Abusing Power: Animal Farm and Wicked History

Lesson 4
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ELA

Unit 3

8th Grade

Lesson 4 of 32

Objective


Explain the purpose of Stalin’s Five-Year Plan, its impact on the people of the Soviet Union, and how author McCollum uses specific text features to develop key ideas about this time period.

Readings and Materials


  • Book: Joseph Stalin (A Wicked History) by Sean McCollum  — Chapters 7-9

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Target Task


Writing Prompt

What was Stalin’s approach to maintaining power in the face of resistance? Identify three techniques he used to control the people of the Soviet Union, citing evidence from Chapters 7 to 9 to support your answer.

Sample Response

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Key Questions


Close Read Questions

  • What was the purpose of Stalin’s Five-Year Plan, and what effect did it have on Soviet peasants? Provide specific evidence from pages 52-56 to support your answer.

  • Reread the quotations that author McCollum has included on page 56. What is the impact of these quotations on the reader? What key ideas do these quotations develop? Carefully explain your thinking.

  • What purpose did gulags serve? Provide at least two pieces of evidence from pages 57-61 to support your answer.

  • Reread page 60. What key idea does the quotation by Alexander Solzhenitsyn develop and support? Carefully explain your thinking.

Exit Ticket

Assess student understanding and monitor progress toward this lesson's objective with an Exit Ticket.

Homework


To ensure that students are prepared for the next lesson, have students complete the following reading for homework. Use guidance from the next lesson to identify any additional language or background support students may need while independently engaging with the text.

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Common Core Standards


  • RI.8.2 — Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • RI.8.5 — Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept.

Supporting Standards

L.8.6
RI.8.1
RI.8.4
RI.8.10
SL.8.1
SL.8.6
W.8.2
W.8.2.a
W.8.2.b
W.8.4
W.8.9
W.8.9.b
W.8.10
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