War Memorials: lesson 3

Does the experience of local people reveal the 'truth' about WWI? How does it compare to the BIG picture?

Students should learn to:

• Analyse textbooks to determine how historians have judged/argued the significance of WWI
• Compare the findings of the local and national experiences
• Reach conclusions about the typicality of Cottenham's experience and reliability of the database
• To use other significance criteria, such as remarkable or revealing, in order to examine Cottenham's experience

Starter
Begin by examining a series of covers for books on WWI aimed at different age groups. Students annotate these using a 'layers of inference table' in order to decide what interpretation the author is offering us. Why is the war significant in this book?

Main activity
Examine the content of a book and using a similar table to previous lesson of historical hypotheses based on the word GREAT, students find evidence in the book of WWI's significance. Reach conclusions about

• Whether we are still taught that WWI was the GREAT war.
• Have interpretations changed?
• How and Why?

Using this analysis and prior learning on WWI and Cottenham's war dead, students compare the experiences.

• Did Cottenham soldiers take part in a new kind of warfare?
• Can they be regarded as brave and heroic as others?
• Was it a World war for Cottenham?
• Were most people privates?
• Did it make men 'equal'?
• Was it costly? Etc

Debate whether Cottenham's experience was typical or unique. Use Counsell's 5 Rs significance criteria and decide if Cottenham's experience was remarkable or revealing. To do this, pick up on some of the individual stories such as the brothers who died together on the first day of the Somme.

Plenary
Finish with Bert Lack who won a Military Cross. Students debate whether a plaque should be put up.

Homework: write a letter to the local council/Cottenham History Society to argue that a plaque should be put up/street named to remember him.

Click here to go to Lesson 4

Downloads

War memorials Lesson 3 (, 67 KB)