U.S. Foreign Policy post-WWII Cold War Simulation Exercise‖

Goals & Objectives:

Goal - Students will understand the significance of negotiations during the Yalta Conference in shaping the Cold War.

Objective: Students reading independently will analyze and connect the historical context of the relationships and previous disagreements among the three nations represented at Yalta.

Students working in small groups will assess the success of Great Britain, the U.S., and the Soviet Union in achieving both short and long-term national goals during the negotiations at Yalta.

Students will experience and understand the challenges and skills required of international diplomacy and will be able to write a letter to another world leader explaining their difficulties in negotiating at Yalta.

California State Content Standards - 11.9.3 - Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy.

Common Core Literacy Standards - CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.3Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Driving Historical Question – What input comes from smaller nations not represented at Yalta regarding the impact of decisions made by the main 3 Allied powers?

What were the goals that each nation successfully achieved and which goals were not achieved by each of the 3 main Allied powers?

To what extent did each nation have a hidden agenda?

How does personality type affect diplomacy during negotiations?

Lesson Introduction (Anticipatory Set/Hook/Accessing Prior Knowledge) ‖ Time: 10 min

Prior to class students will have received handout number one, see attached, which contains brief historical background information regarding each of the three Allied powers; Great Britain, Soviet Union, and United States. Students will also view photographs, see attached, from Yalta depicting the actual negotiations between Allied leaders. The background information covers briefly the build up to that individual nation becoming involved in WWII and what was occurring while the Yalta conference was taking place. Students are responsible for reading handout one prior to class. Prior to the simulation lesson, students will have already gone through the WWII unit and will have briefly covered Yalta before engaging each other in negotiations. The teacher will explain to students that they are going to be diplomats at Yalta and it is their responsibility to negotiate terms that are beneficial to their particular nation, at the expense of other nations. Students will understand their main goal is to negotiate, for their nation, as many of the listed goals that each nation arrived at Yalta desiring. Students will assume the identities of FDR, Winston Churchill, and Stalin or their accompanying diplomats as they negotiate their terms. The teacher will explain that all three nations are apprehensively approaching this conference due to prolonged distrust between Great Britain, United States and the Soviet Union. Students will understand that if they are to be successful at negotiating, they must engage meaningfully with their nation’s goals and strive to diplomatically resolve conflicts between Allied powers. Students will also understand that many future Cold War disputes arise out of agreements and disagreements at Yalta. Before dividing into small groups students will independently write a quick journal entry before engaging in negotiations. The journal question posed will be, “Is it better to approach negotiations desiring what is best for your own nation, or what is better for the whole world?” Students will spend a few minutes responding to the prompt before splitting into groups to begin negotiating.

Students will view on the board the definitions of each of the vocabulary terms listed below, and they will remain visible until the lesson is completed. It is not necessary for students to spend time researching definitions as time spent negotiating is more valuable. Unfamiliar terms are found in the accompanying background information handout. The terms and definitions will be readily available before negotiations begin for any student who needs additional clarification.

Vocabulary (Content Language Development) ‖ Time: 5 minutes

Students will view a list of terms necessary for engaging with the simulation exercise. The following list of words were deemed questionable for some students to comprehend and will be detailed prior to beginning the negotiations.

Coalition Animosity Antagonism Subsumed Monarchist Guerilla

Content Delivery (Method of Instruction) ‖ Time: 30 minutes (Same as Student Engagement)

This simulation aims to show students how diplomats at Yalta were each responsible for negotiating advantageous terms at the expenses of the other two nations. Students will further understand the complexity of the negotiation process and view how each nation approached Yalta with a particular agenda. Student diplomats are required to “act, talk, and walk like world political leaders, all the while paying careful consideration to an event that shaped the direction of world history (Cold War) for the next 45 years.”

Student Engagement (Critical Thinking & Student Activities) ‖ Time: 30 minutes

Students will be divided into small groups of 6 based on personality type as this simulation works best when each group has varied personalities. Each group will have a mix of stronger speakers, less strong speakers, and ELL and students with special needs.

Students in their groups will be divided further so that a pair of students represents each of the 3 Allied powers. Students will then receive handout two which states their particular nation’s goals they hope to negotiate at Yalta. Each pair of students will not reveal their nation’s goals to other students. Students will then meet privately with their partner for 5 minutes and rank the importance of each goal to be negotiated before engaging other diplomats. After ranking their goals, students will reconvene as a group of 6 and negotiate for 25 minutes the various issues each nation brings to Yalta. Each nation’s goals are listed on handout two, and students/diplomats are responsible for stating specific reasoning for advancing their nations’ priorities. Diplomats from all three nations must reach a consensus agreement on each raised issue, as diplomacy is not decided by majority rule. Goals listed for each nation are scored on handout two, and for each goal that is achieved, students will receive the stated amount of points. For each goal that is not achieved students will lose the corresponding point amount. At the end of the negotiations students will calculate their point total and share with the other diplomats in their group. As each group of students will be discussing independently of other groups there will be variances between the successfulness of and methods for approaching each goal. Variation between successfulness is encouraged as it means each group approached their negotiations in a unique way they saw fit to accomplish their agenda. During the negotiation process, the teacher will be walking around the room providing clarification and listening to the debates between groups. While walking around the class the teacher will be providing direct instruction to students who need additional help with verbalizing their negotiations.

Lesson Closure ‖ Time: 10 minutes

After each group of six has completed negotiations, the whole class will reconvene and engage in a discussion that shares how successful they were at diplomatically negotiating and their corresponding point total. During this time the class will examine some of the issues raised at Yalta and discuss the difficulties associated with negotiating with other diplomats. Students will end class by writing a letter to a fictitious diplomat from nations not represented at Yalta, France, China, Albania, Greece, Hungary, or Poland detailing challenges they faced during negotiations at Yalta, as well as specific goals they achieved and failed to achieve during negotiations. They will also include an assumption of how things could have ended differently if the nation’s diplomat they are writing to was able to be present at Yalta.

Assessments (Formative & Summative)

Formative – Prior to beginning any negotiations students will respond to a journal question asking, “Is it better to approach negotiations desiring what is best for your own nation, or what is better for the whole world?” Students will hypothesize, before negotiating, why nations should or should not approach Yalta with a specific agenda. This journal will be collected a reviewed while students are engaging in negotiations.

Summative – After negotiations and the following class discussion students will write a short letter to a world leader not present at Yalta and detail challenges they faced during negotiations at Yalta, as well as specific goals they achieved and failed to achieve during negotiations. They will also imagine and write how things could have ended differently if the leader they are writing to was present during the negotiations at Yalta.

Accommodations for English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with Special Needs

All ELL, striving readers, and students with special needs will have vocabulary terms and handout one frontloaded at least two days prior to the lesson because it will give them more time to understand potentially difficult terms and help build more context.

All ELL, striving readers, and students with special needs will receive direct instruction, when necessary, during the activity on the processes of negotiation and how students should verbalize their assertions.

Student groups will be pre-determined to bring balance to the group dynamic and pair ELL, striving readers, and students with special needs with average and gifted students.

Resources (Books, Websites, Handouts, Materials)

http://archive.oah.org/magazine-of-history/issues/244/Ghere_OAHMagazine_Oct2010.pdf

http://archive.oah.org/magazine-of-history/issues/244/Ghere_Supplement.pdf