California content Standards
10.8 Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.
- Compare the German, Italian, and Japanese drives for empire in the 1930s, including the 1937 Rape of Nanking, other atrocities in China, and the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939.
- Understand the role of appeasement, nonintervention (isolationism), and the domestic distractions in Europe and the United States prior to the outbreak of World War II.
- Identify and locate the Allied and Axis powers on a map and discuss the major turning points of the war, the principal theaters of conflict, key strategic decisions, and the resulting war conferences and political resolutions, with emphasis on the importance of geographic factors.
- Describe the political, diplomatic, and military leaders during the war (e.g., Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Emperor Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower).
- Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, especially against the European Jews; its transformation into the Final Solution; and the Holocaust that resulted in the murder of six million Jewish civilians.
- Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United States, China, and Japan.
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Assessments
- Unit Test
- Short Essay: After reviewing the treaty of Versailles, students will write a short essay (3 paragraphs maximum) discussing why the German people found the treaty unfair.
- Propaganda Poster: Students will create a propaganda poster that reflects the views of different countries during the war.
- Timeline: Students will create a timeline with images that displays 10 major events of the war.
- Free Write Response: Students will view a video displaying the Holocaust which they will reflect upon in writing.
- Geography Assignment: Students will complete a blank map of Europe and Northern Africa that illustrates the major battles during WWII.