My unit was over the Cold War Era. I intended for the plans to be used in a Global Studies Honors course, though they would also be applicable in U.S. and Western Civilization courses. While overall I felt as if the unit was strong, there is always room for improvement.
The aspects of my unit that I really enjoyed were those of experimental learning and cooperative or group work strategies. I think that with the students I am teaching this semester these strategies will work very well. My students are very social beings but they also stay on task, therefore the lesson on McCarthyism I think will be very successful.
In this lesson I will be allowing students to better understand the social mid-set of American people during the Nazi trials and vast fear of communism. This will also show students how fear and hatred can provoke people to do crazy or far-out things. I will then connect this back to the Nazis and look forward to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I think this lesson will be very successful and allow students to have time for reflection.
I began my unit by having students read actual documents from the conferences at Yalta and the like, but I do not think that these will be as effective. I think the use of primary documents and practicing reading skills is very important, however; I think that these lessons can be vastly improved. Instead of having them do individual reading and getting in expert groups to discuss the reading, I think there needs to be a variety of activities. Perhaps incorporate this method with another, allowing students to make a diagram or compare and contrast chart about differing opinions.
Also, I do not have easy computer access at the school at which I am teaching. Therefore, many of the lessons I planned within my unit will have to be changed. Maybe instead of having students create a Google Earth project, I will have them create there own timeline. I think that this would be effective and far easier to organize.
I am sure that as I continue my teaching and utilize other lessons from my unit plan I will find other things that can be enhanced. For now, I foresee these changes being very helpful and making sense for the students I have this semester.
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Great job on this. This is a key part of teaching, adjusting our teaching to fit the needs of our class. I like your ideas about having the students create timelines and also about incorporating reading skills. Maybe you could still use the primary source but have the class read it as a whole. good job
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