Unit Plan: Cold War

Class: World History

Grade Level: 9th Grade

Unit: Cold War

Duration: 5 Lessons for 5 days; 2 week Unit (block scheduling)

Teacher: Ms. Mascolino

Essential Questions/BIG IDEA

● Can a ideological war be more dangerous than a physical war?
● Why was the Cold War so tense when the two superpowers were never actually involved
in a "Hot War"?
● Did the US win the Cold War or did the Soviet Union lose it?
● BIG IDEA: Ideologies at war--US wanted to stop communism and Soviets wanted to stop
capitalism.

Objectives:
● By the end of the unit students will be able to understand the Cold War in its entirety.
● By the end of the unit students will be able to apply knowledge of the Cold War to
previous units and lessons in class.
● By the end of the unit students will be able to connect events of the Cold War to current
events.

Assessment

● Entry/Exit Slips*
● End of unit quiz/test
● Free write*
● TPS*
● KWL*
● Discussion/Debate
● Gallery Walk
○ **These assessments are more thoroughly explained within each lesson**

❖ D/I strategies will be highlighted and labeled in ​PINK

❖ Class description will be at the end of this Unit Plan.
 Day 1, Lesson 1: Cold War & Berlin
Iowa Core State Standards (ICSS)
● SS-WH.9-12.20

21​st​ Century Skill(s)

● 21.9–12.ES.2

National Standards
● Standard 1.
● Standard 2.

Essential Question(s)
● Can a ideological war be more dangerous than a physical war?
“I Can” Statement
● I can understand the basis of the Cold War .

Objectives
● By the end of class today students will understand the Cold War on a surface level.
● By the end of class today students will understand why the Berlin Airlift took place and
why it was important.

Assessment
● Formative assessment [throughout class duration]: Each student has a flip book available
to them that they will have/use the entirety of the class. A good medium between the
green/red card assessment and the solo cup assessment, these books will allow me [the
teacher] to see whether or not a student understands a concept that is presented in class.
These books will be on the front of students’ desks that way they are only visible to the
teacher and not their peers. This encourages students to openly and honestly ask for help
but it also allows me [the teacher] to circulate and assess where my students are in terms
of understanding the lesson.
● PRE-ASSESSMENT ​(TPS): Think, pair, and share will be the anticipatory set for the
Berlin half of the lesson. Students will think about a video they watch about the falling of
the Berlin Wall, pair up and share what they gathered from the video, and then come
together and share as a class. The purpose of this is to see where the students are in terms
of the topic of Berlin and then they will be assessed at the end of class to see how much
progress they made.
● D/I STRATEGY​ Exit Slip: Students will do a 3-2-1 for their exit slip. The point of the
3-2-1 is for students to write down and describe three takeaways, two questions, and one
thing they enjoyed in the lesson. This form of assessment will allow the teacher to see if
each student is where they need (on track or below track) to be in terms of what they need
to know about the topic of Berlin as well as the topic of the Cold War.
Anticipatory Set​:
● D/I STRATEGY​ ​(multiple intelligence) ​Cold War: Bomb drill simulation--At the
beginning of class the teacher will play an air raid siren sound and have the students duck
and cover as if they were in school during the time of the Cold War. After this is
complete, the teacher will ask the students why they think they did this as an activity and
how effective this practice would have been during the time it was practiced. This allows
the students to put themselves into a different perspective when talking about the Cold
War. It also allows students to move around and put themselves into the shoes of a
student during the Cold War.
● Berlin: TPS on Berlin Wall--See Assessments for more information.

Teaching: Activities
● Berlin Airlift Simulation: Students will find a partner, one partner will be on the side of
the room labeled West Germany and the other will be on the side labeled East Berlin. In
between the two sides of the room will be East Germany. The goal will be to fly paper
airplanes from West Germany to East Berlin with all the needed supplies (one at a
time--one will draw the supply, fly the plane over, the other will guess the supply the
received, fly it back and this process continues until all supplies are guessed and in East
Berlin). The teacher or student placed in East Germany can capture any fallen airplanes
that land in East Germany but cannot shot them down while they are in the air. The first
pair of partners to successfully fly all supplies to East Berlin will be the winner and the
activity will end.
● Bomb Drill Simulation: See Anticipatory Set for more information.
● Video on Bomb Drill: Allows students to reflect on what they did during their
anticipatory while also acting as a primary source to help convey what bomb drill were
actually like during this time.
○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=120wGLgCTkg&t=122s

● Pair Up, Read and Highlight packet page: each student has a packet page. At the end of
each lesson the students pair up and read the item number pertaining to the lesson they
just learned. This acts as a way to review what they just learned and allows them to look
back at what they highlighted and annotated in their packet page for review later in time.
● Video on Berlin Wall Falling: See Anticipatory Set for more information.
○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK1MwhEDjHg

Closure:
● Review slide: although the entire lesson is important, reiterate and highlight main points
at the end of the lesson.

Independent Practice:
● N/A-- As a teacher I’m pretty relaxed in terms of assigning homework. Homework will
only be assigned when I believe a lesson or concept within a lesson is more difficult to
 grasp just in class. The point of homework is for students to better understand a concept
we have discussed in class. I will never assign homework just to assign homework.

Materials​:
● Pen/Pencil
● Notebook/Paper
● Highlighter
● Laptop
● Headphones
● Text Packet

Duration:
● First half: 40 minutes
○ Anticipatory Set/discussion: 5-10 minutes
○ Lecture: 10 minutes
○ Video/Reflection: 10 minutes.
○ Second half of lecture: 5 minutes
○ Closure/Read and Highlight: 5 minutes
● Break: 10 minutes
● Second half: 40 minutes
○ TPS/discussion: 10 minutes
○ Lecture: 10 minutes
○ Berlin Airlift activity: 7-10 minutes
○ Closure/3-2-1: 5 minutes
○ Read and Highlight: 5 minutes