Processes and Procedures in Planning a Curricular Unit

1. Identify the unit, course, grade level for the unit, and the unit length.

This unit will cover the Cold War in eleventh grade United States History. At West Springfield High School in Fairfax County, classes are run on a block schedule. Core classes are an hour and a half in length and meet every other day. Fairfax County recommends that a unit on the Cold War run for three weeks, so this unit will last for three weeks, or eight classes.

2. Explain your personal stake in the unit – why is it meaningful to you?

In preparing to student teach at West Springfield High School next semester, it is important that I look ahead to what classes I will be in and what units those classes will cover. One of the classes that my cooperating teacher teaches is United States History. One of the last units covered in that class covers the twentieth century, of which the Cold War is an important component of. The Cold War was a time when Americans faced new patterns of immigration and demographic settlements, which resulted in new social, political, and economic issues as the United States entered the twenty-first century. The United States as we know it today was largely shaped as a result of the Cold War.

3. Identify the unit topic and associated content and skills standards that are to be taught in the course.

Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the United States foreign policy since World War II.

a. What are the big ideas that students should develop in enduring understanding of in this unit?

· Benchmark 1: The impact of international affairs on the foreign policy of the United States after World War II

· Benchmark 2: The political impact of the Cold War on domestic affairs

· Benchmark 3: The development of the United States as a major economic power in the Post-War Era

· Benchmark 4: The domestic and foreign policy measures of the national government during the Post-War Era

b. What is important for students to know and be able to do? What are the facts, concepts, principles, and skills that will promote the learning of the core ideas?

· Benchmark 1: The impact of international affairs on the foreign policy of the United States after World War II

1. Partitioning of Germany

a. “Iron Curtain”

2. Soviet domination of Central and Eastern Europe

3. American occupation of Japan

4. Measures taken by the United States to ensure stability in Europe after the war

a. Marshall Plan

b. NATO

c. United Nations

5. Explain the rationale, implementation, and effectiveness of the United States containment policy

a. Truman Doctrine

6. Explain the implications of the Cold War on the space program

a. Sputnik

7. Explain the causes for, responses to, and the results of the United States’ involvement in Korea

a. 38^th Parallel

b. Chinese involvement

c. Firing of Douglas MacArthur

d. Stalemate

8. Explain the causes for, responses to, and the results of the United States’ involvement in Cuba

a. Fidel Castro

b. John F. Kennedy

c. Nikita Khrushchev

d. Bay of Pigs

e. Cuban Missile Crisis

9. Explain the causes for, responses to, and the results of the United States’ involvement in Vietnam

a. Ho Chi Minh

b. Lyndon Johnson

c. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

d. Tet Offensive

e. Vietcong

f. Richard Nixon

g. Vietamization

10. Analyze the foreign policy of the United States toward China and the Soviet Union during the Cold War period

a. Massive retaliation

b. Brinkmanship

c. Détente

11. Identify the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War

a. Glasnot

b. Perestroika

c. Ronald Reagan

d. Mikhail Gorbachev

e. Berlin Wall

· Benchmark 2: The political impact of the Cold War on domestic affairs

1. Examine how the fear of communism and the threat of nuclear war affected American life throughout the Cold War

a. Alger Hiss

b. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

c. Bomb shelters

d. Public schools

2. Explain the reasons for the rise of McCarthyism and its significance in the larger American culture

3. Assess the Vietnam policies of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations and the shifts of public opinion about the war

a. Hawks v. doves

b. Kent State

c. Protests

· Benchmark 3: The development of the United States as a major economic power in the Post-War Era

1. Describe the postwar economy and its effects on the American consumer

2. Describe the role of the Federal Government in providing economic opportunities

a. GI Bill

b. National Defense Education Act

c. Great Society legislation

· Benchmark 4: The domestic and foreign policy measures of the national government during the Post-War Era

1. Analyze the Constitutional issues raised by the Watergate affair and evaluate the effects of Watergate on public opinion

2. Evaluate the impact of the Vietnam War on the Executive Branch

c. What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do we want students to encounter or be familiar with in this unit?

For this unit, students will develop the critical thinking skills necessary to analyze multiple sides of an issue. By meeting the four Benchmarks as outlined by Fairfax County, students will be encouraged to put aside all previous notions about the Cold War and discuss the issues and events that occurred as if they were there themselves.

4. Identify the essential questions for the unit.

• What were the political, economic, and social consequences of World War II?
• How was United States foreign and domestic policy shaped by the Cold War?
• What were the reasons for, responses to, and consequences of United States involvement in Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam?
• How did threats and responses to communism impact domestic affairs?
• What important events marked the rise of the United States as a world economic power?
• How did the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam conflict affect the Executive Branch?

5. Identity/explain how student learning will be assessed.

Multiple assessments will allow students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the required material. Because multiple learning styles and intelligences will be present among my students, it is important that I incorporate multiple forms of assessment into the unit.

a. What indicators or evidence will demonstrate student learning?

Early on in the unit, students will participate in a simulation that centers on the debate surrounding United States policy towards the Soviet Union. The United States had four options, as will be outlined in the assigned readings provided by the Choices Program from the Watson Institute at Brown University, which were possible answers to the United States-Soviet Union conflict post World War II. Students will then use these readings and their textbook to prepare for a simulation that will test their understanding of the options and the pros and cons of each of those options. The simulation will also place the students back in 1946, allowing them to relive history through the context of United States policymakers.

Students will also be assessed through a guided reaction assignment to Fog of War. There will be guided questions for students to answer while they watch the movie, but they will then be given a worksheet that will allow for them to voice their reactions both to the United States involvement in the Vietnam War and their reactions to the movie itself. Through their short essays, they will be able to demonstrate their understanding of various people and events associated with the Vietnam War, as well as how the war is situated within the larger context of the Cold War.

Finally, students will be evaluated on the unit as a whole through an exam. Through the combination of selected response and essay questions, students will have the opportunity to bring all of the information from the entire unit together to demonstrate their understanding of the unit as a whole.

b. How do the assessments reflect the content, skills, and attitudes outlined above?

These assessments nicely follow the development of critical thinking that will occur during this unit and allow for independent thinking in reflecting upon the material that will be covered.

c. How will you know what students do and do not know at the beginning, middle, and end of the unit?

At the beginning of the unit, students will take a pre-test to measure their understanding of the unit content. The results of the pre-test will allow me to modify the content of class lectures to either reinforce or more broadly cover the material that students may or may not already know. The pre-tests will also give me a greater understanding of student knowledge base and better allow me to tailor the lectures so that they develop upon previous knowledge.

Throughout the unit, homework and class participation, especially in the simulation, will allow me t gauge ongoing understanding of the unit material. This will also help me to better tailor classroom lectures.

The exam will then reflect whether or not I as a teacher have succeeded in encouraging student learning about the Cold War. It will cover all of the material studied in the unit.

6. Sequence the content, skills, and attitudes identified in point 3 to build toward the assessments identified in point 5.

• Day 1
1. Give pre-test
2. Introduce unit and situate it within today’s world
3. Lecture
• Day 2
1. Lecture
2. In class time to prepare for simulation
• Day 3
1. Simulation adapted from Choices Program
• Day 4
1. Cuban Missile Crisis activity adapted from Choices Program
• Day 5
1. Watch Fog of War
• Day 6
1. Finish Fog of War (the movie is an hour and 40 minutes long, so there should only be approximately 10-20 minutes of the movie left)
2. Assign response questions
3. Pass out review sheet for exam
• Day 7
1. Lecture
2. Review for exam
• Day 8
1. Unit exam

a. How do knowledge and performance skills need to be sequenced?

The knowledge and performance skills for this unit need to be sequenced in the order in which the events occurred. Because the Cold War’s events built upon one another, it will be easiest for students for understand the timing and logic behind the events if they are taught in sequential order.

b. How can the knowledge and performance skills be most engaging for students?

This unit will be engaging for students because the activities allow them to situate themselves within the time in which the events occurred. They will role play through a simulation on the United States’ response to Soviet activities and interpret primary sources in a perspective activity on the Cuban Missile Crisis. For the more passive students, Fog of War will allow them the opportunity to learn through visualization, as well as its reflection assignment.

c. In what ways will students be able to practice and refine what they learn?

Lessons will be practiced through active role playing and class discussions, as well as through self reflection evidenced in student writing.

d. What connections exist between this unit and other content and skills students might encounter in other courses?

· English – public speaking skills, essay writing skills

· Science – scientific developments of the time, especially the space program

e. How can students work together to help each other learn?

Through the two group activities, students will have the opportunity to work together to produce one product. They will be able to bounce ideas off of one another, as well as help one another understand the unit materials.

7. Identify where and how instruction can be differentiated once the teacher has diagnostic information from pre-tests and other formative assessments in the unit.

Depending upon how students do on the pre-tests, I will be able to alter the lectures to better fit their educational needs based on what they do or do not know. I will also be able to assess how well the group activities portrayed the material and then be able to use that as a basis for how the last lecture of the unit should be structured.

8. Identify how community and cultural resources will be incorporated into this unit.

Because I will not readily have access to all of the readings that I want to incorporate into the unit, I will have access to Pohick Public Library where I will have access to many more materials than the high school will be able to provide me with. Although outside of the immediate neighborhood, George Mason University is also nearby, which will allow me even greater access to classroom materials.

9. Identify the materials needed to complete this unit.

Albert, Judith Clavir and Stewart Edward Albert, eds., The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade (New York: Praeger, 1984).

“Cable from Soviet Ambassador to the USA A. Dobrynin to Soviet Foreign Ministry,” October 25, 1962, http://www.choices.edu/resources/supplemental_tah_Dobrynin_102562.php (accessed September 21, 2007).

Castro, Fidel, “Letter to Khrushchev,” October 26, 1962, http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/621026%20Castro%20Letter%20to%20Khrushchev.pdf (accessed September 21, 2007).

Choices for the 21^st Century Education Project, The Origins Cuban Missile Crisis: Considering its Place in Cold War History (Providence, RI: Brown University), http://www.choices.edu.

Choices for the 21^st Century Education Project, The Origins of the Cold War, US Choices after World War II (Providence, RI: Brown University), http://www.choices.edu.

Fog of War, directed by Errol Morris, 107 min, 2004, DVD.

Garcia, Jesus and Donna M. Ogle, Creating America: A History of the United States (Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2002).

Hare, Ambassador Raymond, “Telegrams,” October 27, 1962, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/19621026hare.pdf (accessed September 21, 2007).

Khrushchev, Nikita, “Letter to Kennedy,” October 26, 1962, http://www.choices.edu/resources/supplemental_fogofwar_khrushchev_102662.php (accessed September 21, 2007).

Khrushchev, Nikita, “Letter to Kennedy,” October 27, 1962, http://www.choices.edu/resources/supplemental_fogofwar_khrushchev_102662.php (accessed September 21, 2007).

Khrushchev, Nikita, “Speech to the RFSR Teacher’s Congress,” July 9, 1960, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1960khrushchev-cuba1.html (accessed September 21, 2007).

Streitmatter, Rodger, Mightier than the Sword: How the News Media Shaped American History (Boudler, CO: Westview Press, 1997).

Transcript of Audio Clip of Excom Meeting, October 27, 1962, http://www.choices.edu/resources/supplemental_tah_excom_10-27-62.php (accessed September 21, 2007).