Lesson Plan Template

Teacher: Racer Moody

Date: 4/1/16

Class: U.S. History

Level: 10th Grade

Purpose: This lesson is designed to show students the differences between conflicting political
ideologies which was the basis for the Cold War.
Objectives: Students will be able to recognize the ideological differences between the U.S.
and the Soviet Union. Students will be able to complete a Venn Diagram comparing and
contrasting socialism and communism.
Common Core Standards:
9-10.WHST.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital
sources.
HCPSIII Benchmarks:
SS.10.3.20 Explain the origins of the Cold War.
GLOs: Self-directed Learner (The ability to be responsible for one's own learning). Quality
Producer (The ability to recognize and produce quality performance and quality products).
Hawaii State Teacher Standards:
Standard #2: Learning Differences. Playing the rock-paper-scissors, or Jan-Ken-Pon game
as part of the lesson draws upon experiences that most students go through when growing up in
Hawaii. This draws them into the lesson and addresses the standard descriptor recognizing
how diverse learners process information and develop skills, the teacher incorporates multiple
approaches to learning that engage a range of learner preferences.
Standard #3: Learning Environments. Practicing the new classroom management technique
addresses the standard descriptor the teacher manages the learning environment, organizing,
allocating, and coordinating resources to promote learner engagement and minimize loss of
instructional time.
Standard #4: Content Knowledge. By opening the lesson with a discussion on what students
think they already know about Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism, it helps me to address
the standard descriptor the teacher draws upon his initial knowledge of common
misconceptions in the content area, uses available resources to address them, and consults with
colleagues on how to anticipate learners need for explanations and experiences that create
accurate understanding in the content area.
Standard #6: Assessment. When students complete their Venn diagrams comparing and
contrasting socialism and communism, it gives me a better idea about their understanding and
addresses the standard descriptor the teacher uses data from multiple types of formative
Chaminade University of Honolulu * 3140 Waialae Avenue Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-1578 * (808) 735-4711 * www.chaminade.edu

assessments to draw conclusions about learner progress toward learning objectives that lead to
standards and uses this analysis to guide instruction to meet learner needs.
Standard #7: Planning for Instruction. Incorporating video clips with different perspectives
helps students to learn the content from multiple sources and breaks up the monotony of
listening to an extended lecture. This addresses the standard descriptor the teacher integrates
technology resources into instructional plans.
Assessments: For this lesson, the formative assessment is to complete a Venn diagram
displaying the similarities and differences between socialism and communism. A diagram that
meets expectations will have at least 3 notes for each.
Materials/Set-Up: Candy for rock-paper-scissors game. Computer, projector, and speakers
for accompanying PowerPoint presentation. 30 copies of blank Venn Diagram. Post-it notes.
Procedures: The lesson will be broken down into 3 parts: discussion, activity, and then notetaking on graphic organizer.
10:52 Class begins. Hand back pre-test (phones away).
10:55 Practice classroom management technique.
10:57 Discussion on prior knowledge of capitalism, socialism, and communism.
11:10 Jan-Ken-Pon Activity with integrated PowerPoint.
11:30 Watch 5 short video clips within PowerPoint.
11:50 Time to work on Venn diagram graphic organizer.
12:07 Turn in Venn diagram and class is dismissed.
a. Introduction
Three words will be written on the white board before students come to class: CAPITALISM,
SOCIALISM, and COMMUNISM. I will ask students to brainstorm any ideas or other
preconceived notions they have about the three forms of government. Students will work in
their groups and come up with one idea for each. In order to foster the discussion, I will ask
students to attempt and point out the differences between the three forms of government. In
order to provide further scaffolding, I will include questions like which type of government is
better? I do not expect the students to completely understand the differences but this will lead
into the activity.
b. Developmental
Next, we are going to do an activity to help us understand these differences. To start the game,
I will give the students pieces of candy. I will give the majority of students 3 pieces, but I will
give a few students only 1 piece and a few other students 7 pieces. There will definitely be the
not fair and why do they get more? complaints throughout the class. The students with
more candy will most likely brag and tease the others. The students will then compete with
each other in Jan-Ken-Pon, with the loser having to give up a piece of candy to the winner. If
a student runs out of candy, they will have to just sit down and watch. There will surely be
more grumbles. The students will continue playing until only a handful of students were left.
Then we will stop the game for more discussion. Students will be asked several questions
Chaminade University of Honolulu * 3140 Waialae Avenue Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-1578 * (808) 735-4711 * www.chaminade.edu

about the activity: How did you feel at the start of the game? How did you feel when you ran
out of candy and had to sit down? What could you have done to get back into the game?
(Steal, bargain, buy someone off, lie) Was the game fair? At this point, I will begin my
PowerPoint presentation, which starts with the first part of a flow chart describing capitalism.
The next part of the flow chart is class struggle and workers revolt. We will discuss key points
about these items in relation to the game we just played. For example, the box for capitalism
has three points: private ownership of industry (students started with their own candy),
freedom of competition (students played Jan-Ken-Pon), and results in unequal economic
classes (some students win, most lose). The class struggle was played out in the students
complaints and the workers revolt through their responses about how they could have gotten
back into the game, and arguments about the games fairness. Before I continue to socialism, I
will inform the class that I, being the government, had decided to collect all the candy and
redistribute it equally. The students without any candy will be happy while those who
previously had an abundance will probably complain. I will ask them again how they felt now,
and if this action was fair. Then we would continue the flow chart to the part on socialism
where government ownership of industry is represented by myself collecting the candy, and
the goal is to bring economic equality (candy being redistributed equally), and aims for a
classless society (students now all have the same amount of candy). I will then ask the class if
they want to play again where I anticipate only a few gambling types would be interested.
This leads us the final part on communism, where Marx goal of classless society has been
achieved (students would refuse to play game again and choose to share candy) and no more
government would be needed (I would no longer need to supervise). The next slide would be a
brief overview of Karl Marx and his communist theory. Now that students have gotten the
chance to learn a little bit about the three forms of government, I will hand out a blank Venn
diagram. We will watch 5 short video clips going into further detail about socialism and
communism. I will include commentary and answer any questions throughout.
c. Concluding
Students will complete the diagram by recognizing the similarities and differences. The
diagrams will be due before they leave class. I will answer any remaining questions students
may have.
Adaptations and Extensions: Student #26 is an ELL and has been seated on the front table so
that I may provide extra scaffolding. This lesson is already designed to engage several
different types of learners (auditory, visual, kinesthetic). Students who wish to view the video
clips again (and those who are absent) will have the opportunity to access the PowerPoint on
the schools website (edline.net).
Management Considerations: Because the activity will involve lots of movement around the
room, it may tend to get noisy. In order to gain back control, during this unit, we will be
practicing a different form of classroom management. Instead of using the hands raised and
mouth shut technique from last quarter, I am going to ring a bell instead. At this point,
students will stop what they are doing and duck under the desks. Not only will it refocus the
class back to the activity, but it will also provide a learning experience as to what life was like
for students during the Cold War.
Chaminade University of Honolulu * 3140 Waialae Avenue Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-1578 * (808) 735-4711 * www.chaminade.edu

Reflections: I put a lot of time into this lesson because it was very important for students to
understand what communism, socialism, and capitalism is. Once students understand the
difference, only then would they understand why we wanted to contain communism around the
world. When we played the Jan-Ken-Pon game, I feel like the participation could have been
better and more enthusiastic, but the students seemed to make the connection to the real life
ideas. In order to spark more enthusiasm, I would probably start the lesson off next time with
a better hook. I feel like the videos really helped to elaborate on what exactly the three
economic systems look like. This was evident in their completion of the Venn diagrams.
There were a few people who struggled with it, but that was to be expected. The economic and
government systems will be a recurring issue throughout this unit and I will review the
economic systems the day before the unit exam to ensure they have a more complete
understanding.

Chaminade University of Honolulu * 3140 Waialae Avenue Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-1578 * (808) 735-4711 * www.chaminade.edu

Name______________________________________________________

Period___________

Directions: Find AT LEAST 3 characteristics for each section in the diagram.

Socialism

Communism

Date___________________