Inquiry Lesson Plan

Name: Sophia Skoglund & Danielle Roper

Subject/Grade Level: 11th Grade American History (though could work as well for a 9th grade
world History class)

Title/Topic of Lesson: After the War: The Nuremberg Trials

Essential "Guiding Question" for Lesson:

Why did the Nuremberg Trials occur and did they serve a justice for the events of World War II?

Sunshine State Standards Addressed in the Lesson:

(SS.912.A.6.7) Understand the causes and course of World War II, the character of the war at
home and abroad, and its reshaping of the United States role in the post-war world. [Describe the
attempts to promote international justice through the Nuremberg Trials.]
(SS.912.A.1.6) Use research and inquiry skills to analyze American history using primary and
secondary sources. [Use case studies to explore social, political, legal, and economic
relationships in history.]

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
We want students to analyze what the Nuremberg Trials were?
Students will inquire and analyze why they occurred?
Students will investigate the lasting impacts that the trials had on the international
community.

LESSON CONTENT
This lesson will cover the Nuremberg Trials, including the most famous International Military
Tribunal, conducted by the Allied Powers, that occurred following the end of World War II. The
famous IMT was followed by the twelve Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, conducted by the United
States. Students will get information about the kinds of defendants in the trials, such as military
officials, government employees, and individuals who had a role in the Nazi government. These
trials had significant implications for the future of International Human Rights, and established
the charge of Crimes Against Humanity spawning numerous organizations and documents to
protect human rights around the globe.

STUDENT GROUPING:
Students will be seated in their desks for instruction, note taking at the beginning and to watch
the media clip, an individual aspect of the lesson. They will then be divided by seating
arrangement (those in proximity to one another) by the teacher (myself) to be in groups of three
or four jurors to work in groups. With this arrangement, this assures everyone in the group an
opportunity to add input and facilitate small group discussion, before sharing with the class.
METHODS
We chose to use two teaching methods.
Lecture:
We will use a PowerPoint to lay the foundation for the lesson and give basic information that the
students will need to know for the second part of the lesson. In this PowerPoint will be a video,
photos and brief notes.
Cooperative Learning/Simulation:
The second teaching method is dividing the class into small groups to discuss what everyone has
to say regarding the information presented, and come to a verdict.
Class Discussion:
Lastly, once the groups have shared all their verdicts and the true verdicts have been presented,
there will be a class discussion on questions including, do we feel these trials presented justice
for the crimes of WWII?.

ACTIVITIES
We have planned a Mock-Jury Activity for students to discuss and determine the verdict for
individuals in some of the subsequent Nuremberg trials, in order to better understand how the
trials occurred from a hands on perspective.

Opening:
Set up with a short PowerPoint to explain what these trials were, giving students the key
facts. They are encouraged to take notes on the information presented. During the
presentation, they will view a short video about the trials.

Video: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/facing-history-scholar-
reflections-nuremberg-trials

Citation for Video:

(n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2017, from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-
library/video/facing-history-scholar-reflections-nuremberg-trials

After the video, display and explain instructions for the main activity.

Main Activity:
Juror Activity
We as the teachers will select 2-3 trials/people tried in those trials to have class be jurors
for the trials.
We will have class split into groups. For our size, groups of 3 but with a full class, likely
4 groups of 5-6 people.
These groups are jurors and are presented with the information from a case for a person
that was tried in one of the Nuremberg trials. These people will be someone who isnt
clearly guilty or innocent.
These groups of jurors will be given time to debate and decide unanimously within each
group their verdict for the accused.
If guilty, they need to also suggest a punishment. The verdict must be explained with a
rationale.
 This can be done for multiple accused individuals, depending on the length of time
available.

Closing:
After each group gives their verdict, we will debrief with what verdict was actually given
and discuss how we feel about that
Was it the verdict the groups picked? Was it surprising? Was the class divided on the
verdict?
Important Questions to Ask:
After juror activity, lead a class discussion about some of these questions about the
overall trials. As well, we will give exit cards for students to answer some of these
questions:
Why did the US decide to be the one to hold the subsequent trials? (multiple
countries were involved in the IMT)
Was this really justice for the war and the atrocities that happened or just a way
for the victors to feel they did something about it?
What precedents does this set?
Where the Nuremberg trials successful?

MATERIALS
Computer
PowerPoint
Screen
Projector
Notebooks (students)
Pencils (students)
Notecards

We chose these materials because they are most effective for this lesson and activity we are
doing, that are likely to be accessible for use in different schools.

EVALUATION
For a formative assessment, we will have each student fill out an exit card at the end of the
period, asking a few questions. These might include, do you feel justice was served at the
Nuremburg trials? and What was the purposed of the Nuremberg Trials?. Their responses
should represent their reflection on the events of the Nuremberg Trials in context of the events of
the time.

For a summative assessment, we will have a unit exam after we complete the Unit about WWII,
that will include free response questions about the Nuremburg trials on it.

Why have we chosen these forms of Evaluation?

We have chosen these approaches for evaluation because the formative evaluation method allows
us to determine what the students took away from this lesson and activity, and the summative
assessment to determine what the students took away from the lesson as a part of the greater unit.
We will put this on the unit exam as a free-response format, which allows students to explain this
event in their own words.