Digital Unit Plan Template

Unit Title: Rise of Post-WWI Totalitarianism Name: Daniel Vasquez

Content Area: Social Sciences Grade Level: 10
CA Content Standard(s)/Common Core Standard(s):
10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.
1. Understand the causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution, including Lenin’s use of totalitarian means to seize and maintain
control (e.g., the Gulag).
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.

Big Ideas/Unit Goals:

Big Ideas
1. Totalitarian governments arose after unsettled conditions of the first World War
2. The certain influences and characteristics among these three governments arose as a result of unsettled differences after World War I
and the Russian Revolution.
3. These three types of government share several similarities as well as differences.
4. In which countries do some of these totalitarian characteristics and policies reside?
5. How does our country's form of democracy differ from the policies of the three European nations during post WWI?
6. How did each of the three nations lead themselves to acquiring a totalitarian form of government?

Unit Objectives
-Students will learn about the rise of the three post-WWI totalitarian governments and effectively trace their timeline toward their rise to
power.
-Students will be able to compare and contrast the differences between communism, fascism, and Nazism; as well as make connections
between the three forms of government in terms of their leaders.
-Students will understand formal components of these three types of government and how they still exist in various countries today.
-Students will understand what it is like to live in the conditions of the three societies by analyzing first-hand conditions of what actual
victims experienced in each nation.
-Students will make connections between the totalitarian forms of government during post-WWI to modern countries today.

Unit Summary:
In this unit, we will be analyzing the rise of three totalitarian governments that arose after WWI. We will be identifying common factors
that distinguished the main differences and similarities between the communist government of the Soviet Union, the fascist party of Italy,
and the Nazi party of Germany. Along with the corresponding totalitarian governments, we will also be studying the different leaders
whom assumed the role as head of command of their regions, such as Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, Benito Mussolini of Italy, and
Adolph Hitler of Germany; students will learn about these leaders and trace their rise to power. As we distinguish the differences
between these three types of government along with the motives of their respective leaders, students will also study the era of terror that
all three regimes brought upon their respective countries by analyzing stories of victims whom experienced the terror first-hand. At the
end of the unit, students will not only develop a better understanding of the terror that these three leaders and regimes brought upon
Europe, but will also understand the importance of democracy and identify certain principles in a democratic government which would
not be offered in a totalitarian government.
Assessment Plan:
Entry-Level: Formative: Summative:

Anticipatory Slide Show Activity: In this
activity, the teacher will present a number
of slides to the classroom in which they will
analyze the displayed images. Before the
teacher will begin instruction, the students
will fill out a graphic organizer in google
classroom as an anticipatory activity. For
each slide presented, each student will fill
out the chart next to the corresponding
picture being presented, and briefly describe
what they see and they believe is taking
place. After filling in the portion of the
graphic organizer, the teacher will then
open up the class for discussion as to what
they believe the pictures mean. This activity
will be introduced on the first day of
beginning the new unit.
1. Kahoot Activity: Reviewing the
Governments and Leaders: This will
be the first formative assessment
that will be introduced to the class
following the totalitarian
government lecture. In this activity,
students will log onto kahoot.it and
enter the game pin number, which
will be displayed on the screen, and
which can also be accessed through
this link. This is a fun, competitive,
and educational academic tool in
which students compete in an
interactive atmosphere to answer
questions correctly as they appear on
the screen. It also keeps score for
the top three competitors, which will
1. Group Presentation: Victims in
the Government: In this first
assessment at the end of the unit,
students will be assigned into groups
of five to six, and will be assigned a
victim from one of the three
totalitarian governments. Once they
receive their victim, groups will then
conduct research on that victim and
present their research in a Prezi or
google slide presentation to the
class. In addition to discussing the
events and courses which the
victims went through, each group
must make connections between
their victims’ experiences and the
policies of their countries’ regimes.
 highly motivate students to work
harder.
2. Three-Government Concept
Map: In order to effectively
demonstrate their acquired
knowledge by distinguishing the
differences and similarities between
the communist USSR, fascist Italy,
and Nazi Germany, students will
create a concept map online which
highlights all important and
distinguishing features of all three
governments, which includes
similarities between all three as well.
3. Quizlet: Totalitarian Key Term
Flashcards: In order to develop a
key understanding of special
practices, executive orders, and
initiatives issued by each
government, students will create a
list of flashcards on Quizlet which
students can add to the online class
thread and share their definitions not
only for themselves, but with other
students of their class as well.
4. Timeline: Three Dictators’ Rise to
Power: In order to demonstrate their
knowledge of how each dictator of
the three European regimes rose to
power, students will use the online
source, TimelineJS , to construct
three individual timelines with
important dates, images, and actions
Lastly, students will discuss how
key elements of democracy in the
United States, such as those listed in
the Bill of Rights, are not offered in
the victims’ cases during the time.
See Rubric below
2. Tourist Writing Assignment: In
this final writing assignment and
assessment, students will write a
letter, addressed to a friend, about
their trip to an assigned event in on
of the three European totalitarian
regimes. In this letter, not only will
they discuss how they feel in the
country that they are visiting, but
will also demonstrate their
knowledge of the country’s regime
by properly researching and citing
evidence from the textbook, lectures,
and other online sources which will
support the student’s argument.
 taken by Hitler, Mussolini, and
Stalin in their rise to power.

Lesson 1 (Teacher Lecture)

-Student Learning Acceptable Evidence Lesson Activities:
(Assessments):
Objective: The first lesson involves a lecture with the online tool, Prezi. The lecture contains a
-Students will combination of notes, visuals, and videos. Throughout the lecture, students will take
-Students will be able demonstrate effective notes on their provided guided note sheets, in which they will fill in blanks, make
to compare and contrast retention of the connections between events, make predictions, and analyze large concepts.
the differences between presented material Throughout the lecture, there will be minor pauses where the teacher engages the
communism, fascism, through various students in classroom discussions based off presented visuals, quotations, and other
and Nazism; as well as formative assessments analyses. Students will turn in their guided notes for credit at the end of the unit and
make connections presented earlier in the end of the final assessment.
between the three unit, such as the online
forms of government in Kahoot Activity, where
terms of their leaders. students will answer
multiple choice
-Students will questions and compete
understand formal against each other for a
components of these high score. The results
three types of of each question will
government and how display once everybody
they still exist in submitted their
various countries today. answers, which lets the
teacher know whether a
--Students will make majority of the class
connections between understood the concept
the totalitarian forms of or not.
government during
post-WWI to modern -After learning about
countries today. the three totalitarian
--Students will learn governments in Europe,
about the rise of the students will then be
three post-WWI asked to demonstrate
totalitarian their knowledge of the
governments and subject by creating a
effectively trace their concept map which
timeline toward their accurately and
rise to power. thoroughly describes
the differences and
similarities between the
three governments.

-In an effort to
facilitate term
comprehension and
understand the policies
of each government,
students will make a set
of flashcards on
Quizlet, which will be
posted under the
classroom’s thread.

-Using TimelineJS ,
students will create a
timeline that presents
all three governments,
along with important
dates leading up toward
their leaders’ rise to
power in chronological
order.
Lesson 2 (Webercise/ iPad Lesson)
Student Learning Acceptable Evidence: Lesson Activities:
Objective: In this webercise, students will develop a better understanding of what it would have
Almost everything been like to live through the regimes of the three totalitarian governments by
--Students will derived from this lesson observing experiences of various survivors among the three countries whom
understand what it is will be included in one experienced terror and disaster first-hand. The handout contains three pages which
like to live in the of the final summative are each linked to a story from a survivor from one of the three nations. As the
conditions of the three assessments, the students read each article and story, they will answer several questions pertaining to
societies by analyzing “Victims in the each article for each country.
first-hand conditions of Government”
what actual victims assignment. After
experienced in each being assigned a victim
nation. from one of the three
nations, students will
demonstrate their
knowledge and present
their research about the
assigned person.
Lesson 3 (Graphic Organizer)
Student Learning Acceptable Evidence: Lesson Activities:
Objective:
In one of the final In this activity, students will be learning about different events that took place within
--Students will learn summative the three regimes of each country that promoted the regime and victimized numerous
about the rise of the assessments, students amounts of people in opposition. For this piece of instruction, students will be filling
three post-WWI will demonstrate their out a KWL Graphic Organizer chart—a graphic organizer divided into three columns
totalitarian knowledge of the topic in which students connect prior knowledge to the material which they learn at the
governments and by writing a paper as if end of the lesson or reading. In the first column, students will write about what they
effectively trace their it were a letter to be KNOW about the particular event. In the second column, students will record what
timeline toward their mailed to a friend or they Want to Know about the event. And finally, the third column will contain
rise to power. loved one while on information pertaining to what the students Learned about the event, after
vacation in one of the completing the reading.
-Students will three countries. Not
understand what it is only will students
like to live in the portray how they feel
conditions of the three about being in the
societies by analyzing country witnessing
first-hand conditions of everything, but they
what actual victims will also conduct
experienced in each thorough research on
nation. discrimination,
terrorizing events, and
policies that they
endured in the
government of that
country.
Unit Resources:
Totalitarian Timeline , Dictators Quizlet , Hitler Trivia Quiz , Government Slideshare , Khan Academy: Hitler Uprising ,
Mussolini Trivia Quiz , Mein Kempf Overview , Stalin Video
Stalin Trivia Quiz , Territorial Uprisings

Useful Websites:
Kahoot Activity ,: Quizlet , TimelineJS (used in the 4th formative assessment) , Prezi , Else Rutger’s Story (Used in the webercise) Fascist
Italy (used in the webercise), Young Jewish Boys (used in the webercise)
Kristallnacht (KWL Chart) , Ukraine Famine (KWL Chart) , March on Rome (KWL Chart)