Lilia Kerski

Lesson Plan: The Spanish-American War

State Standard/s Addressed:
Standard 11.4 Students trace the rise of the United States to its role as a world power in
the twentieth century.
Standard 11.4 (2). Describe the Spanish-American War and U.S. expansion in the South
Pacific.

Students will work in groups to study a document arguing for US entry in the Spanish-American
War and will create a list of at least three reasons the authors are either supporting a declaration
of war against Spain. The groups will join together to teach one another about the documents,
and then the students will take a stance and write a response either in favor or against the
Spanish-American War.

Instructional Procedures
1. Anticipatory Set:
The class will begin with a brief question and response. The teacher will ask “raise your
hand if you think the U.S. is a world power today?” Most of the class will likely raise their
hands. The teacher will alert the class that they will be learning about how the U.S. first became
a world power, and then will play an engaging video clip regarding the context of the Spanish-
American War that sets up the inquiry-based lesson.

2. Perceived Objective and Rationale

Today, you will learn about how the United States first became a world power in 1898.
By the end of the lesson, you will be familiar with several primary source documents and will
understand at least three major causes of the Spanish-American War. You will then be capable of
arguing for or against the Spanish-American War.
3. Input:
The teacher begin with the video clip that sets up the inquiry-based lesson. The class will
then offer hypotheses as to why the war began based on the information in the video. The teacher
will compile a list on the whiteboard to be referred back to throughout the lesson.The teacher
will then present the first primary source to the class, which is a song written about the sinking of
The Maine. The class will read the source and see which hypotheses it supports, and/or will
suggest a new hypothesis to add to the class list. Then, students will be released into groups to
study additional sources. Half of the groups will be studying document A, and half will study
document B. The groups will be asked to read and understand their document, and will relate it
to the class’ hypothesis list. A jigsaw will subsequently occur where each A group will join a B
group. The A group will explain their document to the B group, and vice versa. Once each group
has a good understanding of both documents and is able to connect them to the hypotheses about
the causes of the war, the class will come together. Each jigsaw group will share one thing they
learned about the documents and how they related to the war. The teacher will then deliver a
power lecture with the core information about the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, while
making intentional connections to the build up to WWI. Lastly, the teacher will play a youtube
video song about the Spanish-American War to recap the core content in a fun way.
 The Spanish-American War marked the definitive end of the Spanish world empire and
the beginning of the U.S. world empire
o Shift in global power
o US emerges as international power for the first time in its history
o Beginning of US becoming the global hegemon
 Post WWI will show even more US power in international arena
 U.S. acquires overseas territories of Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines
o Overseas territories expand economic opportunity but ignite political conflicts
 How to deal with them: government? Independence? Etc.
 Overseas territories will be one of the biggest causes of WWI in Europe
 Cuba Policies
o Teller Amendment: nominal independence
o Platt Amendment: unquestioned right to intervene for peace
 A splendid little war
o Hopeful and proud and eager attitudes about warfare
 Led to WWI, proved to be quite wrong due to new technology in WWI

4. Modeling:
The teacher will make a hypothesis from the video information in the following way: “I
heard the video mention the sugar and tobacco resources in Cuba, so I hypothesize that the U.S.
may have gone to war with Spain over resources in the interest of economic gain.” This will
model for the students how to justify their answer using the information in the source, prior to
compiling the class list of hypotheses.

5. Check for Understanding:

The teacher will circulate as the groups are working to make sure the papers are being
understood. Furthermore, an exit ticket will be used to assess the students’ understanding of the
causes of the Spanish-American War. The exit ticket activity is explained in the Closure section.

6. Guided Practice:
The first source, a song about the explosion of The Maine, will be studied and analyzed
as a class. The teacher will project the song lyrics on the screen and have the students read it
silently to themselves. Then, the teacher will read it aloud, and ask the students which hypothesis
is supported by the song (referring to the class list).

7. Independent Practice:
 Students will work in their groups to study their assigned document. They will connect
the information learned to the list of hypotheses to understand the causes of the Spanish-
American War. They will be required to explain their document to a group that studied a
different document, so they must gain a thorough understanding of their source and how it
connects to the class hypotheses.

Closure:
The teacher will ask the students to write for the last four minutes of class regarding their
opinions about the Spanish-American War: “Now, take the last few minutes to think critically
about the conflict we studied today. Take out a blank piece of paper, and answer this question:
Was the Spanish-American War justified? Why or why not? Be sure to justify your answer using
things we learned about today.” The exit ticket will show the students’ understandings of the
causes of the Spanish-American War, and will reveal the extent to which the students were able
to analyze the causes with respect to their own opinions.

Differentiated Instruction:
The teacher will provide word banks for struggling readers and ELs to accompany each
document being studied. The teacher can further edit some of the papers for English Learner
students by shortening the reading assignment or further removing some sections. The teacher
can provide these papers to English Learners and students with IEPs the day before the in-class
lesson. The teacher will also read the song lyrics verbally after having the students read them to
provide auditory support. The teacher will assign groups while carefully considering the diverse
learning needs of the students.