Subject(s): Social

Grade: 11th Date(s) 3/22-24 Time: 52 mins

Science
1. Grade Level Standard(s)
Common Core Standard or Content Standard addressed:
11.9 Students analyze U.S. foreign policies since World War II.
3. Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and
containment policy, including the following:
The era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and
blacklisting
Intended Learning Targets:
1.Students will explore the balance between civil liberties and government national security.
2. Students will gain an understanding of McCarthyism within the context of the Cold War Era.
3. Students will be able to describe the public reaction to the communist threat.
4. Students will analyze primary source documents and produce a document-based essay.

Language Objectives:
Students will understand the following terms:
Communism
Hysteria
McCarthyism
Blacklisting

Time
Allocati Sequence of Lesson:
on:

20 mins Introduction:

Opener:
Students will be led through a simulation called the Dot-Game (adapted from a History Alive!
activity).
I made a modification to this lesson, instead of having students receive a blank or dotted paper, I will
tap students on the shoulder as they look down with their eyes closed. I will write down the names of
those students on a piece of paper for reference. Students are not to reveal if they were tapped to
anyone else.

The object of the game is for the students to create the largest group possible without any students
who were tapped on the shoulder. They may question each other as they form groups. REMEMBER:
NO STUDENT IS TO REVEAL WHETHER OR NOT THEY WERE TAPPED ON THE
SHOULDER. The largest group without a member who was tapped wins. Any person who was
tapped and has infiltrated a group wins.
Goal: The purpose of the game is for the students to experience some of the suspicions associated
with the McCarthy Era and the questioning tactics used by HUAC and McCarthy in the hearings.

Direct Instruction:
Day 1:
After the Dot game concludes students will complete a class activity. Students will pair up and
complete a t-chart with the following two questions on each side:
What evidence do you see of strategies being used to create feelings of fear or discomfort
about the communist party?
What elements were present showing that to be anti-communist is a sign of goodness and
patriotism?

Each student will have a role. Student A will be the recorder. Student B will be the presenter. After
students choose who will be each role, teacher will play He may be a communist? clip. The clip is
roughly 3 mins long. Students watch the clip first without taking notes. After the clip is finished,
student A and B discuss what they saw. Student A is responsible to take notes of their discussion.
The clip is shown for a second and final time. Student A and B discuss any missing information and
student A writes the information on the t-chart. Teacher reviews the video, she will call on
presenters (student B) randomly. Students connect the dot game with the propaganda that was
displayed in the clip. Students will turn in their t-charts at the end of class.

Day 2: McCarthyism and the Great Fear : DBQ Exercise

Students will work in the same pairs from yesterday. Teacher will direct students to Google
Classroom. Once there, the next assignment will be given to students. Students will collaborate on
this assignment for two days. Students will be assigned a G-Slide Deck filled with primary sources
(i.e. political cartoons, speeches, letters, etc) and guided questions. Students are responsible to
collaborate with each other in their analysis of primary sources. Student A will type in Blue and
student B will type in Red. Teacher will emphasize that both students must participate in the
assignment. If only one color is there, only that student will obtain points.

The Google Slide deck will have a total of 12 primary documents (political cartoons, letters,
speeches, etc). One deck will be turned in to the teacher at the end of day 3 (friday). Students must
have both names at the beginning of the deck with the designated two colors after their names.
Teacher will walk around the classroom to monitor students progress.

Students will take three of those primary sources and add them to the F-K chart. These sources
should support your decision on who started the cold war. Teacher will re-emphasize the format
given to them for documents A-E to also be implemented on documents F-K.
Modeled Instruction:

For the hook activity, I plan to model how to play the dot game. I provided both visual and
auditory instructions. We did a practice run before the actual game started which gave students an
opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings. After the initial round, students will have two rounds
to earn extra credit.

For Day 2 and 3, students will have an opportunity to practice analyzing and collaborating with each
other on the Google Slide deck. Students will have the option to choose an appropriate advertisement
and answer the guiding questions listed on the deck. One student will copy and paste the
advertisement (acquired through Google) onto the slide. This student is responsible to share the
Google Slide deck with their peer. After the initial modeling, students will review with their
responses were to the class and make sure that students can share the doc and type at the same time.

Resources:
Primary sources (located here)-I created a Google Slide deck with the images and guided
questions
Student chromebooks

Guided Practice/Checking for Understanding:

During the hook activity, I will walk around the classroom monitoring the student conversations. Ill
be looking for keywords such as, youre a dot! or I dont trust you! as indicators that students are
suspicious of their peers. After students finish the three rounds, we will have a class discussions
about how they created groups and which people they thought were dots. I will then connect their
answers to the communist hysteria that engulfed the U.S. during the Cold War, focusing on the era of
McCarthyism.

During the main activity. students will work in pairs. We will do a test run of this activity. The pairs
will choose their own advertisement to analyze (it can be any topic). After the pairs have discuss,
they will share their example with another group. Once students have an understanding of what the
performance task, students will move on to the content examples. I will monitor the groups by
walking around and asking students what they think about the various documents. Both student A
and B are responsible to contribute to the Google Slide deck analysis of the primary sources. The
final product will be turned in by one student. Before final submission, students will review their
responses in a class discussion.

Independent Practice:

After students finish the assignment, they are responsible to choose three of those 12 documents and
 complete the F-K chart. In this chart, students will answer the essential question who started the
Cold War or who continued to increase Cold War tensions? and provide evidence from the source
as support to their argument in the unit test.

Differentiated Instruction for Focus Students:

Focus student: Alfredo

Alfredo will be partnered with a stronger academic student. My hope is that he will work well with
this individual. If partnered, he has a higher percentage of completing the work. I will walk around
and make sure to assess their work periodically. I will provide additional support through the use of a
vocabulary list of words he might not understand from the primary sources.

Focus student: Mikayla

Mikayla will also be partnered with a strong academic student. She works well with other students. I
will also assess them more periodically. In addition, She will be given more time to complete the
assignment as required from her 504 plan.

Focus student: Rebecca

Rebecca will work well with her partner. They will work efficiently and effectively. I want to
challenge both students to more difficult sources. I might provide them two or more complex
primary sources that deal with a deeper analysis of McCarthyism.

Copyright Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the California Department of Education

Formative Assessment for California Teachers (FACT) 2010
Inquiry into Teaching and Learning Lesson Plan Template for Observation C-5 Page 1 of 2