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World War I Research Assignment
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Final Research Essay and Presentation Product due:
Thursday, February 20th
Directions: Alone or with a partner, choose one of the following project assignments. Follow the research steps outlined
in class. These steps will require you to complete a Research Essay and a Presentation Product which you will present to
the class.
1. Battles of WWI (Standard 10.5.2)
Writing prompt –Discuss the points of view of generals, soldiers and others on a specific battle. Choose one of the
major battles of WWI that we did NOT study in class and research the role of each of the groups of people in that battle.
Your essay should make clear the differences in how each group perceived and experienced the battle.
Presentation Product – A detailed, hand-made map of one of the battles that includes position of troops, dates, troop
movements and the total number of soldiers killed on each side in an artistic manner. The map must be created by you,
not printed or photocopied.
2. Strategy, Science and Weaponry (Standard 10.5.4)
Writing prompt – Analyze the impact the new weapons had on World War I. Choose 3 of the following weapons
(poison gas, submarines, airplanes, tanks and artillery shells) and how the weapon changed the strategy of warfare.
Presentation Product – Create a general’s field guide or log that explains how his strategic use of the weapons. Booklet
must include the terrain of the battle, diagrams of the troops’ locations and a sequenced description of how the battle will
play out.
3. Trench Warfare ( Standard 10.5.2, 10.5.4)
Writing prompt – Analyze the role trench warfare played in shaping soldiers’ experiences in World War I. Your
Write-up of findings should describe the conditions in trenches and then explain how or why this influenced soldiers.
Presentation Product - Create a 3D cross section of a trench (or website) displaying the following items: mess hall,
living quarters, dispensary, common area and the parts important to a frontline soldier – parapet, fire step, “over the top” –
no man’s land etc.
4. WWI Music (Standard 10.5.1)
Writing prompt (choose one of the following)
Compare music from the beginning, middle and end of the war.
Or
Evaluate the role music served as propaganda for World War I. Your Write-up of findings must analyze at least four
World War I songs from different points in the war.
Presentation Product – Take a popular song and re-write the lyrics to be about World War I. Record your performance
or perform the song live in class or discuss with Ms Hogan a different means of presenting it to the class.
5. Women in the War (Standard 10.5.1, 10.5.4)
Writing prompt – To what extent did women’s contributions to the war make a difference? Research women’s
career options, contributions on the home front and voluntary war activities. Use this research to help you decide how
much their efforts helped the war effort and how much they were useless in the outcome of the war.
Presentation Product – Create a scrapbook that might have been kept by one woman during the war. Using your
research, create a fictional story about this person’s experiences. Scrapbook should include drawings as well as primary
source visuals, letters written and received by the woman and the story of her life during the war.
6. Psychology of WWI Collage (Standard 10.5.1, 10.6.4)
Writing prompt – Identify the psychological effect fighting had on soldiers in World War I. Research and explain
the psychological explanations of post-traumatic stress disorder (also refered to as shellshock.)
Presentation Product – Create a large collage that portrays these findings. This will be a visual representation that
communicates emotions to the viewer using archival images to create a below the surface graphic.
7. Poetry of WWI
Writing Prompt – Compare and contrast three of the poems from World War I with primary or secondary
accounts of the war. The poetry of WWI is famous in literature, possibly because reading and writing were a main
source of entertainment for soldiers who were involved in the war. For British soldiers in particular, poetry was
important because Great Britain’s school system was “based on the idea that understanding the poetry of the past makes
people good citizens,” and many British soldiers carried the Oxford Book of English Verse with them to the front
(Pendergrast). Research 3 poems from the same or different authors and compare how they describe the war to how it is
described in your textbook or in a primary source.
Presentation Product – Create 2-3 of your own poems about something in your life or today’s world and arrange them
on a poster next to primary or secondary sources that describe the same event.
Recommended poets & poems: Rupert Brooke: “I. Peace”, “III. The Dead”, “I Have a Rendezvous with Death”,
“Sonnet X”, “Sonnet XI: On Returning to the Front After Leave” Wilfred Owen: “Strange Meeting”, “Anthem for
Doomed Youth”, “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, Siegfried Sassoon: “They”, “Counter-Attack” or Robert Graves, John
McCrae, Isaac Rosenberg, Edward Thomas, and many more.
8. U.S. Congress Speech (Standard 10.5.1, 10.5.3)
Writing prompt – Evaluate if the US should have become involved in World War I. Your essay should address the
facts as they were known to the US when it was deciding to joint the war. You will write your essay as a persuasive
speech that would have been delivered to the US Congress.
Presentation Product - Your Presentation Product will either be a recording of the speech –on a video recorder, CD or
tape – or a live, and rehearsed, performance of the speech to the class.
9. The Armenian Genocide (Standard 10.5.5)
Writing prompt –To what extent did World War I lead to the Armenian genocide? Research the Armenian
genocide, including what happened, and also what reasons were given by the Ottomans for the genocide. Then decide to
what extent the war made the killings necessary or if this was just the excuse used by the Ottomans.
Presentation Product – A diary that details the experiences of someone in the Armenian genocide. The diary must have
entries from before and during the evacuation with at least 4 diary entries. It may also include drawings.
10. Oral History Enactment (Standard 10.5.1, 10.5.4)
Writing prompt – Discuss the personal experiences of different people from the war. Find four primary sources
either from the Western or Eastern fronts OR from one of the home fronts. Compare the impact of the war on the different
individuals.
Presentation Product – Record or perform a dramatic reading of a monologue you write that is consistent with your
analysis about the impact of war on the individuals.
11. Logical Fallacies in the Arguments for War (Standard 10.5.1)
Writing prompt – Evaluate if the reasons given for entering the war conform to the standards of logic. Research
the arguments for the war that were given by the combatants at the time of World War I. Using the rules of logic, identify
fallacies in their argumentation to evaluate if their reasoning was sound.
Presentation Product – Create a poster that shows the relationship between their arguments and the rules of logic.
12. Propaganda Posters (Standard 10.5.1, 10.5.3)
Writing Prompt – Justify the use of propaganda posters to persuade people to support the war. Use “The First
World War in Posters” by Joseph Darracott and/or another source to study at least 75 posters from WWI. Your essay
should reference specific posters as evidence, by name or image (although not necessarily all 75)
Presentation Product - After reading several poems, personal accounts, and descriptions of the war (we can supply
these), create three posters, based on a WWI-era design, that “advertise” what a person could actually expect to
experience as a soldier or nurse, or what a person buying a war bond would actually be paying for.
WWI Web Pages
Below is a list of webpages that will help guide your research.
General WWI Information:
http://www.fidnet.com/~weid/ww1.html
http://www.besthistorysites.net/20thCentury_WWI.shtml
http://www.firstworldwar.com/
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWW.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/
http://www.worldwar1.com/
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world_war_one.htm
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/
Battles
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWbattles.htm
http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/heritag2.htm
http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/index.htm
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battles_of_world_war_one.htm
Weapons of WWI
http://www.cyberheritage.org/ammunition/French%2075mm%20model%201915.html
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/Home/Technology/Military-Technology/index.html
http://www.theaerodrome.com/index.php
http://www.acepilots.com/wwi/main.html
http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/index.htm
http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/weapons.htm
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/lessons/lesson32.htm
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/greatwar/g3/cs1/default.htm
Trenches
http://techcenter.davidson.k12.nc.us/group9/trenchwar.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWtrench.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/trench.htm
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/greatwar/g3/cs4/default.htm
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/greatwar/g3/cs2/default.htm
http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/trenches.htm
http://www.australiansatwar.gov.au/throughmyeyes/w1_main.html
http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm
http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/wwi-trenches.html
http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/trenches.htm
Women
http://www.warandgender.com/wgwomwwi.htm
http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/signal.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWwomen.htm
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/naw:@field+(SOURCE+@band(rbnawsa+n2004)):@@@$REF$
http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets4.html
http://www.womensmemorial.org/H&C/Exhibits/exhibitshl.html
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/kim.shtml
http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/womenww1_intro.htm
Songs
http://www.ww1photos.com/WW1MusicIndex.html
http://www.ishk.org/files/war_songs_9812.html
http://www.halcyondaysmusic.com/ww1music.htm
http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibitions/WorldWar/lyrics.htm
http://parlorsongs.com/issues/2004-4/thismonth/feature.php
http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?ammem/aasm,cowellbib,musdibib,dcm,raelbib,gottlieb,lomaxbib,vv,mussm,dukesm,scsm,varstg,todd
bib:@FIELD(SUBJ+@band(+world+war,+1914+1918++songs+and+music.+))
http://www.besmark.com/ww1b.html
http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/index.htm
http://www.soldierssongs.com/cd.html#Christmas%20in%20the%20Trenches
http://www.militarysheetmusic.com/wwisongs.htm
Primary Sources including Propaganda, Poems and Photos
http://www.art-ww1.com/gb/visite.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/hmhsllandoverycastle/worldwar1.html
http://rutlandhs.k12.vt.us/jpeterso/uboatcar.htm
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~mmorten/propaganda/wwi/
http://www.ww1-propaganda-cards.com/
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/w1frm.htm
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page
http://www.teacheroz.com/wwi.htm
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/britain1906to1918/g5/gallery5.htm
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/britain1906to1918/g6/gallery6.htm
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/lessons/lesson38.htm
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/greatwar/g3/cs4/default.htm
http://parlorsongs.com/issues/2004-4/thismonth/feature.php
http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/warpictures/index.html
http://www.worldwar1.com/pharc.htm
http://www3.sympatico.ca/berdusco/photo.htm
http://www3.sympatico.ca/berdusco/photo.htm
Armenian Genocide
http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genocide/armenian_genocide.htm
http://www.teachgenocide.org/survivoraccounts/index.htm
http://www.anca.org/genocide_resource/synopsis.php
http://www.genocide1915.info/history/
http://www.theforgotten.org/site/intro_eng.html
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/research.html