Causes of WWII ... Stations and Inquiry Discussion!

Stuck on how to start your unit on WWII? Try introducing with a stations activity. Attached is a PDF document with six stations and readings that detail the causes of WWII. Implementing stations in your classroom allows some flexibility in whether you have students work in their own pairings of choice, or break them up into your own groups. Invite students to walk around your classroom and learn about each station in an interactive, engaging way.

The readings for each station include different primary sources to complement each event they are reading about. These include: images, political cartoons, diary entries, and speeches.

A great idea to extend this lesson is to have students leave their questions or thoughts about the sources on sticky notes before they move on to the next reading. Then the next group can respond to the notes, or add on their new thoughts. You could use them for a full-class discussion at the end of class as well. At the end of the lesson, there is a worksheet provided for students to take notes on each cause of WWII. The causes included in this PDF are:

1. Wordwide Depression
2. Appeasement
3. Totalitarianism
4. Failure of the League of Nations
5. Treaty of Versailles
6. Expansionism

There are two different readings to complement leveled classes and in a format where teacher editing is available to suit your own classroom and student needs. A teacher key is provided as well as some supplementary materials.