Each day this week (Monday, Wednesday and today), I'm reviewing a different Cold War themed historical fiction book, providing a suggested lesson plan and, in a first, a gaming suggestion with each post!
There's so much atmosphere from this time period for authors to capture. Many non-fiction accounts focus on one aspect to the exclusion of all others (the McCarthy hearings, Korean War, the Cuban missile crisis, the Apollo Program, etc.), so readers only get a small slice of the history.
Literature, on the other hand, can help capture the broader feel of the time period and what it was like to live back then.
After years of searching, I finally found these excellent historical fiction books that capture the milieu.
Teaching the Cold War 1: Suggested text: The Enemy: 1954, Detroit, by Sara Holbrook, Red Dot Simulation lesson, Codenames game.
Teaching the Cold War 2: Suggested text: Suspect Red, by L.M. Elliott. Air Raid Simulation and note taking lesson. Covert role play game.
Arizona Social Studies Standards
By the new standards, these Cold War lessons work excellently with the following standards that deal with perspective:
7.SP2.1 Analyze multiple factors that influence the perspectives of people during different historical eras.
7.SP2.2 Explain how and why perspectives of people have changed over time.
7.SP2.3 Analyze how people’s perspectives influenced what information is available in the historical sources they created.
By the old Arizona Social Studies standards, all of the following lessons address 2SS.C8.G8.PO6 and 3SS.C5.G8.PO2.
Arizona English Language Arts Standards
I would recommend pairing these texts with the English Language Arts standards that also touch on point of view, portrayals of historical events in literature, and how authors create suspense (the Cold War literature I'm going to review is great for this standard!).
7.RL.6 -- Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text
7.RL.9 -- Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.
8.RL.6 -- Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.
Spy Runner, by Eugene Yelchin
Jake McCauley's mom works for "Hoover," but Jake thinks it's a blind (as in window blinds) company. Can you guess which Hoover his mom actually works for? His dad was reported MIA, missing in action, when he was little and he hasn't seen him since.
As an adult, you'll spot the obvious plot-twist from the very beginning. I won't spoil it, for those of you who will read this for fun.
Jake's world is turned totally upside down when his mom takes in a Russian boarder, Mr. Shubin. He has to resist blurting out where he thinks his dad is during an introduction by his 7th grade teacher, Mr. Vargas, of his best-friend Duane's dad, Major Armbruster, who works on the local base and is the picture of American patriotism (down to his gleaming, perfect white teeth!).
When word gets out that Mr. Shubin is staying at his house, everyone turns on Jake. He decides to turn spy himself and root out what Mr. Shubin is actually doing. He finds hidden spy cameras in his Dad's old room, and two FBI agents (G-men) start following him in a black car, but each time he learns something new, he gives them the slip.
Then he tails Mr. Shubin to Mr. Armbruster's car, where Mr. Shubin gets photos of some secret airplane plans, and Jake thinks he's caught a spy ... or has he?
There are discussion questions to go along with this book on my favorite pay-for-teaching resources site, Teachers Pay Teachers. It only costs $2.
But just in case that's enough to dissuade you from teaching this excellent book, or you're looking for other Cold War related lessons, here's the last -- and most substantive -- of three Cold War lesson plans I'll offer.
Cold War Lesson Plan: Readers Theater Scenarios
The Anticipatory Set for this lesson, reading and watching Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book, is posted here, Introducing the Cold War Arms Race.
Students begin with a reading / viewing of The Butter Battle Book and then spend the next several days in class working in groups to analyze scenario-specific Cold War photos and readings. They then, in their groups, write short skits, or Readers Theater, and present them to the class.
You will need to prepare six, possibly seven folders (repeat one folder if your class is very large; it won't hurt your students to listen to the information twice!) with the scenarios and photos provided. This lesson was adapted for younger grades from www.CarolinaK12.org lesson plan, The Cold War..
I also highly recommend using Rosalind Flynn's Curriculum Based Readers Theater script templates, from her book, Dramatizing the Content.
The book provides many different templates for writing these scripts that you can photocopy. If this is the first time your students have written Readers Theater, they will appreciate having a starting point for writing the scripts in class. Sometimes, just getting over the empty white page is enough to get them writing! Emphasize the scripts don't have to be long, but they do need to convey the key points of the information in the scenario folders.
After each performance, all students answer a set of three questions to assess for comprehension. You may need to go over each set of questions, at the end of each RT presentation.
Cold War Gaming: Red Scare
Red Scare is a role-playing spy game which requires quite a bit of time. If you use this in your classroom, plan for days when you have longer blocks of time, as in my daughter's high school, where they meet for two hours once a week. It takes 30-45 minutes for players just to read and understand the rules.
You need to know this game can take 2-3 hours to finish, and it really needs to be played on consecutive days. There's nothing worse than an unfinished game!
I could see it as a last week of school activity for older, 8th grade students.
Red Scare is really fun to play in large groups -- up to 10 players is recommended, so three copies would allow 30 students to play, if you're willing to tackle it in a classroom. It has a lot of "props" and opportunities for cheating, which is encouraged. It is the Cold War, after all!
Half the team wears special "decoder" glasses, the other half does not. Players can lie to each other (wow, do they LOVE this!), and in fact, it's part of the strategy (they're spies, right?).
This game is the best for capturing the "Red Scare" feel of the early Cold War era.
Cold War Film: Bridge of Spies
Teachers, bear with me for one last teaching resource / idea on the Cold War.
The movie, Bridge of Spies (2015) starring Tom Hanks, is excellent for really bringing everything in the Cold War unit together. It's great as an end-of-unit showing, or end of the school year showing, and a simple Google search pulled up plenty of free, follow-along-with-the-movie resources and questions like this one (with answer key).
It is rated PG-13, so send home a permission slip first, and be prepared to send students to a colleague's classroom if parents object.
And here is the requisite newspaper article outlining the actual swap that took place, from The Arizona Daily Star.
