Teach

Class Technology Tool Assignment Exemplar

(Provided courtesy of an iteachTEXAS candidate)

• 113.41. United States History Studies Since 1877 (One Credit), Adopted 2018.

1. Choose a technology that you can integrate into a lesson plan for your content area.

The National World War I Museum and Memorial has an interactive online exhibit covering several aspects of “The War to End All Wars,” including trench warfare, American volunteerism, and armistice, among several other exhibits. Access the homepage of the online exhibit here:

https://www.theworldwar.org/explore/exhibitions/online-exhibitions (Links to an external site.)

2. Reference at least one higher order learning objective

Each student will explain the changes to warfare that occurred during World War I.

Each student will analyze how specific warfare changes effected future conflicts, specifically World War II.

Each student will interpret various forms of multi-media to determine historical relevancy.

TEKS Addressed:

(4) History. The student understands the emergence of the United States as a world power between 1898 and 1920. The student is expected to:

(C) identify the causes of World War I and reasons for U.S. entry;

(E) analyze the impact of machine guns, airplanes, tanks, poison gas, and trench warfare as significant technological innovations in World War I on the Western Front;

(F) analyze major issues raised by U.S. involvement in World War I, including isolationism, neutrality, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and the Treaty of Versailles.

(26) Science, technology, and society. The student understands the impact of science, technology, and the free enterprise system on the economic development of the United States. The student is expected to:

(B) explain how specific needs result in scientific discoveries and technological innovations in agriculture, the military, and medicine;

(28) Social studies skills. The student understands how historians use historiography to interpret the past and applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of valid sources, including technology. The student is expected to:

(A) analyze primary and secondary sources such as maps, graphs, speeches, political cartoons, and artifacts to acquire information to answer historical questions;

(B) analyze information by applying absolute and relative chronology through sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing and contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations, making predictions, drawing inferences, and drawing conclusions;

(C) apply the process of historical inquiry to research, interpret, and use multiple types of sources of evidence;

3. How will using this technology enhance the student learning of your chosen objective?

The National World War I Museum and Memorial’s online museum provides a breadth of knowledge over the War. Students will use this material, specifically the sections entitled “Trenches of WWI” and “WWI A-Z” to understand the ways that the act of war evolved from 1914-1918. The website provides historical images, museum exhibitions, and audio recordings over the development of trench warfare and the scientific, medical, and military advances that occurred as a result of war. Students will use the website to explain the changes to warfront and describe the effects that the war had on soldiers in the trenches and on how war was fought. Students will use the information to create their own digit resource (PowerPoint, Weebly, or Prezi) to share their findings with the class. This website is the work of a national museum so students can access historical information with minimal bias.

4. What are the risks or drawbacks to using this technology? How will you minimize these issues?

One risk of utilizing this website is that there are multiple online exhibitions with images and audio recordings. While this is a valuable tool for an overall study of World War I students may have some difficulty in evaluating the headings and the material presented for relevancy to the objective of analyzing changes to warfare. Students may view other exhibitions to the war which can pique interest but can also distract them from completing the assignment in a timely manner. To minimize this distraction, I could prompt students to look in specific exhibitions that contain the material needed to respond to the lesson prompts. I think a better way to minimize the distraction factor of the exhibitions would be to allow students one class period to peruse the website and make a list of 15 things they learned about the war. This will allow them to analyze information presented, investigate the war as a whole, and use all aspects of the website to enhance their understanding of the global impact of war.

A second risk of using this website is that while it covers a breadth of information, it does not go into great detail about each aspect of the war. The exhibitions provide an overview of aspects of war. The minimize this issue, I will prompt students to do additional research on other websites to expand their understanding of warfare. Students will need to evaluate outside sources of the material for authenticity and historical relevancy.

A third drawback to any use of technology in the classroom is keeping students engaged in the lesson and on task, away from utilizing technology for personal reasons. To mitigate this issue, it

is imperative that I am engaged with my students, walking around the classroom, interacting with each student as they progress throughout the online exhibitions. Redirection for off task students is important to ensure that each student completed the assignment and meets the objective to the best of his or her ability.