The unit “Ethnicity, Nationalism & Conflict in the Early 20th Century” is to be used in a course entitled Modern World History. This course will be offered at Wilbur Cross High School to college bound students in the eleventh and twelfth grades. Although this unit was written to teach college and honors level students, with the appropriate modifications it can be used in any World Civilizations course taught at any level. Time permitting, I would use this same unit in my basic level 9th grade classes. The material for this unit can be covered in as few as six lessons, but the teacher can take the liberty to break it up and spend more time exploring large and complex topics. This unit plan will explain those six lessons. The lessons were written to work in a 90-minute block class, as taught at Wilbur Cross. The longer class period allows the teacher to use many styles and sources in one class meeting. Again, the teacher may modify the lessons to be used in twelve traditional forty-five minute periods. The lessons will cover the following topics: Ethnicity & Identity, Age of Empire & the Balkan Wars, Sarajevo 1914
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Armenian Genocide, Arab Nationalism & T.E. Lawrence, The Old Order Dies. With these topics the course will begin.
The primary teaching method of this unit will be lecture/discussion, with analysis of primary and various secondary documents. Some primary documents will include eyewitness accounts of the horrors of the Balkan wars and WWI. The class will analyze such secondary sources as a standard history textbook, but also Armenian poetry and the classic film Lawrence of Arabia.
The assessment will consist of three exams and an essay. My goal is to model this class closely to an underclassmen college class in order to prepare the students for what they are about to face in an actual college history course.
