Goals & Objectives
Students will be able to explain how the idea of M.AI.N. (Militarism, alliance system, imperialism, nationalism) contributed to the outbreak of WWI. Students will use the ideas of M.A.I.N. to become victories in their simulation, or create controlled chaos.
California State Content Standards
10.5.1 Analyze the arguments for entering into war presented by leaders from all sides of the Great War and the role of political and economic rivalries, ethnic and ideological conflicts, domestic discontent and disorder, and propaganda and nationalism in mobilizing the civilian population in support of “total war.”
Common Core Literacy Standards
CCSL9-10.1.6: Exchanging information and ideas with other through oral collaborative discussions on a range of academic topics.
Driving Historical Question
How did the ideas of M.A.I.N. contribute to the start of WWI?
Lesson Introduction (Anticipatory Set/Hook/Accessing Prior Knowledge)
Accessing prior knowledge for this activity is key because there will be a slight disconnect between the content and when the activity takes place. First students will be asked to take out their notes and look at the lecture in which we talked about the ideas of M.A.I.N. From this point 8 students will be chosen at random and will then come to the board. 4 students will write down the definition for their chosen section of M.A.I.N. while the other 4 will provide an example for their chosen section of M.A.I.N. At the end of the activity students will take their seats and then the class will be broken up into groups.
Vocabulary (Content Language Development)
Militarism
Alliance System
Imperialism
Nationalism
Alliance System
Imperialism
Nationalism
Content Delivery (Method of Instruction)
Students will participate in a simulation to see how the points of M.A.I.N. contributed to the start of WWI the rules of the game are as followed,
Alliance system class game
Alliance system class game
- Students will break up into groups of no more than 6 people
- Once you have created your group you will need to select a leader who will be the representative for your country
- The leader will have the job of making the final decision for the group and will be the only one whose answer will be excepted for the war games
- All students in the group who are not the leader will be dignitaries for their country
- These students will need to go out to try and win the favor of the other leaders or try to create their own system of alliance for later on down the road
- The objective of the game is to be the country at the end of the game who has gained the most (all) or the land and points.
- Land represents money in this world, to win the game you need to have the most land
- Points in this world represents power, therefore the more points you have the more power you have
- Groups have two actions that they can take at the end of each round of negotiations
- They may select a side to attack with and put their resources in with one of the two countries who have entered battle
- Groups may remain neutral and not risk anything for this round
- If a group enters the battle they are putting their resources on the line and one of two things will happen
- The winning group will get divide up the land and points that have been won from the battle
- You may choose to completely remove a country from the map and take all of their points or you can leave them with as much or as little as the leading country sees fit
- The country who will lead the division of points and land is the one who instigated the fight
- The countries who backed the winning side can go to the map with the leading country to remind them of what was promised to them and help make choices on how to split up the land
- The leading country has the final say in how the land/points are split up and can uphold or break any treaty that they see fit.
- If you are on the losing side of the fight you can have all or some of your land taken away at the end of the battle
- If you are on the losing side you do not get any say in how your land/points are divided up
- Pleads can be made from the group location but do not get to hold private conversation with them
- The winning group will get divide up the land and points that have been won from the battle
- Once a group has lost all of their points and land they are no longer in the game are will have to watch the rest of the war play out
- Once you are out you cannot be brought back into the game which means no team can give land or points back to a group that has been eliminated
- However during negotiations one student (must be a different one each time) from a removed group can go out and preform espionage.
- They may collect information and relay it back to other members of other groups to try and create chaos
- Before the next round of negotiation a random amount of random events will occur and the effects of the event will be reflected on each country accordingly
- These events will be chosen from the list numerically and read by the game master (teacher)
Student Engagement (Critical Thinking & Student Activities)
Students will spend the class period (possible 2) participating in the simulation while trying to use the point of M.A.I.N. as a guiding principle in the decision making throughout the game.
Lesson Closure
At the end of the activity when the winning team is crowned the students will be asked to do a group reflection on the use of M.A.I.N. in the game. Then students will compare the events that took place during their game to the real life events that took place that started WWI and find their similarities. The winning group and the first group to be eliminated will then be asked to share out their responses for the class.
Assessments (Formative & Summative)
During the lesson the checking for understanding will be present in their participation in the game. For the students to progress forward towards victory they will need to be using the points of M.A.I.N. After the lesson their checking for understanding will be in the lesson closure in which the students reflect on a group paper how the points of M.A.I.N. guided the game and how the events of the game where similar to those that happened in real life.
Accommodations for English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with Special Needs
Students who do not feel comfortable participating in the game in the standard way will be allowed to act of their leaders assistant if the group does not already chose them as the leader. They will be there to hear other student’s offers and then report them to the group leader so they know all of their options.
Resources (Books, Websites, Handouts, Materials)
This activity does not require the students to use any materials directly since most of the game takes places verbally or on the whiteboard.