11th Grade Semester Two
Unit Five: Early Cold War
Stage 1: Desired OutcomesTopic / Unit Title: Early Cold War
· Did the Cold War change America for better or worse?
NYS Content Standards
Standard : 2 Key Idea 2
Standard : 2 Key Idea 3
Standard : 2 Key Idea 4 / Common Core Skills
· RH 1, 3, 6, 7, 8
· W 3, 4, 5
· SL 1, 4, 6
· L 1, 2, 4
Understandings:
· The end of World War II led to the cold war.
· The different actions of both America and Russia that escalated the Cold War
· The philosophy and impact of Truman’s Containment Policy
· The philosophy of the Marshall Plan
· Why America formed NATO
· America’s responsibilities in helping to reconstruct Western Europe
· America’s reasons for going to war in Korea
· The extent to which the Korean War was successful
· The new idea of limited war
· Why McCarthyism happened in America
· How the Cold War affected American culture (such as conformity, television, movies)
· The reasons for the improving American economy and its impact on American culture and lifestyle / Essential Questions:
· How did the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences contribute to the start of the Cold War?
· How did the Russian Army’s advance toward Germany start the Cold War?
· How did the Berlin Blockade and Berlin Airlift increase Cold War tensions?
· Was Truman’s containment policy a necessary foreign policy? Why/why not?
· Was the Marshall Plan a necessary foreign policy? Why/why not?
· How did NATO help create mutual defense for Western Europe?
· Should Korea have been a Cold War battlefield?
· Should America have fought a limited war in Korea?
· Did the Korean War ease the tensions on the Korean Peninsula?
· How was McCarthy able to rise to power?
· Did McCarthy lead to his own downfall?
· How did Edward R. Murrow end the witch hunt of McCarthyism?
· Did America offer realistic solutions at home to the Cold War?
· How did the Cold War affect America culture?
· Why did the 1950’s have a booming economy?
· How did the American teenager monopolize the economy?
· How did highways change America and lead to the rise of suburbia?
Stage 2: Assessments and Tasks
Common Core Literacy Task
· Analyze and answer questions about primary and secondary source documents.
· Exit ticket: Answer the aim from two different perspectives – one accusing the other side, and then the other side defending why they did not do it. Each response should be one paragraph 5-7 sentences using at least 3 specific facts from the lesson
· Activity: You are a member of the National Security Committee – come up with an alternate solution/policy to containment (5-7 sentences with at least 3 details from the lesson)
· Activity: Create a debate between Truman and McArthur on how to fight the war. Create eight to ten points of conversation between the two and must include at least five vocabulary words from the unit and lesson.
· Activity: Create a Cold War propaganda from a teenagers’ perspective in 1950. Write 2-3 sentences explaining the purpose of the propaganda using vocabulary from the lesson/unit.
· Activity: You are Edward R. Murrow – prepare a broadcast challenging McCarthy for See It Now. Your broadcast should be two paragraphs, include charges you want to bring to McCarthy and why. Include at least 6-8 details from the lesson and unit.
DBQ – On major events of the Cold War and answering the question: Did the Cold War affect America more positively or negatively. / Performance Task(s) – Other Evidence
· Document Analysis
· Scenario analysis
· Writing Assignments including policy making, perspective analysis, news broadcast
· Persuasive Speech Writing
· Creating debate
· Exit ticket summary activities
· Document creation (political cartoons)
· Document Based Question
Accommodations: Scaffolds and Differentiation
Content / o Modify primary source texts (variety, complexity, length)
o Incorporate alternative materials (visual, video, audio, internet)
o Provide supplementary resources for supports
o Group with a purpose
Process / o Model skills, task and/or product
o Utilize graphic organizers / note taking template
o Provide individual or group intervention and support
o Re-enforce vocabulary / concept development
o Provide choice / variety of activities or tasks
o Group with a purpose
Product / o Assign specific, purposeful assessments to individuals or groups
o Allow students to choose from a variety of assessments
o Provide scaffolds / supports (outlines, templates, models)
o Provide extension activities to expand thinking or understanding
o Group with a purpose
How will students reflect upon and self-assess their learning?
· Exit Tickets
· Writing Assignments
· Document Creation
· Creating debates
· Scaffolding Questions based on primary and secondary sources
· Graphic Organizers
· Document Based Question
Stage 3: Learning Plan
Instructional Activities and Materials (W.H.E.R.E.T.O.)
AIM: Who was responsible for the “Cold War?”
· A postwar European power vacuum contributed to the heightened East-West tensions and polarization.
· The role the Yalta and Potsdam conferences played in igniting the tension.
· Efforts of the Soviet Union to expand its political and economic system and the determination of the United States to check Communist expansion caused a “cold war.”
· Historians disagree about who was responsible for the onset of the Cold War.
- Explain the meaning of the term “cold war.”
- Describe the actions taken by the United States that were perceived as a threat to the United States.
- Describe the actions taken by the United States that were perceived as a threat to the Soviet Union.
- Assess whether the United States or the Soviet Union should be blamed for the Cold War.
ACTIVITY: Exit Ticket: Answer the aim from two different perspectives – one accusing the other side, and then the other side defending why they did not do it. Each response should be one paragraph 5-7 sentences using at least 3 specific facts from the lesson.
AIM: Was containment of communism a wise policy?
· Enlightened self-interest, idealistic objective and increased global interdependence moved the United States to active participation in post-war international organizations.
· Presidential power is enhanced by increased United States involvement in world affairs.
· The United States encouraged Western European economic, political, and military consideration to offset the threat of Soviet expansion. New regional alignments were necessitated by perceived threats to the security of the Western world.
- List and explain the economic and military programs designed to help the recovery of Europe and prevent Soviet expansion (Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, N.A.T.O.).
- Explain and analyze the reasons for the United States’ involvement in Europe after World War II.
- Evaluate whether or not the United States’ containment of Communism after World War II was a wise foreign policy.
- Evaluate if containment increased Cold War tension
ACTIVITY: You are a member of the National Security Committee – come up with an alternate solution/policy to containment (5-7 sentences with at least 3 details from the lesson)
AIM: Was the United States involvement in the Korean “War” justified?
· United States wartime allies and enemies in the Pacific were reversed during postwar events.
· The Korean War gave rise to controversies over an undeclared conflict with limited objectives.
· The conflict between President Truman and General MacArthur over the goals and strategy of the Korean War involved the question of civilian versus military control of decision-making and foreign policy.
- Explain the origins of the Korean War.
- Analyze the United States strategy of seeking a limited victory in Korea.
- Explain the issues involved in the Truman-MacArthur controversy.
- Evaluate whether or not the United States made a mistake by fighting a “limited war” in Korea
ACTIVITY: Create a debate between Truman and McArthur on how to fight the war. Create eight to ten points of conversation between the two and must include at least five vocabularies from the unit and lesson.
AIM: Did the Cold War lead to rebellion or conformity in America?
· The growing post war economy
· How the Cold War created a culture of conformity
· How pop culture such as television and movies demonstrated Cold War fear
· How was music an outlet from the Cold War fear?
· How did the interstate highway system lead to suburbia?
- Understand why the economy grew after World War II and into the 1950’s
- How the Cold War created a culture of conformity?
- Evaluate was pop culture lead to rebellion or conformity in society
- Evaluate how the highway system and the car changed America
ACTIVITY: Create a Cold War propaganda from a teenagers’ perspective in 1950. Write 2-3 sentences explaining the purpose of the propaganda using vocabulary from the lesson/unit.
AIM: Did the Red Scare and McCarthyism violate the ideals of democracy?
· Cold War fear affected and changed American lifestyle: bombshelters, duck and cover.
· Tensions between patriotic loyalty and the right to dissent are intensified during times of crisis or stress in foreign policy.
· The post-World War II Red Scare and the development of McCarthyism resulted from American disillusionment with the Cold War.
· The illusion of American omnipotence played a role in bringing on the Red Scare and McCarthyism.
- Describe the causes of the Red Scare and McCarthyism.
- Discuss the issues highlighted during the McCarthy era.
- Evaluate how Cold War fear led to a violation of Civil liberties
- Explain the role that the Cold War conflict with Communism played in domestic politics.
- Explain the circumstances and contributions of Edward R. Murrow that ended McCarthyism.
- Explain and analyze the permanent effects that McCarthyism had on the United States.
- Assess the degree to which the Red Scare and McCarthyism violated the ideals of democracy
ACTIVITY: You are Edward R. Murrow – prepare a broadcast challenging McCarthy for See It Now. Your broadcast should be two paragraphs, include charges you want to bring to McCarthy and why. Include at least 6-8 details from the lesson and unit.
Culminating Activity:
DBQ – On major events of the Cold War and answering the question: Did the Cold War affect America more positively or negatively.
Teacher Reflection for Future Planning
· Evaluate exit tickets, graphic organizers, writing assignments, scaffolding questions, and DBQ. Will use these to review content and vocabulary building, essay writing skills, document analysis.
· Will explore test results to look common content and skill errors, as well as document analysis.
· Will explore helpfulness of graphic organizers and writing activities
Regents Essays
August 2013
Theme: Foreign Policy (Cold War)Following World War II, the threat of communist expansion led the United States to take diplomatic, military, and economic actions to limit the global influence of the Soviet Union and China. These Cold War actions met with varying degrees of success.
Task: Select two specific actions taken by the United States to limit the expansion of communism during the Cold War and for each
· Describe the historical circumstances that led to the action
· Discuss the extent to which the action was successful in limiting the expansion of communism
You may use any action taken by the United States to limit the expansion of communism during the Cold War. Some suggestions you might wish to consider include the implementation of the Marshall Plan (1947-1952), the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (1949), intervention in Korea (1950-1953), the blockade of Cuba (1962), the escalation of the Vietnam War (1964-1973), the visit of President Richard Nixon to China (1972) and the pursuit of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (1983-1989)
August 2005
Theme: Cold WarFollowing World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a conflict that became known as the Cold War. The Cold War created problems that the United States addressed with specific actions. These actions had varying degrees of success.
Task: Identify two problems faced by the United States during the Cold War and for each
· Explain how the problem led to conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union
· Describe one action taken by the United States in response to the problem
· Evaluate the extent to which the action taken was successful in solving the problem
You may use any Cold War problems from your study of United States history. Some suggestions you might wish to consider include the postwar economic upheaval in Western Europe (1945-1947), Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe (1945-1948), threat of Communist takeover in Greece (1947), Soviet blockade of Berlin (1948), nuclear arms race (1950s-1970s), and placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba (1962).
Multiple Choice
1 The terms containment, domino theory, and massive retaliation are most closely associated with United States foreign policy efforts to
(1) maintain neutrality during World War I (1914–1917)
(2) avoid conflict with Germany and Japan in the 1930s
(3) wage the Cold War in the 1950s
(4) increase trade with Latin America in the 1970s
Base your answer to question 2 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.
...Balanced against this are the facts that Russia, as opposed to the western world in general, is still by far the weaker party, that Soviet policy is highly flexible, and that Soviet society may well contain deficiencies which will eventually weaken its own total potential. This would of itself warrant the United States entering with reasonable confidence upon a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counter-force at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world....
—George Kennan, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” Foreign Affairs, July 1947
2 In this passage, George Kennan is suggesting that the United States should
(1) abandon Western Europe to Soviet control
(2) launch an attack on the Soviet Union
(3) pursue policies to limit the spread of Soviet influence