Digital Unit Plan Template

Unit Title: The Rise of Totalitarianism Between WWI and

WWII
Content Area: World History

Name: Danny Shutler

Grade Level: 10

CA Content Standard(s)/Common Core Standard(s):

10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.
1. Understand the causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution, including Lenins use of totalitarian means to
seize and maintain control (e.g., the Gulag).
2. Trace Stalins rise to power in the Soviet Union and the connection between economic policies, political policies, the
absence of a free press, and systematic violations of human rights (e.g., the Terror Famine in Ukraine).
3. Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of totalitarian regimes (Fascist and Communist) in Germany, Italy, and
the Soviet Union, noting especially their common and dissimilar traits.
Big Ideas:
-

The aftermath of World War I, which lead to the rise of Totalitarian regimes in the 1920s and 1930s
The rise of nationalism
How emerging technologies facilitated these movements
Isolationist policies among the WWI victors

Unit Goals and Objectives:

-

Students will be able to define and identify the political and economic characteristics of totalitarian governments.
Students will be able to describe the factors that led to the rise of the totalitarian regimes in Mussolinis Italy, Hitlers
Germany, and Stalinist Russia.
Students will be able to contrast the differences between Fascist Germany and Communist Russia.
Students will know the human rights violations that occurred in these totalitarian states.
Students will understand how these totalitarian states led to WWII.

Unit Summary:
First, students are learning the basics of what totalitarianism is, total state control. By using The Lego Movie as a jumping off point, the students
will see firsthand how total state control can take any shape or form, but will gain a basic understanding of how it works coercively. They will then
pply this knowledge to the rise of totalitarianism regimes in Italy, Germany, and Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s. With this knowledge
they will be able to compare and contrast the differences of Fascism and Communism. They will discover the human rights atrocities that tend to
go hand-in-hand with total state control. Finally, they will understand how this type of state led directly to World War II.

Assessment Plan:
Entry-Level:
Brainstorm

Formative:
Basic Concepts Quiz
Venn Diagram
Scapegoat Journal
Graphic Organizer (Cause & Effect)

Summative:
DBQ
Create Your Own Propaganda

Lesson 1
Student Learning
Objective:
Students will be able to
define and identify the
political and economic
characteristics of
totalitarian governments.

Acceptable Evidence:
Students will be able to
identify the essential
traits of a totalitarian
regime:
Total state control over
public and private life.
Media, price controls,
uniforms, secret police,
extreme nationalism,
scapegoat minorities.

Instructional
Strategies:
X Communication
X Collection
X Collaboration
X Presentation
Organization
X Interaction

Lesson Activities:
I will start the lesson out by brainstorming what the class already
knows about totalitarianism.
Then, I will list the different characteristics of what makes a
totalitarian state.
Then, I will play the opening sequence from The Lego Movie featuring
the theme song, Everything is Awesome, and have students
discuss in partners what essential totalitarian characteristics the
society in The Lego Movie display.
From there I will compare and contrast those traits to the
totalitarianism in Hitlers Germany and Stalins Russia.
At the end of class I will have each student list the essential
characteristics of totalitarianism as an exit card.

Acceptable Evidence:
Students will be able to
fill out a Venn Diagram
between Facist Germany
and Communist Russia

Instructional
Strategies:
X Communication
X Collection
Collaboration
X Presentation
Organization
Interaction

Lesson Activities:
I will give a fairly traditional Power Point lecture on the causes
leading up to the totalitarian governments in Italy, Germany, and
Russia.
The lecture will also cover the individual characteristics of each
regime.
Students will finish the lesson by filling out a Venn Diagram
comparing and contrasting the different characteristics of
Communism and Fascism.

Acceptable Evidence:
Students will be able to
identify the human rights
atrocities committed in
Nazi Germany and the
Soviet Union

Instructional
Strategies:
X Communication
Collection
Collaboration
X Presentation
Organization

Lesson Activities:
Start the lesson out by playing the documentary Death Mills
Introduce the topic of the Holocaust and the idea of scapegoating
minorities and the use of fear tactics to mobilize a totalitarian state.
Have students discuss why they think such methods were so
effective.
Ask students why they think the general population allowed such

Lesson 2
Student Learning
Objective:
Students will be
able to contrast
the differences
between Fascist
Germany and
Communist
Russia.
Lesson 3
Student Learning
Objective:
Students will
know the human
rights violations
that occurred in
these totalitarian

states.

X Interaction

atrocities to occur and write down their thoughts.

Unit Resources:

"Everything Thing Is Awesome" from The Lego Movie www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx5n21zHPm8

The History Factor Podcast 6: The Rise of Totalitarianism - http://www.historyfactor.com/podcasts/
Totalitarianism A Case Study: Stalinist Russia - historywithmrgreen.com/page2/assets/Totalitarianism
%20Case%20Study.pdf
Death Mills 1945 Short Documentary on Nazi Germany - https://archive.org/details/DeathMills
Triumph of the Will 1936 Nazi Propaganda Film - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHs2coAzLJ8
"Hitler In History" an In Our Time podcast http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546wh
Mussolini's March On Rome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvQzHockXaU
Stalin, and the Man of Steel - A BBC Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRlOt-wqFHY
Useful Websites:

The Rise of Dictatorship and Totalitarianism:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/World_History/The_Rise_of_Dictatorship_and_Totalitarianism
Age of Totalitarianism: http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture10.html