Idaho Social Studies 9-12.US2.39
The Standard
Evaluate the factors that contributed to the end of the Cold War. These may include: • American diplomacy • Military build-up • Treaties • Iran-Contra affair • Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) • Support of Afghanistan • Fall of the Berlin Wall • Collapse of the USSR
Idaho Content Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Economic, Political, and Social Reorganization 1974-1992
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how Soviet economic troubles, reforms, public protests, and U.S. policy contributed to the Cold War's end. They use dates and evidence to separate causes from events that showed the conflict was ending.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how Soviet reforms and U.S.-Soviet arms talks changed the relationship between the two countries. They can place the Berlin Wall's fall before the Soviet Union's collapse and explain why neither event has a single cause.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may credit U.S. military spending alone and leave out Soviet problems and protests in Eastern Europe. They may also treat the Berlin Wall's fall and the Soviet Union's collapse as the same event.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, ask: Name two factors that helped end the Cold War and give one fact supporting each. Then explain whether the Berlin Wall's fall was a cause, a sign of change, or both.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups dated event cards for Soviet reforms, the 1987 arms treaty, Eastern European protests, and the Soviet collapse to sort on a timeline.
Ask students to write four sentences answering: Did Soviet reforms or U.S.-Soviet arms talks do more to ease tensions? Cite one fact for each.
Play a claim-and-evidence match game using cards about military spending, Afghanistan, arms talks, Soviet shortages, and public protests.
Compare a 1988 Soviet map with today's map, then mark former Soviet republics that became independent in 1991.
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