Sal Cusmano

Explaining and Modeling Content Proficiency

Claim
The following lesson that I gave on the nuclear Arms Race between the United States
and the Soviet Union shows my proficiency in the teaching practice of Explaining and Modeling
Content. I believe it shows my proficiency in this discipline for the following reasons, first, I am
extremely knowledgeable in the subject matter of the lesson and I aimed the facts, skills, and
concepts to be at an appropriate level for my students. Second, I sequenced the events in a
logical manner choosing to go with a chronological manner while highlighting the rising fears of
both Soviet and American citizens as the destructive capabilities of both nations grew. Third, I
used numerous visuals and videos to further student understanding and the information I
delivered in the PowerPoint. Fourth, I used multiple analogies and examples to help explain
information and ideas to my students. Finally, I modeled the content that aligned with my
learning goals for my students.
Evidence and Explanation
Knowledge of Material
The first way I showed proficiency in this teaching practice was in my knowledge of the
content and the appropriateness of the content to my class level and making the facts, skills,
and concepts clear to my students and having a hierarchy of big idea to concept, to fact. An
example of this would be in how I designed my lesson and in the intro to my lesson to revolve
around the big idea that with the nuclear Arms Race between the Soviet Union and the United
States the world entered a new and terrifying age where humanity possessed the potential to
end the world if someone wanted to and the effect that this new age had on the people living
at that time. (EMC Video 0:23-2:15) This intro question set the stage for the rest of my
presentation by getting at how the United States population was deeply afraid of this new
destructive power both the United States and the Soviet Union would achieve.
Structure and Presentation of Material
The second way I showed proficiency in this practice would be in how I structured my
presentation of the material. With the big idea of fear of the new destructive capabilities
possessed by both the Soviet Union and the United States serving as the guiding focus of the
lesson the rest of my presentation and explanation of the material focused on a chronological
take of the escalation of destructive powers possessed by both nations by looking at
development of the original atom bomb by the United States in 1945, the Soviet response and
development of their own atom bomb in 1949, the back and forth response between the two
countries and development of both hydrogen bombs and ICBMs, the idea of mutually assured
destruction, and the development of fallout drills and fallout shelters. (See Arms Race
Presentation slides 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7) The presentation of my material in this way helped
because it showed the rising destructive potential both countries had amassed as they went
from possessing stronger weapons, to more weapons, to the idea of mutually assured
destruction. By showing how much the danger increased after each event it also showed how
people at the time grew more and more afraid of this destructive potential and then I ended on
how people tried to cope with living in this new world it seemed to stick with kids much more
and seemed to have been effective in explaining the ideas of the arms race.
Use of Visuals
The third way I showed proficiency in this teaching practice would be in the use of
visuals to further student understanding of the material. The first way I did this would be on
Slide 4 of my Arms Race presentation where I included a visual that compared the size of the
explosions between the original atom bombs used by the United States to later hydrogen
bombs developed by both the United States and the Soviet Union. The reason I did this was to
give my students context to the strength of the bombs we were discussing and the destruction
potential of them in comparison to the A-bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The next way I used visuals to help further my explanation of the arms race to my
students was by using a political cartoon to showcase the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction
on Slide 6 of my Arms Race presentation. The political cartoon served as a comedic way to
showcase the idea of how even though both countries had these highly destructive weapons,
they were afraid to use them for fear of retaliation. I feel like this proved to be effective
because although my oral and text explanation of mutually assured destruction was good,
having the visual representation helped a lot of my students. I had a few students tell me that
they understood the idea of mutually assured destruction a lot better because I included the
picture.
The final way I used visuals to help my students understand the idea of the arms race
more clearly was by including a video on the history of fallout shelters. (Fallout Shelter Video)
This video went into far greater detail on the history of fallout shelters and duck and cover drills
than I did in my PowerPoint and served as a great resource for the students as it also showed
the rising fear in the population over living in this new world where humanity had the power to
destroy the world in minutes if someone really wanted to.
Examples and Analogies
The fourth way I showed proficiency in explaining and modeling content to students
would be in how I used numerous examples and analogies to help relate content to the
students during my lesson. The first way I did this was by giving an example of a previous arms
race which took place during World War I in the buildup of navies by countries across the globe.
(EMC Video 3:30-4:20) This example was used to show that arms races had happened in the
past and to give an idea of continuity of arms races over history. I believe this was a good
example to use because it referenced something the students had learned about last semester
and served as a good entry point to allow them to jump on the new information being learned
by comparing it to the previously learned information.
The next example I used to help relate the information to students was when we
discussed nuclear fallout drills and I gave the example of how today we have fire drills, tornado
drills, and active shooter drills. (EMC Video 27:35-27:42) This example was really good as it took
something that the students are familiar with in the tornado, fire, and active shooter drills, and
it related it to the fallout drills that students in the 1950s and 1960s would go through which
was a perfect way for the students to better relate to and understand the material.
The final analogy/example I used to help relate the material to my student was by
showing how the idea of fallout shelters has stayed around in popular culture by referencing
the video game series Fallout. (EMC Video 27:50-29:00) This last example/analogy/reference
was effective because a lot of the students in my classes are big video game players and by
showing how this idea of fallout shelters inspired a popular video game series it makes the
material more engaging to my students and helps them get more on board with the lesson.
Modeling and Vocalization of Thinking
The final way I showed proficiency in explaining and modeling content was by my use of
modeling and vocalizing my thinking to students. The first way I did this was by vocalizing how
the Soviet Union was upset with the United States for hiding the nuclear bomb from them
before using it to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (EMC Video 5:04-5:52) The clip shows how I
used my voice to act as the Soviet Union and get across my thinking that the Soviet Union felt
betrayed and undercut by the United States for hiding the bomb from them.
The other way I vocalized my thinking to students during this lesson was in how I
discussed the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction. (EMC Video 24:45-25:25) In this clip I said
that although the idea of two countries saying “we’ll blow you up if you attack us” actually
working to keep people from using nuclear weapons sounds crazy it made sense because the
Soviet Union Premier and the President of the United States liked being charge of their
respective countries and neither of them wanted to be the one to end the world. I feel like this
was an effective way of modeling this concept to students because the idea that the threat of
violence would prevent violence is a difficult concept to understand and by vocalizing my
thinking to students it made it easier to comprehend.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that I have shown proficiency in the teaching practice of
explaining and modeling content because I was effective in using a big idea, concept, and facts
framework, I was effective in the structuring and layout of my content, I was effective in using
visuals, I was effective in using examples and analogies, and I was effective in modeling my
content.