Contemporary+Issues(Feb)

1. Research a current events articles and fill out the answers to the following information based on your Current Events Article. Send the answers to these questions and send the article to my e-mail: gleasonr@dcpsmd.org
 * Thursday, November 7, 2014 Assignments:**
 * - Who are the main characters in this article?**
 * - What is happening in this article?**
 * - When did the events in this article occur?**
 * - Where did the events in this article occur?**
 * - Why was this article written?**

= **Wednesday, February 12-14, 2014 Assignments:** = //**Summary:** Students will visit the following websites in order to complete the lesson plan as it relates to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Be sure to follow each step in order. Read the directions completely before you access any websites, links, or videos.//

Twenty-five years ago this week, East Germans celebrated from the destruction of a wall that separated their communist-ruled world from the West. This activity will compare that moment in 1989 — the first night of freedom in Berlin, followed by the end of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe — with today’s Berlin, a transformed city in which many do not remember the oppressive divisions of the past. In follow-up activities, students can evaluate the choices made since 1989 and decide if the Cold War is really over. media type="custom" key="26863876" align="center"
 * 1. Watch the video below to gain a better understanding of the background of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. **

"From 1961 to 1989, the Berlin Wall divided the historic capital of Germany into two separate worlds: the communist-controlled East Berlin, and the enclave of a democratic West Berlin surrounded on all sides by East Germany. What was it like to live behind the Berlin Wall? Reviewing this [|brief history of the city] following World War II, including its division by the Allies and the dramatic events surrounding the [|Berlin Airlift] of 1948, when its food supplies were cut off by the Soviet Union in the early years of the Cold War. Then read this [|overview] and watch this [|video] from German broadcaster Deutsche Welle showing where the wall was located, when it was built and how it was defended. More than 600 people were killed trying to escape East Germany between 1961 and 1988. Such pressures came boiling to the surface on the night of Nov. 9, 1989. Ferdinand Protzman, a New York Times reporter, was attending what seemed to be a run-of-the-mill news conference when a border guard’s warnings were ignored. Within hours, thousands of people were streaming across the border in a tide that the guards were [|unwilling to block]. Below is a picture of people dismantling the Berlin Wall on November 16, 1989. A week earlier, officials announced that East Germans would be allowed to cross the barrier. A New York Times reporter wrote; "//there was nothing through most of that gray, chilly Thursday to suggest that it would come to symbolize one of the great transitions of the 20th century, the triumphant end of a failed system."// Twenty-five years later, Berlin is no longer divided. The city is not the capital of a unified Germany.
 * 2. Read the background information below about the Berlin Wall. After you have read the background information and explored the embedded links complete the [|note-taking outline]being sure to identify the world wide significance of this event. Save and email the completed sheet to Mr.Gleason @ gleasonr@dcpsmd.org. **


 * 3.Test your knowledge of the Berlin Wall after you have read the information below by taking the quiz titled [|Berlin Wall History Quiz]. ** Copy your quiz score and send the score in an email to Mr. Gleason @ gleasonr@dcpsmd.org. Be sure to put your name in the subject of the email to receive points.


 * 4. Read both of the primary text documents below. ** After your examination of both of these documents **, complete the graphic organizer titled "Comparing Two or More Texts". ** Save the graphic organizer and email it to Mr. Gleason @ gleasonr@dcpsmd.org. Be sure to include specific details from each of the text sources in order to receive full credit.

**by Ferdinand Protzman, The New York Times, Nov. 10, 1989**
East German citizens scrambled over the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate hours after a top official announced at a televised press conference on Nov. 9 that the wall was open, effective immediately. [|Related Slide Show]

**by Melissa Eddy, The New York Times, Nov. 8, 2014**
Balloons from the installation being released into the sky in Berlin. Credit Lukas Schulze/European.

**5. Answer the discussion questions below**. Be sure to type your answers in complete sentences and send them in an email to Mr. Gleason @ gleasonr@dcpsmd.org.
 * __Discussion Questions__:**
 * 1) In the first article, what was the range of responses to the opening of the border dividing Berlin?
 * 2) Why do you think Berliners showed so little fear of the border guards after years of harsh treatment? And why did the guards appear to show little fear of the enormous crowds?
 * 3) Do the politicians or officials quoted in 1989 seem to have any better idea than normal citizens of what’s going on or what will come next? Do they show any wisdom or leadership in the heat of the moment?
 * 4) How had Berlin changed in the 25 years since the wall came down, according to the second article?
 * 5) After reading the articles, watch the video above. Do you think Berlin’s “Wall of Light” installation is an effective way to commemorate the Berlin Wall and its fall? Why?
 * 6) Why is it important for Berliners — even those who are new to the city — to remember how their city was once divided by a heavily militarized border?
 * 7) What historical events during your lifetime should be remembered and commemorated so that they are never forgotten? How should they be memorialized?

= **Monday, November 17, 2014 Assignments:** = media type="youtube" key="GPe8xvcZd80" width="560" height="315" align="center"

__Editing Churchill:__
//**Summary:**// In 1946, the former Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill, gave a [|landmark speech] at a college in Fulton, Mo., in which he [|warned] of an “//Iron Curtain//” of Soviet domination that had descended across Europe, and urged the United States to respond. Was his warning effective, or should he have made different points in order to minimize the potential for conflict and perhaps avoid the Cold War?

**1. Read and score Churchill’s 1946 speech**, giving him a point for each useful recommendation or prediction, and deducting a point for each inaccuracy or missed opportunity. **Write a well organized and thought provoking paragraph** to explain the process you used to score the speech. Be sure to explain which ideas you felt deserved points and which ideas did not. Be sure your paragraph is complete and email the final product to Mr. Gleason @ gleasonr@dcpsmd.org.

**2. Read this analysis of the Cold War by Sam Tanenhaus**, a Times reporter, [|“A History Lesson that Needs Relearning].” Use his story as a blueprint for writing a revision of Churchill’s speech, incorporating the real-life lessons of the Cold War. **Be sure to type up this revision and email to completed version to Mr. Gleason @ gleasonr@dcpsmd.org.**

3. As a culminating activity, **students will hold a public speaking contest, delivering their “Churchill 2014” speeches before a live audience**.

= **Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Assignments:** =



__**Who Won the Cold War?**__
//**Summary:**// In the years after the Berlin Wall fell, some gave [|strong credit] to [|President Ronald Reagan] or his predecessor, George H.W. Bush, for [|winning the Cold War]. But George F. Kennan, a historian and diplomat who helped craft America’s strategy for containing the spread of communism following World War II, called those claims [|“silly.”]


 * 1. Read the different versions, and do [|further research] on the question. **


 * 2. Click on the link and answer each of the questions: [|Cold War Web Quest] **


 * 3. Design a poster explaining how the Cold War turned out and who was responsible. **

= **Wednesday, November 19, 2014 Assignments:** =

__**Struggles and Successes in Eastern Europe**__
//**Summary:**// The years after communism were marked by optimism but also harsh economic struggle across Eastern Europe. Some countries, like [|Poland], have prospered. But others like [|Bulgaria] and [|Hungary] have faced challenges adopting flourishing, democratic systems, with some aged or rural citizens saying they [|had it better under communism].


 * 1. Pick a country that abandoned communism in the late 1980s or early ‘90s, and research what’s happened there since that time, including with its [|economic situation]. **


 * 2. Make a PowerPoint presentation with a total of 5 slides plus a cover slide, on the ways in which life has or hasn’t improved in that country since 1989. **

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