edTPA Task 1: Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan 4: The Red Menace

Unit: The Cold War: 1945-1991

Course: U.S. History, 1877-Present

Grade: 9th Grade

Lesson #: 4 of 5

Date: February 18, 2020

Class Information

Theme: This course examines the history of the United States of America from 1877 to the
present. The federal republic has withstood challenges to its national security and
expanded the rights and roles of citizens. The episodes of its past have shaped the
nature of the country today and prepared it to attend to the challenges of tomorrow.
Understanding how these events came to pass and their meaning for today’s
citizens is the purpose of this course. The concepts of historical thinking introduced
in earlier grades continue to build with students locating and analyzing primary and
secondary sources from multiple perspectives to draw conclusions. This course
also utilizes the Founding Documents as a background for historic
application/exploration.

Size: 24 Students; Ages 14-17

Learning Information

Central Focus: What were the causes and effects of the Cold War?

Topic: The United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(U.S.S.R.) emerged as the two strongest powers in international
affairs. Ideologically opposed, they challenged one another in a series
of confrontations known as the Cold War. The costs of this prolonged
contest weakened the U.S.S.R. so that it collapsed due to internal
upheavals as well as American pressure. The Cold War had social
and political implications in the United States.

Content Standards: 24. The Second Red Scare and McCarthyism reflected Cold War
fears in American society.

Goals: - Students will engage in meaningful discussions about primary

source and secondary source information in both a small

1
 group setting and together as a class.
- Students will be able to display their growth of knowledge in
multiple ways, focusing on the ways that best suit them.
- Students will connect new information to past knowledge and
will combine it with their understanding of today.
- Students will connect the changes in foreign affairs to changes
in domestic policy.
- Students will analyze how fear changes American society as a
whole.
- Students will respectfully engage in discussion about
controversial, opinion-based questions.
- Students will analyze cultural information from seemingly
obsolete primary sources.
- Students will analyze how political ideas spill over into media.
- Students will analyze how McCarthyism and the Red Scare
reflected Cold War fears.

Objectives: - Students will complete the bellringer review.

- Students will follow along with the presentation with guided
notes.
- Students will analyze the McCarthy testimony video.
- Students will analyze the Hollywood trailers.
- Students will engage in discussions about the McCarthyism
videos.
- Students will engage in discussions about the Hollywood
trailers.
- Students will display knowledge through classroom
discussions.
- Students will critically think about the symbolism behind
Hollywood trailers.
- Students will think critically about the debate between security
and liberty.
- Students will critically analyze the reflection of Cold War fears
in American society.

Procedures and Instruction

Bellringer: - Review from the Combating Communism Lesson (5 minutes)

- Use a timer on the smartboard to keep track of time and keep pacing.
- Take attendance.
- Write the covered standards/big ideas on the board.
- Upon completion, go over review for intervention and have students turn
in for weekly grades.

2
 Lesson: The Red Menace

Supporting Question #1: Supporting Question #2: Supporting Question #3:

How did Cold War fears How did McCarthyism spread so How does media reflect
affect the American people quickly and make him such an political and social issues of
as a whole? important figure? the time?

- Begin the lesson by outlining the standard on the board.

- Students will follow along with the presentation through guided notes.
- During the presentation, I will ask the students both higher-order, fact-based, and
reflective questions.
- Discourse: W​ hen we begin discussing McCarthyism, there is a quick video on
McCarthyism from PBS and another video of McCarthy testifying before Congress.
The second video does not need to be watched beyond the first couple of minutes.
Once these videos are done, we will discuss as a class how McCarthy was able to
become so popular, what his motives were, what were problems with his actions, and
then work to establish common connections that students can relate to, perhaps to
their own lives.
- Discourse: A ​ fter discussing McCarthy, we will move on to Hollywood films and how
they reflect fears in society. To accompany this, students will watch two movie trailers
from the period that outline movies that reflect common American perceptions during
the 1950s. Once these are done, we will then discuss them as a class, focusing on
themes and symbolism.
- Discourse: T ​ o close the lesson, students will discuss the controversial topic of liberty
and safety.
- If time, we will use Quizlet as a means of review for the assessment.

Expansions/Adaptations

- Students on 504s and IEPs will be given ample time to complete the bellringer.
Students on IEPs and 504s also have the option to show their depth of knowledge
during the discussion section or can record a video through FlipGrid if they so choose.

Resources

- Bellringer: Combating Communism Review

- Exit Slip if needed
- Slide Presentation
- Guided Note Sheet

Academic Language

Blacklist​: list of persons who were not hired because of suspected communist ties.

3
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)​: A congressional committee that
investigated Communist influence inside and outside the U.S. government in the years
following World War II.

McCarthyism​: The term associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy who led the search for
communists in America during the early 1950s through his leadership in the House
Un-American Activities Committee.

Second Red Scare​: immense fear of communism during the Cold War.

Past Knowledge: So far in the unit, we will have covered the differences in communism
and capitalism, the nuclear age, and the foreign policy changes that
were essentially reactions to the fear of communism spreading.
Domestically, we have only discussed albeit briefly, about how nuclear
fear was embodied at home during lesson two. By now, students should
have a clear understanding of why communism was such a threat to the
American way of life and government and students will be able to tie that
into why McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare occurred during this
time.

Future Learning: The next lesson will be a summative assessment of this unit. Going into
the next unit on Vietnam, this lesson will act as a comparison to the
feelings Americans had towards the war in Vietnam. The fact that so
many people opposed the war and the 1960s brought forth many social
causes and changes will seem a stark contrast to the 1950s. When we
look at social changes in the 1950s, specifically consumerism and the
growing Civil Rights movement, this will show layers of the complexity of
the American way of life. Comfortable, post-war economic booms mixed
with fear of change, from communism to Civil Rights, will pave the way
for the social changes of the 1960s.