The Cold War ‖ US & Soviet National Exhibition Gallery Walk

Goals & Objectives

Goals:
 Students will become familiar with the rivalry between the US and USSR.
Objectives:
 Students will explore the foreign policies, sociopolitical conditions, economy, or
scientific advancements of the US or USSR in groups and create a “national exhibit”
to present to their peers.
 Students will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the US and USSR in a
discussion with their peers.

California State Content Standards

11.8: Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post–World War II
America.
11.9: Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.

Common Core Literacy Standards

RH 7
WHST 2; 7

Driving Historical Question

In what ways did the US and USSR attempt to claim superiority during the Cold War?

Lesson Introduction (Anticipatory Set/Hook/Accessing Prior Knowledge) ‖ Time: 5 mins

I will introduce students to the lesson objectives and driving historical question. To access
prior knowledge, I will conduct a quick review and discussion of previous lessons on the
Cold War. I will be sure to cover content which students may want to use in their exhibits.

Vocabulary (Content Language Development) ‖ Time: included in intro and content

delivery
I will review the following vocabulary students, which may wish to use in their exhibits,
and provide a word bank so that the vocabulary is readily available for application:

ICBM, satellite (Sputnik), communism, capitalism, democracy, segregation (Jim Crow),

consumer goods, Berlin Wall, Korean War, Vietnam War, KGB, Brown v. Board of Education,
Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, McCarthyism, Berlin Blockade, Berlin Airlift, Truman
Doctrine, US Latin American policies, NATO, Warsaw Pact, Peaceful Coexistence, Polish
protests 1970
Content Delivery (Method of Instruction) ‖ Time: 20 mins
I will present a 15 minute lecture that covers the American and Soviet national exhibitions
during the Eisenhower administration. I will explain that the propagandistic purpose of
these exhibitions. After this, I will spend five minutes instructing students on how they will
be creating their own national exhibits in groups. I will inform them that they will be
presenting to and visiting other groups as part of a gallery walk and introduce the rubric to
them. There will be 8 groups, consisting of 5 students each. Four groups will cover the
topics for the US and the other four will do the same topics for the USSR. I will then prompt
them to get into their pre-assigned groups and begin working.

Student Engagement (Critical Thinking & Student Activities) ‖ Time: 30 mins (students
will also have a full period to prepare their station; another full period will be spent
rotating between stations)
Students will begin working on their exhibits for the remainder of the period and I will
guide and assist them as needed.
On the day of the gallery walk, groups will first rotate among their own country’s topics:
one group will present to the other three groups at the same time. Students will have 4
minutes at each station. After this, one country will begin to present its exhibits to the
other. Groups will begin at their counterpart’s station (so US sociopolitical would start at
USSR sociopolitical) and rotate from there. As students rotate, they will complete the
Questions to Ask/Answer handout at each exhibit.

Lesson Closure ‖ Time: 7 minutes at the end of the gallery walk day
Students will stay in groups and collaborate to write a single response to the driving
historical question on a shared Google Doc. To answer this question, they will select one
geopolitical, sociopolitical, economic, or technological achievement that they value as the
most important claim to superiority and explain their choice using at least one reference to
something they learned from an exhibit.

Assessments (Formative & Summative)

Formative:
 Informal assessment of groups’ collaborative conversations
 Groups’ exhibit presentations and completion of exhibit questions at other stations
Summative:
 Collaborative response to driving historical question

Accommodations for English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with Special Needs
ELL: Word bank, peer support via grouping strategy
SSN: Extra time for completion, all materials posted online for reference
Resources (Books, Websites, Handouts, Materials)
PC/projector/PowerPoint
Rubric Handout
Instructions Handout
Exhibit Questions Handout
Driving Historical Question Collaborative Response (on Google Classroom)
Students’ Chromebooks