Standard 7: Recognize significant causes, events, figures, and consequences of the Great War period and the impact on worldwide balance of power.

In this lesson, students will learn about the early stages of the Cold War when the United States and Soviet Union navigated how to both be superpowers through a short reading. Then, they will identify and color countries on a map that exemplifies the divide between the East and West. This is lesson 1 of 3 in a mini unit integrating civics and social studies.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will be using primary sources to create an annotated timeline on the causes of WWII. The events start with the Treaty of Versailles and end with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Students are tasked with describing how one event led to another to analyze how the Treaty of Versailles created instability in Europe and a climate for totalitarian dictators to take control. Ultimately, students will reflect on how dictators gained power and how their policies contrasted with democracy. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the causes and consequences of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This lesson will trace the failures of the Treaty of Versailles, its effect on international relations, the motives behind the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and how the United States responded through legislative action. The lesson includes a guided presentation, guided notes for students, built-in review questions to determine comprehension, and a formative assessment utilizing a primary source text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Through a two-part gallery walk activity students will view historical documents and investigate diplomatic efforts of governments and nongovernmental organizations to aid refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Students will also learn about the diplomatic career of James G. McDonald preceding and including his service as the first U.S. Ambassador to the new State of Israel.

Type: Lesson Plan

Through a two-part gallery walk activity students will view historical documents and investigate diplomatic efforts of governments and nongovernmental organizations to aid refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Students will also learn about the diplomatic career of James G. McDonald preceding and including his service as the first U.S. Ambassador to the new State of Israel.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will review key terms and people during the Cold War era. 

Type: Lesson Plan

From 1933 to 1945, the Nazi party gained political power in Germany. During this reign, the Nazi rule restricted those who they considered inferior, especially the Jewish people. In this lesson, students will analyze primary and secondary sources to analyze how the Nazi government used the law to systemically take rights away from its citizens, and create a society that would carry out the Holocaust. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explore various nongovernmental agencies and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages associated with utilizing them as part of U.S. foreign policy.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students use primary and secondary sources to examine life under Stalinist Soviet Union, before, during and after World War II. This resource helps support Florida’s State K-12 Holocaust Education Mandate.

Type: Lesson Plan

The purpose of this resource is to introduce students to the causes and effects of the Holocaust. Students will examine the ways in which Europe’s Jewish community was affected by the Holocaust. This resource introduces historical facts pertaining to Holocaust history and shows how they affected innocent people. Relating the experiences of a Jewish child and teenager, Esther Krinitz’s art and story provide a powerful lens through which students can view and reflect on important issues and themes raised by the Holocaust. Students will have an opportunity to work with powerful visuals and analyze personal experiences of a Holocaust survivor through guided discussion, writing activities, and research. This resource helps support Florida’s State K-12 Holocaust Education Mandate.

Type: Lesson Plan

This full-length video is a complete biography of Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States. Topics touched on include the atomic bombing of Japan, the Cold War, and the Korean War. Teachers should find the video an excellent resource to review or learn more about this time period.

The webpage also includes numerous shorter videos, articles, and primary sources about Truman and this time period in history, as well as a teacher's guide for using the film in class.

Type: Resource Collection

This teaching resource provides the tools to help students analyze the use of rhetorical appeals in President Franklin Roosevelt’s speech, “A Day that Will Live in Infamy.” The president delivered this powerful speech in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Students will analyze Roosevelt’s use of ethos, pathos, and logos in his address to Congress and the American people. 

Type: Teaching Idea

This Museum Guide is designed to help educators prepare their students for a meaningful study of the Holocaust. It can be used in combination with a visit to The Florida Holocaust Museum (FHM) or as part of your standards-based world history instruction. This Guide is built around 3 concepts: Remember, Educate, Empower. The activities in the guide correspond with all 3 concepts and support incorporating Holocaust education into lesson plans, with or without a field trip to the Museum. Through this Guide, students will work with factual information and authentic stories of those who experienced the Holocaust first hand. It also includes numerous images from the FHM’s collection, a detailed bibliography, and a glossary. Educators can use this resource in its entirety or build their own lessons around excerpts that are most appropriate for their students. 

Through this resource:

• Students will examine the ways in which Europe’s Jewish community was affected by the Holocaust.
• Students will consider the long-term impact of the Holocaust on the 20th and 21st centuries.
• Students will examine how the Nazi dehumanization of Jews allowed them to commit atrocities.
• Students will learn to work with primary sources: artifacts and personal stories from the Holocaust. 

This resource helps support Florida’s State K-12 Holocaust Education Mandate.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this tutorial, you'll use maps to explore the various theaters of war during World War II. Pick a region to learn how the Axis first dominated--and then fell to--the Allies. The resource contains other activities that will help you learn about WWII.

Type: Tutorial

Born in 1949, under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, Tatiana Menaker grew up in communist Soviet Union (now the Russian Federation), witnessing first-hand the inequalities that occurred under Stalin’s rule. “Refuseniks,” Tatiana and her family applied for permission to emigrate and became “Refuseniks” when they were denied permission to emigrate. Eventually, Tatiana engineered a plan that would allow her and her family to escape the Soviet Union.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

The Florida Holocaust Museum and USC Shoah Foundation have joined efforts to create digital classroom resources built around video testimony of local Holocaust Survivors on an educational platform called IWitness. IWitness is a free educational website offering audiovisual testimonies for use across the curriculum. Through this partnership, lessons are built based on video testimonies of Holocaust survivors who settled in Florida. This activity was created by The FHM’s Curator of Education & Director of Research, Ursula Szczepinska. It provides students with information about various forms of resistance (violent, non-violent) among Jews during the Holocaust, with the focus on non-violent forms. The activity features video testimony of Helen Fagin and Sam Schryver.

Lesson objectives:

• Students will examine the ways in which Europe’s Jewish community was affected by the Holocaust.
• Students will consider the long-term impact of the Holocaust on the 20th and 21st centuries.
• Students will examine how the Nazi dehumanization of Jews allowed them to commit atrocities.
• Students will learn to work with primary sources: artifacts and personal stories from the Holocaust.

Type: Worksheet