edTPA Task 1: Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan 2: The Nuclear Age

Unit: The Cold War: 1945-1991

Course: U.S. History, 1877-Present

Grade: 9th Grade

Lesson #: 2 of 5

Date: February 13, 2020

Class Information

Theme: This course examines the history of the United States of America from 1877 to the
present. The federal republic has withstood challenges to its national security and
expanded the rights and roles of citizens. The episodes of its past have shaped the
nature of the country today and prepared it to attend to the challenges of tomorrow.
Understanding how these events came to pass and their meaning for today’s
citizens is the purpose of this course. The concepts of historical thinking introduced
in earlier grades continue to build with students locating and analyzing primary and
secondary sources from multiple perspectives to draw conclusions. This course
also utilizes the Founding Documents as a background for historic
application/exploration.

Size: 24 Students; Ages 14-17

Learning Information

Central Focus: What were the causes and effects of the Cold War?

Topic: The United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(U.S.S.R.) emerged as the two strongest powers in international
affairs. Ideologically opposed, they challenged one another in a series
of confrontations known as the Cold War. The costs of this prolonged
contest weakened the U.S.S.R. so that it collapsed due to internal
upheavals as well as American pressure. The Cold War had social
and political implications in the United States.

Content Standards: 22. Use of atomic weapons changed the nature of war, altered the
balance of power and began the nuclear age.

Goals: - Students will be able to critically analyze primary and

secondary sources.

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 - Students will make connections to past knowledge.
- Students will analyze the relevancy of new information by
comparing it to the modern-day and their own experiences.
- Students will understand how the establishment of nuclear
weapons impacted the Cold War.
- Students will be able to display their opinions through their
analysis of nuclear weapons.
- Students will understand and learn vocabulary terms.
- Students will be able to respectfully and intelligently discuss
information.
- Students will display their knowledge and analyses through a
variety of assessments

Objectives: - Students will show their expansion of knowledge through their

bellringer review.
- Students will complete the NukeMap activity.
- Students will be able to analyze the effects, practicality, and
ethical issues of nuclear warfare.
- Students will combine present knowledge with knowledge of
the past during the NukeMap activity.
- Students will respectfully display their knowledge through a
class discussion on nuclear warfare.
- Students will follow the lesson through guided notes.
- Students will analyze how the development of nuclear
weapons has changed history.
- Students will analyze how nuclear armaments fueled the arms
race and further intensified the Cold War.

Procedures and Instruction

Bellringer: - Review for Communism vs. Capitalism (5-10 minutes)

- Use a timer on the smartboard to keep track of time and keep pacing.
- During this time I will take attendance.
- Write the covered standards/big ideas on the board.
- Upon completion, we will go over the bellringer as a class. I will ask the
questions as they show up on the assignment sheet and have the
students share their answers.
- Students will submit them so they can be counted towards their weekly
grades.

Activity: ​NukeMap Activity (10-15 minutes)

- I will begin the day’s lesson by outlining the standard we are covering and discussing it
as the “big idea” for the day. It will be displayed on the board for everyone to see.
- Students will use the NukeMap website to simulate dropping a nuclear weapon of their
choice on a certain area of their choice. As they do this, they will fill out an activity

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 sheet to explain what they did and that asks large, complex questions about the use of
nuclear warfare.
- ​ nce this is done, we will then have a class discussion about what the
Discourse: O
students chose and then discuss the questions they answered on the sheet.

Lesson:​ ​The Nuclear Age

Supporting Question #1: Supporting Question #2: Supporting Question #3:

How did the introduction of
nuclear weapons change
the focus of nations at odds
at one another?
What effects did the introduction
of nuclear weapons have on the
alliances between like-minded
nations?
What effects did the
introduction of nuclear
weapons have on American
people in their day-to-day
lives?

- The rest of the period will be dedicated to guided notes on the nuclear age and a
lesson explaining the arms race and how it brought along changes to American foreign
policy.
- During the presentation, I will ask the students both higher-order, fact-based, and
reflective questions.
- Discourse: W ​ e will then watch an approximately 10-minute video primary source called
Duck and Cover ​(1951). Students will follow along with the primary source and have
the freedom to take free notes. If time, we will have a discussion on the video, focusing
on the social changes the video suggests and the cultural elements seen in the video.
If we do not have time for this, it will be added as part of the bellringer the following
day.
* The activity will be done after the lesson.

Expansions/Adaptations

- The students on 504s and IEPs will be given more time to complete the bellringer if
needed. During the NukeMap activity, the student on an IEP will be allowed to work
with a partner, more than likely a good friend that often helps. The student on the 504
will be given more time.

Resources

- Bellringer: Capitalism vs. Communism Review

- NukeMap Activity
- Slide Presentation
- Guided Note Sheet

Academic Language

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Arms Race​: Cold war competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to build up their
respective armed forces and weapons.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)​: Military alliance created in 1949 made up of 12
non-Communist countries including the United States that support each other if attacked.

Warsaw Pact​: An alliance between the Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations.
This was in response to NATO.

Past Knowledge: In the unit before this, we discussed the United States’ decision to drop
the atomic bombs on Japan to end the Cold War. We also briefly
mentioned the questionable morality of using nuclear weapons. The day
before this, in lesson 1, we discussed the ideological rift between
communism and capitalism. This will help the students understand why
one side having nuclear weapons is such a concern.

Future Learning: Tomorrow, we will discuss the efforts the United States took to keep
communism from spreading and what foreign policy changes we made
and how these changes connect to other events, e.g. the Marshall Plan
leading to the Iron Curtain and leading to the Berlin Airlift, etc.). This will
also inform them for later in the unit when we discuss the Space Race
and the Cuban Missle Crisis.