Cross-Curricular Lesson Plan:

Teaching Allegory
Essential Understanding(s)/Guided Question(s):
What defines a story as an allegory?
In what ways is The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss an allegory for the Cold War?

Daily Learning Objective: (What will students know/understand AND be

able to DO to show their understanding) TEK 7 Students will connect a literary
text to a historical event by analyzing the allegorical connections between the two
pieces of text, using textual evidence to support their analysis.
USG 12: Students will analyze similarities and differences between the democratic
republic U.S. system of government and that of historical communism in the Soviet
Union.

Daily Language Objective: (from ELPS and based on student TELPAS data)
4J: Students will show comprehension of literary text and graphic sources by making
inferences and using textual evidence to support their inferences.

Suggested Academic Vocabulary: (Vocabulary is best learned in context

rather than in isolation) Allegory, fable, parable, symbolic meaning, nuclear
bomb, capitalism, communism, Cold War.

Possible Student Misconceptions: Students may not understand or know much

about the Cold War so the teacher will need to guide understanding. The warm up
activity will help students gain a basic understanding of the war itself, who was
involved, and what the conflicts were. The teacher should carefully guide students
throughout the Dr. Seuss story. The focus should not be on the literal meaning of the
story but should more so be on the symbolic meaning. The focus of the lesson is
allegory and the Dr. Seuss story should simply be a way to explore the concept of
allegory in reference to a more complex topic, which is the Cold War.
Materials: Cold War Summary - Warm up, The Cold War Timeline, Allegory Foldable

Instructional Resources: Instructional PowerPoint, a copy of The Butter Battle

Book by Dr. Seuss (PDF can be found here)

Do now (Warm-up): Students will read the excerpt Summary: The Cold War and
answer the following questions:
How was Germany and Berlin divided between the two countries?
1. Who were the two main countries involved in the Cold War?
2. How was Germany and Berlin divided between the two countries?
3. What type of government was the United States trying to prevent?
4. What type of war nearly broke out during the Cold War?

Explicit Instruction (I Do) Engage/Connect: Review the warm-up with students

and make sure students understand the main aspects of the war. Facilitate mini-
lesson over Allegory. Before reading the Dr. Seuss story, the teacher should state
that the story is an allegory for the Cold War so that students can prepare
themselves to look for the connected symbolism and representations throughout.
Choral-teacher reading of The Butter Battle Book. Facilitate whole-class discussion
by asking questions such as:

Do the Yooks and the Zooks ever fire any weapons at each other?
 Cross-Curricular Lesson Plan:
Teaching Allegory
Who does Captain Yookitanian remind you of?
Who does the Boys in the Back Room remind you of?
The boys grandfather gradually ages in the story. What is Dr. Seuss trying to say
about the Cold War by adding in this little-big detail?

Facilitate small group or partner portion of the foldable.

Guided Practice (We Do): We will read and discuss The Butter Battle Book,
making connections within the text. The teacher may choose to engage students in
strategies such as think-pair-share, or Rally Robin to discuss the text. Students may
engage in Rally Coach for the first portion of the foldable activity (up to the
teachers discretion).

Independent Practice (You Do) Explore: Complete the foldable with original
explanations and textual evidence to support inferences. For students who finish
early, they can work on the enrichment activity on the last PowerPoint slide. This
enrichment activity is designed to further engage students in thinking about and
explaining the usage of allegory within a literary text.

Debrief (We Share) Explain/Elaborate: If time permits, we will share out our
information from the foldable.

Check for Understanding Evaluate/Assess Mastery: (This is a recursive

process utilized to evaluate understanding of concepts throughout the
lesson)
Discussion of warm up: Check to see if students understood the informational article
they read during the warm up portion of the lesson.
Class discussion of the text: Check to see if students are making allegorical/
symbolic connections within the text.
Foldable: Check to see if students were able to connect the fictional characters and
objects within the literary text to historical events and support their
connections/inferences with textual evidence.

Literacy Connections: (Reading, Writing, Listening, and/or Speaking)

Reading: Informational article, literary text, timeline
Writing: Warm up and foldable
Listening: Choral reading
Speaking: Interacting in whole group and small group settings.

Differentiation for GT/Advanced Placement: GT students will be provided with

an enrichment activity that will further challenge them to think more deeply about
the allegory presented within the text.

Differentiation for ELLS: Using the Dr. Seuss book will give students a visual to
look at while they read. The visuals will help them grasp the concepts being
presented.

Differentiation for SPED: Students who receive hard copy notes/ directions
should be given a hard copy of the PowerPoint slides. The lesson present a wide
range of texts on different reading levels, which differentiates for students who may
 Cross-Curricular Lesson Plan:
Teaching Allegory
be reading at or below grade level. If accommodations so require, the teacher may
also offer a pre-highlighted copy of Cold War timeline with keywords highlighted
such as Kennedy, Berlin Wall, Nuclear bombs/ missiles. The teacher may also
provide a pre-highlighted copy of the Cold War Summary sheet in the warm up
highlighting key points that will aide students in answering the comprehension
questions as well as the vocabulary words in the right hand column to aide in
understanding of the Cold War references in the literary text.