Trench Warfare Broke Out In Class

February 6, 2008 in Lesson Plans
Tags: classroom, lesson plan, pedagogy, saving private ryan, sophomores, student, student teacher, teacher, the great war, trench, trench warfare, warfare, world history, world war i

We read the poetry, we saw the pictures, we looked at the Zimmerman telegram. But what was The Great War like?

We didn’t hit that really hard until the day of the test.

For the most part, it was nothing special — write two letters as a soldier during World War I would have. One at the beginning of The War, and one at the end. Each letter was required to note which nation they were from, for which side they fought, which front they fought on and an appropriate date. Beyond that, it could be addressed to Mom, girlfriend, school friend or pet. We weren’t specific.

The catch? The classroom was a warzone, complete with Allied Powers, Central Powers and no man’s land.

Desks upturned on desks in two rows on either side of the classroom, modeling the trenches.

Small pieces of paper on the floor, each demarcating a “crater” or a “land mine.” Tire chains obligingly labeled as “razor wire.”

Garbage thrown haphazardly on the floor, thanks to the previous class.

And, thanks to the suggestion of my other master teacher, the coup de grace: the opening scene from “Saving Private Ryan” blasted at top volume.

Of course, we blocked the screen — all they heard was the battle chaos.

Brilliant.

Or, it would have been had the RSP student in the after-lunch class not gone postal in such a way that my master teacher stepped in, yelled at him and told him to go the office. We always have problems with that class — my master teacher knew something was going to happen. He said, after the fact.

Otherwise, it went off without a hitch. Now I get to read the letters.

The best part getting them to throw wadded up pieces of paper at each other to simulate bombardment. It worked fine until they started throwing textbooks, simulating that WWI arms race.

Moral of the story? During tests, hit what really matters. In world history, the minutiae doesn’t really matter.

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