The Blame Game

The Blame Game or Who is responsible for starting World War I?

Starting next month in June 2014, many will be made aware of the centennial commemorating the First World War. New books have been published over the last year or so to shed new light on the war as well as the origins of the war which include Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 and Max Hasting's Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War. The Imperial War Museum in London is honoring the Centenary anniversary with numerous exhibits and an exhibition on the start of the war at the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City is set to open. There will be much about World War I as we embark on five years of anniversaries including the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the declarations of war, the numerous battles, the armistice and the 1919 peace settlement. It will certainly be an exciting time for World War I history buffs and teachers of the First World War!

One of the questions historians have debated is the question of responsibility for the First World War. There is no simple straightforward answer to this question, in fact the reasons for the war are quite complicated. Watch the video clip from Horrible Histories on the Causes of World War I which provides a humorous take on the complexity of the causes.  

Considered one of the first revisionist historians, Sidney Bradshaw Fay’s thesis on the causes of the war distanced himself from the traditional view that dominated the Treaty of Versailles – that Germany was responsible for the war.  Students will be reading excerpts from the conclusion of Sidney Bradshaw Fay’s book, Origins of the World War, published in 1928.

World History students will be assigned a country to represent in the Blame Game Forum. In this forum, each student country group will be responsible for defending themselves against accusations that THEIR country was responsible for starting the First World War and placing the blame on another country.  Students will use information provided (Fay's thesis) and information they have found in their research (recommended websites have been included on the Blame Game Assignment). Each country group will create a multimedia presentation using WeVideo to introduce their country to the rest of the countries participating in the Forum.  Countries will be introduced on the first day of the forum in a 1-2 minute WeVideo introduction which will explain some basic background about their country and why their country is NOT responsible for starting the war. The WeVideo component of the Forum will be evaluated based on the Blame Game Rubric.

While students will represent the main countries in the Forum- Great Britain, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and Serbia, the model WeVideo that I made is not about a particular country but a general introduction to the actual assignment and what the students in their country groups are being asked to do. I have attempted to model the use of the following elements that students are required to include in their video - images, a video clip, music (sound) and voice narration. I also utilized text as well.

I have used the Blame Game in the past with my students but not with the technology integration component. The goal of such a project is not only for the students to become knowledgable about the historical content and narrative of events leading up to the outbreak of World War I, but to communicate, collaborate and utilize critical and analytical skills. I believe that their learning and understanding will benefit greatly from the tasks that I am asking of them in this assignment.  

I look forward to adding this element in future classes.

History vs. Vladimir Lenin - Alex Gendler

The TedEd talk I viewed and would use with my World History and European History students fits in nicely with the unit I just completed with my students on the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Communist state.  It links in with the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework in World History II.

WHII.18 Summarize the major events and consequences of World War I.

C. the collapse of the Romanov dynasty and the subsequent Bolshevik Revolution and Civil 
War in Russia

AND:

WHII.22 Summarize the consequences of Soviet communism to 1945. 

A. the establishment of a one-party dictatorship under Lenin

C. the destruction of individual rights and the use of mass terror against the population, 
the use of terror against internal enemies, and the destruction of individual rights

D.            the Soviet Union’s emergence as an industrial power 

 The talk I would use is titled History vs. Vladimir Lenin by Alex Gendler.




I like the video lesson because it puts Lenin on trial as it examines the Tsarist Regime, the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of the Soviet state under Lenin and his successor, Stalin.  The TedEd lesson page also has some multiple choice and open response questions for students to answer based on what they just viewed. Additionally it has some supplementary web links on topics mentioned in the video.  I did check the links and they are all high quality websites.

This animated lesson is just under seven minutes and would be accessible and useful for both my 9th and 12th graders.  I certainly could differentiate the assignments and activities with each level.  For the 9th graders, we could spend more time defining the vocabulary - names and terms such as Bloody Sunday, the Duma and Alexander Kerensky and linking it in with the events.  I would use this lesson to launch the unit telling students that as we study the historical narrative we would come back to this question and consider the pros and cons of the end of the Tsarist regime with the Russian Revolution and Lenin's establishment of the Soviet Union.  This topic would certainly be a great debate and would lend itself to an authentic written response: Was the average Russian  better off under the Tsarist regime or under the rule of the new Communist state?   I want students to consider that history is not neat, it is not simple but complex.  While it easy to condemn someone like Lenin for their actions, it is important to consider the positive aspects of what the Revolution/Lenin did and attempted to do.  This video lesson and these types of assignments enable students to consider a variety of view points as they determine the impact of Lenin as a historical figure and his legacy on the 20th century.