The Cold War?

[MsCoffeeLover]

That is the next unit in 7th grade social studies. I have never taught that before, but I have a few days over spring break to come up with something.

I want to share the entire unit with all of the social studies teachers to help because 7th grade social studies switched from geography to modern world history, so we are all relatively new to teaching this area.

Does anyone have any suggestions regarding this? It would be great to tie things into science as well, but we are covering genetics and then on to biotic and abiotic units.

Some ideas that would be helpful?

1. Literature books that I can read to my social studies class. I still have that fifteen minutes right after lunch that I want to do something with.

2. Current events activities are something I have yet to dabble into.

3. Research papers should have been assigned by now, but the ELA teacher on my team hasn't done so, so I want to assign a paper or a project of some sort.

4. An entire unit of writing prompts. I have daily openers, but I want to do something a little different with the openers with a variety of writing prompts.

5. A where were you when....? this happened activity. That would be a great thing for students to discuss the issue with their parents and grandparents.

The unknown right now is just too exciting. What to do? What to do? What to do?

[Chef Dave]

Current events activities are something I have yet to dabble into.

I'm confused. You mentioned the Cold War but are also talking about current events.

The Cold War was the period between the mid-1940s through the early 1990s and describes the conflict, tension, and competition between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

By the time Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in '85, the Soviets had an economic growth rate that was barely above zero percent. A downturn in oil prices reduced the influx of hard currency - forcing the Soviet government to adopt the policies of perestroika and glasnost.

The Cold War ended in '89 shortly before the collapse of the USSR in 1990 ... so how do current events play a role with this topic? The Soviet Union ceased to exist 17 years ago.

[busbus]

Sounds like an interesting unit.

You may have already done a Google search and have found these sites. However, just in case, here are two that I found interesting.

1. The Cold War Museum: http://www.coldwar.org/

Spies of Washington Tour – International Espionage in America’s Capital
The Cold War Times – Quarterly chronicle of Cold War related events

2. CNN’s landmark documentary series -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/

Navigate interactive maps
See rare archival footage online
Learn more about the key players
Read recently declassified documents
Tour Cold War capitals through 3-D images

Hope this is useful.

[jsfowler]

Even though I do not teach social studies, I ran across this website and thought it looked interesting.

"Hitting the Cold War From All Angles"

http://www.coreknowledge.org/CK/resrcs/lessons/01_8_%20HitColdWar.pdf

[MsCoffeeLover]

I'm confused. You mentioned the Cold War but are also talking about current events.



My apologies, Chef Dave. I was thinking out loud about a bunch of different things when typing. Several of the other Social Studies teachers have activities with current events magazines they collect as a grade. They rotate the class set of magazines, but they don't always get to me because I an in a trailer, and we don't cross paths on a regular basis.

I have a lot to learn about the Cold War to teach it, but I also have to remember that I lived through much of it as well. Needless to say, events from the past will always correlate to a current event, and I would like to be able to make the past and present connection.

Thank you for all of your help. It is always fun teaching a new unit, but I want to process a lot before I present the information to my kids.

Of course, it will be interesting, but I just didn't know if anyone had taught such a unit before, and if they did, what assignments or activities worked for them. I have been researching the information, but now I have to make it into something that turns out to be a "teachable" moment because I want all of my units to be teachable and memorable.

Again, thank all of you for all of your suggestions. A specific activity doesn't have to be about the Cold War, but y'all may have activities that work in your classrooms that would be beneficial to add to this unit.

[Chef Dave]

I have a lot to learn about the Cold War to teach it, but I also have to remember that I lived through much of it as well...

Gotcha ... :)

One of the strongest memories I have about the Cold War are the stories that were told about East Germans trying to escape to the west.

One interesting research activity might be to compare life in the east and the west.

1) Why was Berlin divided? One group could research the history leading up to the division of Berlin and also look into the development of the Berlin War.

2) How was the government of East Berlin different from that of West Berlin?

3) How was the quality of life different in East Berlin compared to West Berlin? Why did so many people want to escape to West Berlin? What happened if they were caught escaping?