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This lesson plan titled “Life in the Trenches: What conditions did soldiers face on the Western Front?” is designed to help students understand the lived experience of trench warfare during the First World War by engaging their senses and encouraging empathy through evidence-based writing.

Lesson Summary
Learning Objectives:

Investigate the conditions soldiers faced near the front line and in the trenches.

Use a variety of evidence to understand these conditions.

Produce a written piece (a letter home) incorporating sensory details and historical context.

Key Activities:

Starter Activity (Recap): Students earn points based on recall from previous lessons, reinforcing key concepts such as stalemate, attrition, trench structure, and key terminology (e.g., duckboards, dugouts).

Main Task – The Senses Activity:

Students receive a worksheet focused on the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch/emotion).

They examine sets of source material in three tiers: Basic, Developed, and Challenge. These sources include:

Historical images

First-hand descriptions of daily life, food, and warfare

Quotes from historians (e.g., Gordon Corrigan and John Fuller)

War poetry (e.g., Wilfred Owen)

Students record observations related to each sense.

Group Feedback: After 20 minutes, students discuss their findings in groups, focusing on:

What soldiers experienced through each sense.

An overall evaluation of what trench life was typically like.

Written Task (Homework): Students write a letter home from the perspective of a WWI soldier, using the sensory evidence they’ve explored.