The Cold War John F.

Kennedy & the Cold War

Goals & Objectives
-Goal: Students learn about John F. Kennedy's role in the Cold War.
-Objectives: Students will learn about Kennedy's relationship with Cuba,
Europe, and Southeast Asia in order to understand how the event(s) will lead
to future events and conflicts
California State Content Standards
-11.9.3 = Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and
domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the following:
The Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Latin American
Policy.
Common Core Literacy Standards
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7 = Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of
information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g. visually,
quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a
problem.
Driving Historical Question
-How did John F. Kennedy handled the most terrifying era of the Cold War?
Lesson Introduction (Anticipatory Set/Hook/Accessing Prior Knowledge)
Time: 5 Mins.
-President JFK's Speech (Transcript)
Vocabulary (Content Language Development) Time: 20 Minutes
-Peace Corps
-Space race
-U-2 Jet
-Fidel Castro
-Bay of Pigs Invasion
-Cuban Missile Crisis
-Nikita Khrushchev
-Berlin Wall
-Ngo Dinh Diem
-Warren Commission

Content Delivery (Method of Instruction) Time: 3 segments; 10-15

minutes each
-Short section of presidency, so the strategy of reading out loud gets the
class involved.
-Specific areas of the Kennedy's foreign policy will be assigned to sections in
the classroom.
-After giving each class section about 10-mins to go over their area of study,
a Socratic seminar will be put into place for each section.
-Then assign the Timeline activity.
Student Engagement (Critical Thinking & Student Activities) Time: 20
minutes
-Students will be doing an activity of creating the timeline and having the
Socratic Seminars.
-With the notes taken from Socratic Seminars, Students create their own
timeline with the notes.
-Students make connections with Kennedy with the following regions and,
using the sources, make predictions on the future of that region.
Lesson Closure Time:
-Clip of JFK's Assassination.
-Questions: Kennedy was full of ideas on how to deal with the Communist
threat. How would you feel if your ideas collapsed and never went according
to plan?
Assessments (Formative & Summative)
-Formative: Students being required to partake in the Socratic Seminar
activity as well as making their own TimeLine.
-Summative: No Summative assessment. A short presidency like JFK serves
as a additive lesson for upcoming lectures leading to the final stages of the
Cold War in terms of violence.
Accommodations for English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with
Special Needs
-English Learners: Think-Pair-Share strategy will help ELs get paired up with
mainstream English speakers to help on their English language as well as the

topic.
-Striving Readers: The student strategy of creating a timeline as an
assignment will help them understand the topic visually.
-Students with Special Needs: Specific needs are kept confidential between
particular students and me, but to regularly check on them, they are placed
in the front row of the class and I will ask if they have any questions on the
topic to meet their needs.

Resources (Books, Websites, Handouts, Materials)

-Textbook: The American Vision, Modern Times = Chapter 15: The New
Frontier, Section 2: JFK and the Cold War.
-Website: YouTube for video clips, John F. Kennedy Library
-Handouts: Student-made Timeline
-Materials: YouTube clips, Notebook, Pencils