Goals & Objectives
Goal: Students will understand the impact that Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler had on the citizens they were governing.
Objective: Students will be able to experience what life was life living under a Totalitarian State by participating in a simulation.
Objective: Students will be able to experience what life was life living under a Totalitarian State by participating in a simulation.
California State Content Standards
10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.
2. Trace Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union and the connection between economic policies, political policies, the absence of a free press, and systematic violations of human rights (e.g., the Terror Famine in Ukraine).
3. Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of totalitarian regimes (Fascist and
Communist) in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, noting especially their common and dissimilar traits
2. Trace Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union and the connection between economic policies, political policies, the absence of a free press, and systematic violations of human rights (e.g., the Terror Famine in Ukraine).
3. Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of totalitarian regimes (Fascist and
Communist) in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, noting especially their common and dissimilar traits
Common Core Literacy Standards
CCSS.Literacy.WHST.10-12 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Driving historical question
What were the experiences of people living under a totalitarian state?
Introduction
The anticipatory set for this lesson will be a quick warm-up, so that students can have enough time for the simulation. The warm-up will ask students to list as many freedoms as they could that they enjoy here in the United States. The question will be: how do you think these freedoms might change if you were living in a totalitarian state.
Vocabulary
The teacher will have a PowerPoint slide projected on the LCD display defining the following words:propaganda, simulation, swastika, fasces, hammer and hoe, minister of propaganda, secret police, disloyal, disobey, and rigged.
Content Delivery
The content delivery method for this lesson is through a simulation. The simulation is about teaching students how life was for people living under a totalitarian state. Three students are chosen to simulate the roles of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler. Each student “dictator” gets to choose a classmate to play of a secret police officer and a minister of propaganda. They also each get a group of eight followers. During the simulation the “dictators” just sit down, relax, and eat snacks. The secret police officers “kill” people (they shoot them with water guns). The minister of propaganda oversees the people to make sure they are producing positive propaganda about the “dictator.” Finally, the people try to complete the assigned tasks at the best possible liking of the minister of propaganda. The people cannot disobey those in power, and can only produce what is allowed by the state. If necessary the teacher will demonstrate how to write positively about a dictator or how to make creative posters. The students will come into the lesson with the necessary background knowledge, because they have already learned about propaganda in the U.S.S.R. They saw video clips about indoctrinated youth organizations. They have heard propaganda radio. Lastly, they have seen propagandized movies.
Student Engagement
The activity engages students in critical thinking because it gives students the opportunity to think about their lives in comparison to the life of somebody living in a totalitarian state. The lesson also includes questions at the end of the simulation and they coordinate with Bloom’s taxonomy of different thinking levels.
Lesson Closure
The students will answer some questions on a separate sheet of paper at the end of the simulation. The teacher will do a whip around by rolling a die. The desks are numbered, so the students can see if their number was randomly chosen. After rolling the die then whatever number it landed on are the students that have to share their answers. The randomly chosen students have to stand up and verbally share their responses.
Assessments
The teacher will assess students’ prior knowledge by implementing an accountability strategy called numbered heads. After answering the warm-up question, students will briefly talk with their partners about their answers. The teacher will then pick either partner A or partner B to share their partner’s response to the warm-up question.
The teacher will monitor student’s progress throughout the simulation by walking around and seeing if everybody is following the directions. However, this is a student-orientated activity and the teacher will only help or assist when needed.
The students will answer some questions on a separate sheet of paper at the end of the simulation. The teacher will do a whip around by rolling a die. The desks are numbered, so the students can see if their number was randomly chosen. After rolling the die then whatever number it landed on are the students that have to share their answers. The randomly chosen students have to stand up and verbally share their responses.
The teacher will monitor student’s progress throughout the simulation by walking around and seeing if everybody is following the directions. However, this is a student-orientated activity and the teacher will only help or assist when needed.
The students will answer some questions on a separate sheet of paper at the end of the simulation. The teacher will do a whip around by rolling a die. The desks are numbered, so the students can see if their number was randomly chosen. After rolling the die then whatever number it landed on are the students that have to share their answers. The randomly chosen students have to stand up and verbally share their responses.
Accommodations
English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with Special Needs will thrive in this lesson because it is completely hands-on and the only thing they have to write is their answers to the questions at the end of the simulation. All three types of students will also benefit from the various visuals throughout the lesson. For example, they will see that the ministers of propaganda are wearing the dictator’s symbols and be able to identify that they are supposed to be close associates to the dictator. They will also be able to visualize the secret police officer spraying water at people not doing their tasks. They will easily identify them as police for the dictator, especially because they are wearing plastic badges. The students will have the whole lesson scaffolded by their peers, because they have been strategically placed with native English speakers and advanced students in their grouping. The activities will be communicated to these students by watching their other group members do it first. The students will be handed the song lyrics a day before the simulation so they could practice saying any words they have difficulty with. The teacher will also tell the students playing the role of minister of propaganda to give these students longer time to write their newspaper articles before having them “executed” (with water gun) by the secret police. The students will also from numbered heads assessment at the beginning of the lesson because it is a cooperative learning strategy.
Resources
Simulation instructions, plastic police badges, symbol badges, poster board, colored pencils, markers, scissors, hat, box, ninety copies song lyrics, and brown, black and red t-shirts.