James P. Brochin
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to:
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1. Analyze comparison tables of American and Soviet missile and submarine forces during the Cold War's height;
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2. Define "Mutually Assured Destruction"
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3. Imagine and explain what it would be like to have survived a nuclear holocaust. The students are asked to imagine and agree upon what they should do for the first week, what their priorities would be for survival and beyond. Thereby, the students will be able to empathize with American citizens living in those times of fear.
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4. Evaluate the impact of Soviet and Chinese Communism on the overwhelming sense of fear in the U.S.
B. Standards Addressed: National Standards "World History Across the Ages-Standard 1"; Connecticut Frameworks Content Standard 5 (United States Constitution and Government) and Content Standard 3 (Historical Themes)
C. Physical Arrangement: Modified V and groups
D. Instructional Materials: 1) VCR 2) handout, 3) chalkboard, 4) Flip chart 5) videotapes
E. Student Groupings: individual
F. Initiation Strategy: The teacher hands out worksheets related to the missile and nuclear force comparison and asks students to fill it in.
G. Lesson Strategy:
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1. Students fill out the handout on the statistics and force comparison during the nuclear arms race, along with a question about their understanding about what would happen if there had been an exchange of nuclear missiles
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2. The teacher leads a discussion about the students' findings from the comparison table. The teacher defines "mutually assured destruction" and asks the students to describe what they know about the arms race. Teacher discusses the fear of nuclear holocaust exemplified by the need then for "duck and cover" exercises, and bomb shelter building in homes and schools, and the ever present fear of the sound of an air raid siren.
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3. The students are shown a twenty-minute segment of
The Atomic Café
episode on nuclear destruction and a fine minute segment from the ending of a Twilight Zone. (It is about a nearly blind man who is a shy bookworm. He alone survives the blast and is relieved to find a library full of books. Bending down to pick one up, his glasses fall off and the lenses shatter) This is the jumping off point to a student-centered discussion of what they would do if they alone, as far as they knew, survived the war.
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4. The students are put into groups of five and asked to imagine and agree upon what they should do for the first week, what their priorities would be for survival and beyond.
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5. Closing: Teacher asks each group to announce their decisions and the reasons for it. The students are told that they might try to come up with a class consensus.
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6. Homework: Students are asked to make a graphic organizer showing the reasons for fear in the U.S. during the Cold War.
Day Six Lesson Plan: The Rise of McCarthyism
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to:
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1. define blacklisting;
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2. explain the threat to the First and Fifth Amendment during the McCarthy Era; and
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3. explain the factors that led Joseph McCarthy to prominence
B. Standards Addressed: National Standards "World History Across the Ages-Standard 1"; Connecticut Frameworks Content Standard 5 (United States Constitution and Government) and Content Standard 3 (Historical Themes)
C. Physical Arrangement: Modified V
D. Instructional Materials: 1) record player, 2) chalkboard, and 3) primary source recording of House Un-American Activities Committee interrogation of doctors and lawyers, and 4) a tem-minute slide presentation on the McCarthy Era
E. Student Groupings: individual
F. Initiation Strategy: The teacher continues with prior day's discussion
G. Lesson Strategy:
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1. Teacher leads a detailed discussion about blacklisting, careful to explain that there is no one list of people who were denied employment. The teacher explains and asks the students questions about what a loyalty oath is. The teacher discusses how being required to take a loyalty oath directly threatens the rights of free speech, the right of free thought, and the right to remain silent when being asked to potentially incriminate one self. Teacher also explains what it means to be expected to "name names" i.e. turn informer in the context of those times.
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2. Teacher leads a class discussion about Joseph McCarthy's rise to power and some about his early years as a small town Judge in Wisconsin. Teacher shows a ten-minute slide presentation about the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy.
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3. As illustrations of the discussions initiating the lesson, the teacher plays segments of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings from Los Angeles in 1952.
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4. Closing (about 15 minutes): Teacher interrogates students about certain subjects that the students would not likely want to testify about or name names about: membership in a political club, membership in the Gay Straight Alliance, member of the Stratford Yearbook Committee responsible for choosing and printing the yearbook cover including two students giving the Nazi salute, and others.
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5. Homework:
Students read twenty-page segment of Lillian Hellman's
Scoundrel Time
, and answer the following question, in complete sentences in one page:
What did Lillian Hellmann get away with before the House Un-American Activities Committee that no one had before? Describe the hearing room atmosphere and the response from the gallery.
Longer term homework/project: Inquiry lesson on topics such as: An internet and media based inquiry leading to an evaluation of Edward R. Murrow's "See It Now" television expose of Joseph R. McCarthy, and the historical events that led Murrow to conclude that McCarthy was a dangerous man. Students would do a group PowerPoint presentation, and an individual newspaper articles or editorials.
