Unit: Fluctuating Relations
Lesson Plan Day 4 - Cuba and the “Thirteen Days”
Class: 90 minutes
Objective #6: Students will identify the causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis and assess the actual threat to
the US posed by the missiles stationed in Cuba.
Objective #7: Students will discuss the effects of the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Missile Crisis on
the Cold War.
Objective #8: Students will interpret and analyze sources from different mediums such as images, video,
and audio.
Historical Inquiry Question: Why was the Cuban Missile Crisis important?
Content & Instructional Strategies:
Processing Activity (15 minutes total)
1. Have students move into their home groups.
2. Ask each home group to select a reporter and a recorder.
3. As a class, students will provide terms for an even-dozens chart, by picking twelve important
people, places, events, or concepts from their lecture notes on Cuba. In their home groups,
students will explain how they relate to one another. Students will use the provided worksheets.
4. Students will also fill out a brief timeline of the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
a. As students work on their charts, I will go around and check for homework completion,
and also give students ‘points’ on their chart worksheets for being on-task and having
good discussions.
Document Analysis/Inquiry Activity
5. Tell students that the other members of the group will be document experts – if we have a
question about something we will direct it to our experts.
6. Show video and ask students to think about how this video relates our inquiry question. What
reasons does this video present for why the Cuban Missile Crisis was important?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50RNAbmy3M (5 minutes)
7. Direct students to their document packets. There is space to jot down individual ideas, and the
group recorder will write the group’s ideas and answers to the inquiry question for each document
on their worksheet. Remind students that sourcing is extremely important.
8. Students will read and annotate each document individually while annotating, highlighting, and
taking notes. Once the students finish each document, they will discuss it with their groups and
recorders will write down the reasons why the Cuban Missile Crisis was important that they
found in the documents. (20 minutes)
9. Reporters will present the findings of their group, explaining why the Cuban Missile Crisis was
important using the documents. Students must refer to the documents. If other students agree that
the documents support that argument, then the recorder may post that reason on the digital map
shown on the projector. (20 minutes)
Wrap-Up Activity
10. Students will write an individual exit ticket explaining whether they believe that the Cuban
Missile Crisis was a real threat to the United States and why it was important. Students will also
write a haiku on the subject of the Cuban Missile Crisis; they may work with a partner if they
choose. Some of the haikus will be read next class. (15 minutes)
Instructions for Next Class (5 minutes)
11. Inform students that they will be working on a group project that focuses on their assigned
nation’s perspective during the Cold War. For homework they will each look over their lecture
notes and documents to plan the information that they want to include in their project. They are
also encouraged to perform outside research. They will only have next class to work on the
project, so they must come prepared.
12. Assign groups by having students count off numbers #1-5. Assign each group a nation. #1 Soviet
Union, #2 United States, #3 Cuba, #4 Vietnam, #5 Czechoslovakia
13. Remind students to also look over their lecture notes in preparation for their lecture notes quiz on
Monday.
Spontaneous Addition to Lesson Plan due to Extended SOL Testing
Project Planning (20 minutes)
1. Students will meet in their groups and discuss the project, assigning group roles and beginning to
research.
Silent Skits on the Cuban Missile Crisis (40 minutes)
1. Students will develop a plan for a skit, which will illustrate key points of the Cuban Missile
Crisis. These skits will be silent apart from the narration by one group member. Students must
determine which events they will portray, how they will act them out and narrate them, what
props they will use, etc.
2. Students will perform skits.
3. Students will be evaluated by their peers based on creativity and information (20 point scale, 10
points for each category).
Formative Assessment: checking homework, assessing student participation, and collecting the exit ticket.
Documents:
1. Video clip of “Kennedy’s Address to the Nation”
2. Letter from Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy
3. Letter from President Kennedy to Chairman Khrushchev
4. Russian Ambassador Cable to Soviet Foreign Ministry
5. “Looking Back on the Cuban Missile Crisis, 50 Years Later”
Materials:
1. Copies of documents packets
2. Worksheets
3. Computer & promethean board
1. Youtube video
2. Mindmup web
3. Sample haikus
4. Sample Multimedia project