recording. Ask: Predict how the recording from 1915 will sound. Why might it be useful to listen to a recording from the era rather than a contemporary one?

“When the Lusitania Went Down” 

The nation is sad as can be,

A message came over the sea.

A thousand or more, who sailed from our shore,

Have gone to eternity.

The Statue of Liberty high,

 Must now have a tear in her eye.

I think it’s a shame; no one is to blame,

But all we can do is just sigh.

Some of us lost a true sweetheart,

Some of us lost a dear dad,

Some lost their mothers, sisters and brothers

Some lost the best friends they had.

It’s time they were stopping this warfare,

If women and children must cry.

Many brave hearts went to sleep in the deep,

When the Lusitania went down.

Oh, listen to all these good deeds.

When we feel like crossing the sea,

American ships that sail from our slips,

Are safer for you and me.

A Yankee can go anywhere

As long as Old Glory is there.

Although they were warned, the warning they scorned,

And now we must cry in despair.

Story Behind the Song:

• Describe: Who is the speaker in the song? What images does the speaker describe?
• Analyze: What is the tone of this song? What is the listener supposed to feel after listening?
• Interpret: From the speaker’s perspective, who is to blame for the sinking? (see v2/4/6)
• Evaluate:  Based on the final verse of this song, will America immediately go to war with Germany? Why or why not?