Michigan Department of Education
Technology-Enhanced Lesson Plan 2007
Lesson Title: Postwar United States, The Cold War (1945-1989)
Created by: Roark Pargeon
Lesson Abstract: After World War II, the Soviet Union drew an "iron curtain" between
Eastern Europe and the rest of Europe. An intense war of words, rivalry, and confrontation
soon developed between the West and the Soviet Union.
Subject Area: 20th Century American (U.S.) History
Grade Level: 9/10
Unit Title: “Hot Spots” of the Cold War (Era 8.1)
Michigan Educational Technology Standards Connection:
Basic Operations and Concepts
6. understand that access to online learning increases educational and workplace opportunities
7. be provided with the opportunity to learn in a virtual environment as a strategy to build 21st century
skills
12. demonstrate how to import/export text, graphics, or audio files
13. proofread and edit a document using an application’s spelling and grammar checking functions
Social, Ethical, and Human Issues
8. adhere to fair use and copyright guidelines
9. create appropriate citations for resources when presenting research findings
10. adhere to the district acceptable use policy as well as state and federal laws
Technology Productivity Tools
3. have access to and utilize assistive technology tools
4. apply advanced software features such as an application’s built-in thesaurus, templates, and styles to
improve the appearance of word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
5. identify technology tools (e.g. authoring tools or other hardware and software resources) that could
be used to create a group project
Technology Communications Tools
4. collaborate in content-related projects that integrate a variety of media (e.g., print, audio, video,
graphic, simulations, and models) with presentation, word processing, publishing, database, graphics
design, or spreadsheet applications
Technology Research Tools
1.
2.
5.
compare, evaluate, and select appropriate internet search engines to locate information
formulate and use evaluation criteria (authority, accuracy, relevancy, timeliness for information
located on the internet to present research findings
evaluate resources for stereotyping, prejudice, and misrepresentation
Technology Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Tools
1. use a variety of technology resources (e.g., educational software, simulations, models) for problem
solving and independent learning
Michigan High School Content Expectations Connection:
8.1
Cold War and the United States
8.1.1
Origins and Beginnings of Cold War – Analyze the factors that contributed to the Cold War
including different points of view that the USA and USSR held about freedom and equality, and actions by
both countries in the last years of and years following WWII (e.g., the use of the Atomic bomb, the
Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, the Berlin Airlift, the formation of and countries included in the North
Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO), and the formation of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)).
* MDE Draft 5/07 v. 7
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Estimated time required to complete lesson or unit: This lesson plan can
cover up to two weeks. The resources are meant to meet the needs of the
instructor and allow for differentiated instruction. Pick and choose the instructional
resources according to your needs and the technology available to students.
Instructional resources:
United Streaming: http://www.unitedstreaming.com/index.cfm
Discovery Education United Streaming is a digital video-on-demand and online teaching service to help improve
students' retention and test scores; it is aligned to U.S. state and provincial standards.
Web Quest: http://jcs.k12.oh.us/teachers/jhaines/fire/#Introduction
A Web Quest for 9th or 10th grade American History designed by Julie Haines.
Primary Sources Reading Activity: Digital History: Soviet-American Confrontations
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us37.cfm
Interpreting primary sources from quotes by cold war warriors like Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and
Harry S. Truman, plus documents and Congressional acts.
Special Need Student Activity (Crossword Puzzle)
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/tutor/ushistory/ahme2001/puzzles/ahme2001_20.html
Students can look up answers from a chapter of the textbook (Glencoe) or request help from the
interactive tutorial. *Need Adobe Shockwave.
Kids Quiz about the White House (Multiple Choice)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/what_name/quiz/
What’s in the Name of the White House? Plus other quizzes associated with the executive branch.
Audio/Video of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire using Teacher Tube:
http://www.teacheroz.com/fire.htm
Originally released on the STORM FRONT album, "We Didn't Start the Fire" is an excellent education tool
for teachers and students!
Click on the links within the lyrics for info on the major events of the 20th century!
“The Beginning of the Cold War” by Mr. Yelland from School History in the United
Kingdom is a Powerpoint with great graphics! PPT
Cold War Presidents Timeline: Students create a Powerpoint slide for each Cold
President, from Harry S. Truman through George H.W. Bush. Rubric
Prior required technology skills: Powerpoint, WebQuests, e-mail, download
audio/video
Sequence of Activities: Pretest from United Streaming. Keyword vocabulary over
the Cold War. The Beginning of the Cold War Powerpoint. Various activities. Web
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Quest (lesson plan included in the link). Teacher Oz video with Billy Joel lyrics “We
Didn’t Start the Fire.” Cold War Presidents Timeline (PPT). Post-assessment.
Assessments:
 Pre-Assessment: Cold War Pretest using United Streaming Quiz Builder.
Five acronyms of Cold War terms are given. Each acronym has a hint
attached to it for help. Students are asked to choose from four possible
answers. Teachers can access the quiz without being a member of United
Streaming at the following URL:
http://www.unitedstreaming.com/studentCenter/index.cfm?cdCode=4657-19B5
* MS Word Pretest Copy
* A 24-minute video is attached for student viewing from United Streaming:
National Politics – The Cold War

Scoring Criteria: *If a member of United Streaming, you can access the
quiz and assign it under your name to receive student results via an e-mail
account.
* MS Word Pretest Answers

Post-Assessment: Regents of New York State has a 36 question (multiple
choice) test online that can guide you with post-assessment material.
http://regentsprep.org/Regents/core/questions/question.cfm?Course=GLOB&
TopicCode=8a&QNum=1&Wrong=0
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Scoring Criteria:
Technology (hardware/software): Microsoft Powerpoint and Word
Key Vocabulary: foreign policy, containment, détente, sputnik, U-2 Incident,
Cuban Missile Crisis, Korean War, iron curtain, cold war,
Application Beyond School: The WebQuest by Julie Haines allows the student to
become an investigating reporter.
Teacher Reflection and Notes: The Cold War is better learned from the context
of the U.S. foreign policy of containment. Stopping the spread of communism
across the globe and supporting democratic nations defined America’s role in the
mid to late 20th century. Détente held the promise of mutual agreements between
the superpowers not to expand their nuclear arsenals. It wasn’t until President
Reagan to the nation learn (“trust, but verify”) that the Soviet system could not be
trusted. It would take a military build-up by the United States to break the back of
the Soviet economy and bring sweeping changes (glasnost & perestroika) in the
1980s that brought the end of the Cold War, symbolized by the Berlin Wall coming
down.
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