Digital Unit Plan Template

Unit Title: McCarthyism During the Cold War Name: Luis A. Diaz
Content Area: History-Social Science Grade Level: 11th Grade
CA Content Standard(s)/Common Core Standard(s):
11.9 Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
3. Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the
following:
 The era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and blacklisting
 The Truman Doctrine
 The Berlin Blockade
 The Korean War
 The Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis
 Atomic testing in the American West, the “mutual assured destruction” doctrine,
 and disarmament policies
 The Vietnam War
 Latin American policy

** Main Focus of this unit will be the first bullet point, “The era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and
blacklisting” **

Big Ideas/Unit Goals:

 How did Joseph McCarthy play a major role during the Cold War at home?
 On what standards were people being labeled as Communist? How did they get put on a blacklist?
 Why did people listen to McCarthy? Where did the government draw a line?
 Who were the Hollywood Ten? Why were they targeted?
Unit Summary:

The purpose of this unit is for students to understand that the conflicts caused by the Cold War are presenting themselves in the United
States. There are several people at the time that are conflicted and in their search for answers, attach themselves onto ideas that make no
sense whatsoever. Joseph McCarthy was an individual that was able to take control of the situation and imposed obscene ideas that people
accepted without any facts. McCarthyism is affected several people and even after they were proven innocent they were never able to
recover their reputation.

Assessment Plan:
Entry-Level: Formative:
K-W-L Chart: What were the effects of the Timeline: Outlines major events covered in the
Cold War on the home front? unit. Students get to choose which events stood
out as most important to them.
Daily Quickwrite: 5-minute quickwrite at the
end of each class to allow students to voice any
concerns or outstanding questions.
Summative:
3-4 Page Essay: Select two significant events of
the McCarthyism era and explain their
importance. Make a connection to events
occurring today.
Group Presentation: Analyze one of the
members of the Hollywood Ten.

Quizlet Flashcards: Create digital flashcards of

important terms/people of the Cold
War/McCarthyism.

Quiz: Short quiz to review the terms/people

they covered in their Quizlet flashcards.

Lesson 1 (Teacher Lecture)

Student Learning Objective:
Students will broaden their
understanding of several key
events during the Cold War.
Acceptable Evidence (Assessments):
Prior to conducting the lecture, students
will begin by filling out a K-W-L Chart
and asked what they know about a few
key terms and what they would want to
gain from the lecture. The Telegram to
Lesson Activities:
Begin the class by passing out the K-W-L Chart and having
students proceed to filling out the K (Know) and W (Want)
sections. They do not need to fill out all the terms since most
will be new to them. If they do not know what the term is or the
person it pertains to, then they will fill out the W section and
write down any questions they may have.
Students will be able to
evaluate documents and locate
the several inconsistencies that
McCarthy stated after reading
his Speech and Telegram.
Lesson 2 (Webercise/ iPad Lesson)
Student Learning Objective:
After conducting their own
research, students will be able
to report on at least one victim
that was affected by the
Hollywood Blacklist.
President Truman from McCarthy will
help them understand the concern against
Communism that was felt at the time.
They will be given some time to discuss
with a classmate and later bring their
responses into a group discussion. Once
the lecture is completed, the students will
have enough knowledge of the key terms
to fill out the final section. To conclude
the class, I will have students do a final
quick write in which they state any
questions they still have or if they did not
understand a key term.
Acceptable Evidence:
Students will navigate through a few
websites to answer the questions on their
Webercise. The sites will be provided to
the students and the questions are meant
to scaffold them to find important
information that will help them
understand key terms in the unit.
At the end, students will formulate a
group presentation based on the person
they researched. In the presentation they
must have who the person was, when and
why they were accused, and what
happened to them after the blacklisting.
Proceed to a PowerPoint that explains what was occurring at the
time, Cold War, and why the threat of Communism seemed as a
high priority at the time.
List key terms: Cold War, Truman Doctrine, Korean War,
Cuban Missile Crisis, The Red Scare (2), Joseph McCarthy,
Blacklisting, HUAC, The Hollywood Ten
Distribute the Telegram to President Truman and have students
pair up with a classmate. They will answer the set of questions
at the end of the reading. At the end there will be a group
discussion in which they can share their findings with their
classmates.
Lesson Activities:
Using the class computers, their cellular device, or any other
form of technology available to the class students will conduct
some research on the Hollywood Ten, a group of Hollywood
entertainers/producers that were blacklisted during the
McCarthy Era. The point of the group activity is to have
students research an individual and be able to acquire as much
knowledge as possible to relay to their classmates. Through their
research they will uncover that the reason behind these actors
being blacklisted was because they did not agree to accuse any
potential Communists. Something interesting a few students will
uncover is that a few of the Hollywood Ten were actually
Communists and came out after they were accused.
Lesson 3 (Timeline)
Student Learning Objective:
Students will be able to recall
the significance of important
events and list them in proper
order.
Unit Resources:
Readings:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456: Telegram from McCarthy to President Truman
Acceptable Evidence:
Using prior knowledge and class notes,
students will use the events that they have
learned in the unit so far to create a
timeline. They must incorporate a
minimum of 8 events in chronological
order. This assignment is not limited to
specific dates. Each event must be
accompanied by an explanation of why
you they think it is significant to the Cold
War. I will provide you with a plethora of
sources that you are more than welcomed
to use, but not limited to. If you use
outside sources, you must also turn in a
work cited.
Lesson Activities:
In this activity, students will have the opportunity to work alone
or with ONE other person. Throughout the unit you have learned
valuable information regarding the events that occurred during
the Cold War. This section has specifically focused on
McCarthyism and the effects on the United States brought
forward by Joseph McCarthy. For this assignment you will
access prior knowledge to complete a timeline. Your goal is to
create a timeline that encompasses important events from both
the Cold War and the period in U.S. History known as
McCarthyism.
To begin, have the students go onto timetoast.com and create a
FREE account. They will need to input your First and Last
Name, along with their email to create an account. Watch the
short clip on the home page to learn how to create your own
timeline. The timeline must be a minimum of 8 events in
chronological order (12 if working with a partner). Each event
must include: Dates of events, summary, minimum of 30 words
(50 if working with a partner), an image that relates to the text.
Students must publish their timeline and attach the URL to a
Word Document. In this document they will give a brief
explanation of why they chose your start date and end date. If
they used outside sources, not the ones I posted, a Work Cited
page must be attached as well. They need to check spelling and
grammar.
*Will use both of these readings to analyze how McCarthy views Communism as a threat to the United States. His paranoia brought the
demise of several political heads and the speech gives the reader and understanding of how he viewed the threat. The telegram he
addressed to President Truman creates a sense of insecurity within his cabinet and the government. Interesting things to note is that his
“statistics” do not match up.

Images: Image 1: The use of propaganda to scare Americans into thinking that Communism was a major thread. Image 2: The riots
evoked because of the Hollywood 10 dilemma.

Useful Websites:
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/joseph-mccarthy:
History Channel summary of Joseph McCarthy’s involvement in foreign policy during the Cold War.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~lillsie/McCarthyism/Victims.html:
Summary of who was victimized in McCarthy’s blacklist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N35IugBYH04:
A TED-Ed video of what McCarthyism is and how it occurred.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hollywood-Ten:
The Hollywood Ten, a summary of who was targeted and what happened to their reputation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1cF1x6V16k
A History Channel video that sums up who were the Hollywood Ten and how they were targeted.

USEFUL LINKS FOR THE STUDENTS’ TIMELINES

https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
https://www.britannica.com/event/Cold-War
http://www.coldwar.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/
https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Cold-War.aspx
http://www.ushistory.org/us/52a.asp
https://www.britannica.com/topic/McCarthyism
http://www.ushistory.org/us/53a.asp
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/senatorjosephmccarthy.asp
https://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/1946-1960/4-cwhomefront/1-mccarthyism/