The Treaty of Versailles
- Slide deck
- Guided notes
- Guided notes teacher key
- Activity + answer key
- Quiz (paper + self-grading Google Form) + answer key
- Exit ticket + answer key
- Teacher guide
- Teacher presentation notes
From one teacher to another
I used to explain the Treaty of Versailles as one bad decision and move on, and that shortchanges the whole point of teaching it. This lesson makes students sit with the actual bind the peacemakers were in: punish the losing side enough to satisfy countries that had just lost a generation, but not so much that the peace collapses under its own weight. They didn't find that balance, and the treaty ends up as the hinge between the world war students just studied and the one they're about to.
I built it to close out the WWI unit, so it's the lesson that hands off directly into interwar totalitarianism.
Between the guided notes locked to the slides and a quiz and exit ticket that grade themselves as Google Forms, this is one I can hand to a substitute without writing extra instructions, answer key and teacher guide included.