Social Studies classrooms have become very contested spaces in the past decade. From the political to the social— it feels to many that the social studies classroom has become a sort of front line in a battle for American cultural values.^[1] These social and political battles have taken over so much of our contemporary discourse and have become so fraught that many social studies educators may be left wondering: what even counts as history anymore, what is there space for in my classroom? Moreover, they may feel conflicted about how to personalize history classes in such a tense cultural moment. On one hand, traditional history classrooms have been much maligned by students and media alike for being boring and impersonal, yet on the other, by asking students to step out of their comfort zone with history we risk drawing the ire of administrators, stakeholders, and even the federal government. This unit seeks to propose some solutions to the above issues to make the social studies classroom a place that can educate students authentically by allowing them to challenge existing narratives and draw from their own experiences as well.

[1] Press, Associated. “Florida Requires Teaching Black History. Some Don’t Trust Schools to Do It Justice.” Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government., December 22, 2024. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/ 713059-florida-requires-teaching-black-history-some-dont-trust-schools-to-do-it-justice/.

In this unit students will be required to engage in critical analysis of text, annotation, image analysis, and creative writing in order to explore history more deeply through arts and narrative fiction. Students will be guided through material with teacher led discussions to scaffold understanding, but as the unit progresses they will slowly be given more and more autonomy in how they interact with and analyze unit materials. In order to achieve this a number of instructional strategies will be employed. See the text below for a list of strategies, many of which have materials attached in Appendix A:

Direct Instruction

Throughout the unit and especially during the first week, teachers will rely on direct instruction at times to ensure a baseline understanding of Soviet history and how it is typically portrayed in the West. Direct instruction will occur primarily through lecture supported by slides and student note taking and will focus on establishing a traditional Western overview of Soviet life. More specifically, direct instruction will seek to establish the idea that because the Soviet Union was built upon the economic ideas of communism, communism came to dominate almost every aspect of public and private life.

Graphic Organizers

This unit will use graphic organizers consistently to help direct students thinking toward the intended goals of the unit/lessons. Graphic organizers help to promote productive discussions between students and are especially useful when comparing and contrasting ideas, cultures, and values. Cross cultural comparisons and contrasts will be a critical piece of the unit, so graphic organizers will be paired with most lessons or activities.

Idea Parking Lot

Idea parking lot’s are a great tool to encourage students to ask questions collaboratively and reflect on their questions throughout a unit. Idea parking lot’s are simple and easy to utilize— by placing a large sheet of paper labeled with a topic in a high visibility wall of the classroom, students write their questions or comments on a sticky note and post it for everyone to see. For this unit this will be especially useful as students questions will help them identify blind spots in the history we are examining, which they can in turn utilize to inform their own creative writing at the end of the unit.

Textual Analysis

During this unit students will read narrative fiction from several authors and artists. During their reading, they will probe the text and use annotations in order to look for details that open up lines of questioning and discussion into the portrayals of life for people in the Soviet Union. Textual analysis serves as the backbone of the unit as well as being a helpful model for the type of writing they should be working towards at the end of the unit. Textual analysis is largely designed to be an independent activity which leads to collaborative close reading.

Collaborative Close Reading

A strategy for engaging students with poetry and literature, collaborative close reading/listening encourages students to think deeply about abstract content. Students will meet as a group, preferably in a comfortable setting where they can see and hear one another with few obstructions. Students will be given a printed version of a poems/text that will be discussed. Students will independently read a a portion of or the entire text selected by the teacher. After this period of independent reading, the teacher will read the relevant text aloud. Students will then be assigned specific sections of the text that they will be responsible for commenting on. After taking some time to gather thoughts, the teacher will lead students through a discussion of their comments on their assigned section. This process should start out relatively structured, but as students become more comfortable with the format discussions can become more freeform.

Image Analysis

Similar to collaborative close reading, image analysis uses a process of noticing, discussing, and reflecting in order to probe more deeply into content. This unit will make use of art and propaganda images throughout, and especially during the culminating assignment. Students will be shown a piece of art of propaganda by the teacher and then be allowed several minutes to look it over, choosing to focus on one specific domain of people/place, color, aesthetic/style, medium, or another key aspect of their choosing. After some reflection time has been given, students will come back together to add their thoughts to a collaborative discussion.

Journaling

Throughout the unit, students will finish lessons by writing in a thought journal. Journaling is designed to be free, open ended writing which is not checked for accuracy or detail by teachers but instead serves as a place for students to capture their thoughts, opinions, and ideas in real time. A major component of the unit will focus on reflecting on how historical narrative can mischaracterize the lived experiences of human beings, and so opportunities to journal on representation, experience, and how these things do/don’t overlap will be strongly encouraged.

Creative Writing

As a culmination of the unit, students will write their own creative writing piece to “restory” what living in Philadelphia is like from the perspective of the people who actually live here. During the unit we will read through and look over Ilya Kabakov’s Ten Characters exhibition as a means to push back on the portrayal of Soviet life as dull, one note, and entirely centered on economic factors. Students will take inspiration from Kabakov’s work, or the work of other authors who appear/are suggested in the unit to write their own piece. We will then assemble these pieces together into a larger “exhibition” to mimic the work of Kabakov and put our own spin on it.

Lesson 1: Introducing Soviet History

Objective: Students will describe key economic, social, and cultural features that define our historical memory of the U.S.S.R.

Lesson Context: This lesson will utilize direct instruction early in the unit as a means to establish a baseline understanding of Soviet history among students. For the first week of the unit, this is the main method for delivering and exploring content.

Materials and Resources:

• Soviet Union Intro Slides (Appendix B, Link 1)
• Modified Frayer Model (Appendix A, Figure 1)

Phase One: Begin the lesson by displaying on the board the prompt “in your opinion, which is more important: 1) personal freedom to pursue your happiness or 2) strong safety nets so that all people can have what they need to survive?” Give students time to think and write down their response, encouraging them to imagine which of these options would have more prominence in the country if they got to reshape it in their vision. Ideally, students should write a short paragraph outlining their response and rationale. Once students have had some time to write, take a vote by show of hands to get a temperature check on which side the room is leaning towards. Give a few students from each perspective a chance to explain their thoughts or rebut the ideas of the other perspective.

Phase Two: Have students take out the note taking materials, whatever that looks like in your classroom. Instruct them that, for the next few weeks they will be learning about the Soviet Union and the economic system of communism, where they will see the importance of the question they began the class by thinking through. Additionally, let them know that, while you will be providing an overview of Soviet history, students should bring a critical perspective to the classroom as one of the goals for the unit will be testing to see whether history books effectively capture the realities of Soviet life. Once students are ready, guide them through the Soviet Union Intro Slides in appendix B.

Phase Three: After guiding students through an overview of communism and the motivations of the Soviet Union, distribute a Frayer model to each student (appendix A, figure 1). Have students complete the Frayer model for communism and circulate the room as students work through the model. Remind students to think of communism from with an open-minded perspective rather than tropes that they may see in media or the news.

Phase Four: To close out the lesson, place a large sheet of sticky paper somewhere on the wall where it is visible to most or all students to serve as an idea parking lot. Distribute a sticky note to each student and have them write at least two questions they have about Soviet history or life in the Soviet Union. Inform them that throughout the unit, we will answer many of these questions as well as use them to supplement planned instruction. Once students finish writing their questions, they should place it somewhere on the idea parking lot so that it can be seen and referenced by other students. Optional: after class, look through the questions and organize them by theme/focus. This is not absolutely necessary but is helpful for informing future discussions and scaffolding ideas for students.

Lesson 2: Complicating Narratives About Soviet Life

Objective: Students will choose a piece of Soviet fiction to read in order to analyze the story for information that confirms or conflicts with the materials covered in the introductory stage of the unit.

Lesson Context: This lesson will follow several days of direct instruction which will establish the mainstream tropes about historical understanding of the Soviet Union. In this lesson, students will have a choice between two stories which will complicate those tropes through the actions of the characters and the portrayal of daily life in the Soviet Union. This lesson will essentially be repeated on the following day, with students reading the story they did not choose the day prior.

Materials and Resources:

• Alyosha At Large by Shukshin (Appendix B, Link 2)
• The Earthquake by Qahhor (Appendix B, Link 3)
• Soviet Literature Analysis Guide (Appendix A, Figure 2)

Phase One: Begin the lesson by having students list the top five personality traits that they think would be seen as desirable/useful in the Soviet Union. Giving them some time to brainstorm, remind them of the major themes and tropes that were introduced early in the unit like economic prosperity, egalitarianism, political identity, etc. After students have had some time to create their lists, have them share out answers and keep track of everything they share on the board. After getting a handful down on the board, have students discuss and come to a consensus on the top three personality traits they expect to be useful or valuable in Soviet life. Keep these on the board throughout class.

Phase Two: At the front of the room (or whatever area you use as a sort of “home base”) have copies of the stories Alyosha at Large and The Earthquake stacked into two piles. Inform students that they will be choosing one of the two stories to analyze for the remainder of class, and that each story will give us a more personal account of what it was like to live in the Soviet Union. Remind students that as they read, they should be focusing on whether or not the experiences in the story confirm or conflict with the things they have learned in the unit so far. Next, distribute the Soviet Literature Analysis Guide for students to complete as they read. Once students have all chosen the story they want to read for the day, they may begin work.

Phase Three: As students read, circulate the room to provide individualized instruction and clarify any student misunderstandings. As students make progress, encourage them to think about their major noticings thus far, and whether or not the story adheres to what they would expect. Provide students with the majority of class time to read, then bring everyone back together to close out the lesson with a graphic organizer.

Phase Four: On the board or main display area, set up two T charts with “confirm” and “conflicts” on each side. Label each T chart with the title of one of the stories and have students shout out some of their major takeaways. Inform students that in tomorrow’s class, they will analyze the other story using the T charts on the board as guides for understanding to build on.

Lesson 3: Analysis of Kabakov’s 10 Characters

Objective: Students will read about and analyze Ilya Kabakov’s art installation 10 Characters in order to describe the nature of communal apartments and compare/contrast them with “blocks” of American cities.

Lesson Context: In this lesson, students will be introduced to the work of Soviet artist Ilya Kabakov, who educated American art fans about life in the Soviet Union and created many works which challenge our perception of what Soviet life was life. Students will already be familiar with some Soviet literature, and by now should be understanding that Soviet life was much less black and white than it is made out to be in American textbooks.

Materials and Resources:

• 10 Characters exhibit materials and texts (Appendix B, Link 4)
• 10 Characters Reaction Catcher (Appendix A, Figure 3)
• Apartments vs. Blocks Free Write (Appendix A, Figure 4)
• Chromebooks

Phase One: Begin the class by displaying on the board the statement “Agree or disagree, people in the Soviet Union were necessarily less individualistic than people in our own culture. Explain.” Give any additional explanation or detail as needed, but try to leave this question mostly up to however students decide to take it. Once all, students have recorded a response, allow a few students to share their thoughts. Drive the discussion towards the misconceptions that have already been uncovered about the Soviet Union and encourage students to be open minded about any preconceived ideas they may have brought to the classroom.

Phase Two: Pair students off into groups of two. Direct the groups to take out a Chromebook and access the exhibit link for 10 Characters. Next, pass out a copy of the 10 Characters Reaction Catcher and instruct students that, while they can work together and discuss the exhibit together, they should each be recording their own thoughts and ideas to be turned in at the end of the lesson. Students will have the next twenty minutes to explore the exhibit digitally and interact with the rooms and characters that most interest them. As students explore the exhibit, remind them of the overarching history of the Soviet Union that is taught in schools, and ask whether or not it corresponds to the things they see in Kabakov’s work and to what extent.

Phase Three: Once students have had appropriate time to explore the exhibit website, have some students share out the aspects they found most interesting along with a brief explanation of why. Ask students to consider whether or not they see any similarities between people in their neighborhood and people in Kabakov’s imagined communal apartment (it is a good idea here to encourage students to think about the quirky, strange, or otherwise interesting characters who frequent their neighborhood or block). Next, pass out the Apartments vs. Blocks Free Write and give students the remainder of the class period to work out their thoughts. Students should turn in their free write as the leave class, and it is a good idea to highlight some of their key ideas for them at the beginning of the next lesson.

Lesson 4: What Does It Mean to Be “From Philly?”

Objective: Students will read an article focused on Philadelphia in order to critique it for bias and reinterpret the article to be more accurate to lived experience.

Lesson Context: This lesson will follow students’ reading of Soviet literature and art. Here, the focus of the unit will transition away from the Soviet Union and onto representations of Philadelphia in the media. As students have seen in the unit, top down histories rarely give a full picture of things, and here they will have a chance to put that knowledge to practice by analyzing a city they know intimately.

Materials and Resources:

• Article (Appendix B, Link 5)
• Article Reinterpretation (Appendix A, Figure 5)

Phase One: Begin class by displaying on the board the prompt: “list a few things/behaviors/giveaways that make it obvious someone was born and raised in Philly?” (Any other city/town could be substituted here). Encourage students to think about things that may seem silly, quirky, or even inconsequential alongside some things that may be more serious or important. This is a prompt that students should be able to list many ideas, so give them the space to think exhaustively. Once students are ready to share, keep a list on the board tracking each answer. Next, ask students how many of these things Philly is known for in the national media. Review the list, crossing off every item that students don’t feel is adequately represented in Philadelphias national reputation.

Phase Two: Remind students that while studying the Soviet Union they have seen a number of ways that historians and educators have misunderstood or poorly represented the reality of what living in the U.S.S.R. was like. Inform them that they have just proven the same can be said of Philadelphia, and they will be spending the next portion of class reading an article focused on a national media representation of Philadelphia. Distribute the article to students, letting them know that the article primarily looks at Philadelphia through a lens of poverty to define the lives of its citizens. Remind students that while parts of representations can be true or based in fact, they can also miss key aspects of experience— and that as they read they should annotate things that confirm or conflict with their own experiences. Once students have the article, give them ten to fifteen minutes to read and annotate.

Phase Three: Once students have completed their reading and annotation of the article, distribute the Article Reinterpretation worksheet to each student. Inform them that, as people who experience Philadelphia on a first hand basis every day, it is their task to rewrite/summarize the article from a perspective that is more accurate to the actual experiences and culture of Philadelphians. Allow students to write uninterrupted for ten to twelve minutes.

Phase Four: To wrap up class, have a few students volunteer to read a short passage from the reinterpretation of rhetoric article. Before the class ends, give each student a sticky note and direct them to the parking lot question on the board “what does being from Philly mean to you?” Have each student place their sticky note in the parking lot as they exit the classroom.

Lesson 5: Writing Project- “A Neighborhood”

Objective: Students will draft a work of fiction portraying the normal lived experience of a range of characters in order represent their neighborhood thematically and historically.

Lesson Context: This lesson will introduce and give students time to brainstorm the culminating writing project which will cap off the unit. By this point, students will have had their perceptions of the Soviet Union altered through short stories, will have engaged with Kabakov’s 10 Characters exhibit, and will have been challenged to consider what overarching narratives exist about Philadelphia that are wrong. In order to tie all of this together, students will take inspiration from Kabakov’s 10 Characters in order to create a “neighborhood” story.

Materials and Resources:

• Project Overview (Appendix A, Figure 6)
• Project Rubric (Appendix A, Figure 7)
• Brainstorm Guide (Appendix A, Figure 8)

Phase One: Begin the lesson by displaying on the board the prompt: “how did the stories we read about the Soviet Union reshape the way we understood Soviet history?” Engage students with a reflective discussion, prompting them to think back on all the major discussions that have taken place throughout the unit up to this point. Remind them that they have seen how misrepresentation is something that is hard to eliminate from historical memory, as they have seen in representations of Philadelphia in national media. Inform students that today they will begin working on a creative writing project that will bring all of the themes from the unit together to cap everything off.

Phase Two: Pass out the Project Overview and Project Rubric to students. Read through the assignment with students and answer any questions or concerns they may have. If this is a project that you have taught in a prior year, it is also a good idea to provide students with an example of strong student work. Encourage students to think about their own neighborhood, its places, its characters, and its emotional core. Students will be drawing from these things to write their own story showcasing Philadelphia.

Phase Three: Once students are clear on the assignment and have an understanding of their task, pass out the Brainstorm Guide to each student. Depending on your school, students may all come from a similar geographic location, however if they don’t, it’s a good idea to group students with peers who may live nearby to them to make the most of the discussion. As students work on the brainstorming, circulate the room to check in with them and ensure that they are clear in their understanding and making progress. It’s a good idea to prepare your own brainstorm based on your own experiences so that you can engage students meaningfully with examples as you circulate.

Phase Four: Once the end of class is nearing, pass out a sheet of lined paper to each student. On the paper, give them five minutes to write an internal dialogue of a character who will be in their neighborhood story. Encourage students to think more like an author than a historian and simply get lost in bringing their character to life. As students leave the room, they should leave their character study with you for review to ensure everyone is on the right track and making progress.

Note about the lesson: This lesson will merely begin the writing process for this project. It is important to note that how the actual drafting process for the story can be completed in a variety of ways and that each teacher should make their own decision about what that process should look like.

Press, Associated. “Florida Requires Teaching Black History. Some Don’t Trust Schools to Do It Justice.” Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government., December 22, 2024. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/ 713059-florida-requires-teaching-black-history-some-dont-trust-schools-to-do-it-justice/.

This article highlights the contested nature of content in social studies classrooms across America. Helps to inform the reasons for writing the unit and the idea that it is essential for us to help teach students frameworks through which they can analyze history for themselves.

Graeber, David, and D. Wengrow. The dawn of everything: A new history of humanity. New York, NY: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.

In this landmark text, the authors provide numerous discussions and examples about how mainstream ideas about how ancient people lived are often wildly inaccurate. They make the case that being stuck in our present moment hinders our ability to think creatively about humanity’s past. Serves as a basis for the theory of the unit.

Field, Kendra Taira. Growing Up with the Country: Family, Race, and Nation after the Civil War. New Haven, CT: Yale Press, 2010.

Field’s history draws from personal narratives and family oral histories in order to reappraise common attitudes that existed across the South during Reconstruction. Her work makes it clear that there is a need in history writing to break from attempts at objectivity to uncover new questions about the realities of the past. Informs the theory of the unit.

Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s dream. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2012.

A sprawling history of the Ottoman Empire in which Finkel consistently points to blurred lines between national history and cultural myth in order to question the possibility of an objective telling of the Ottoman story. Finkel demonstrates that the narratives we tell ourselves about the past can often inform our understandings of culture than can measurable records.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 272.

An article describing the importance of inquiry stances inside and outside of the classroom. Helps to inform the design of lessons within the unit and justify the alternative approach to studying the Soviet Union.

Glencoe. Glencoe World history: Modern Times, reading essentials and note-taking guide. New York, NY: Glencoe Mcgraw-Hill School, 2009.

Textbook used by the School District of Philadelphia.

https://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/1928/sufds/ch21.htm

Website which tracks statistics and achievements of the Soviet project. Specifically useful for looking up statistics about labor, education, and culture.

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. “The Shortest History of the Soviet Union.” New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2022.

An incredible work which is both informative and concise. Fitzpatrick provides a direct telling of Soviet history which contains many of the lasting tropes alongside deeper facts and documents. For anyone seeking to teach this unit, or any unit about the Soviet Union, this book should be considered mandatory reading.

Zhdanov, Andreĭ Aleksandrovich, H. G. Scott and Library of Theodore Dreiser (University of Pennsylvania). Problems of soviet literature : reports and speeches at the first Soviet writers’ congress. Moscow ; Leningrad : Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the U.S.S.R., 1935.

In this speech, Zhdanov outlines and introduces the literary movement of socialist realism that came to define much of the literature of the Soviet Union. He not only provides an outline of what good Soviet writers should do, but also lambasts western writers as examples of what not to do. Incredibly helpful for understanding Soviet culture from a historical perspective and makes the others texts in the unit much more surprising.

Shukshin, Vasiliĭ, John Givens and Laura. Michael. Stories from a Siberian village. DeKalb : Northern Illinois University Press, 1996.

One of the story collections from which unit texts are pulled. Shukshin’s focus on rural people is starkly different from the industry and urbanization facing stories that made up socialist realism. Shukshin provides a visceral and detailed account of the lives of rural Soviets.

Gabriel McGuire, Chris Fort, Naomi Caffee, Emily Laskin, Samuel Hodgkin, and Ali F. İğmen. Tulips in Bloom : An Anthology of Modern Central Asian Literature. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. https://research-ebsco-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/linkprocessor/plink?id=b0d86024-996d-3524-a2ae-295234a6b790.

One of the story collections from which unit texts are pulled. Though unpublished, The Earthquake is a powerful story detailing how alignment with Soviet principles was not always a straight forward process and that in spite of the stated values of Sovietism, people acted in their own self interest frequently.

Barton, Megan. “Ten Characters.” Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, 15 Sept. 2019, www.kabakov.net/installations/2019/9/15/ten-characters.

Web page which contains a variety of links, images, and write ups about Ilya Kabakov’s 10 Characters installation which is a major focus of this unit. In his installation, Kabakov included a variety of whacky and subversive characters which complicated Westerners understandings of what it must have been like to live in the Soviet Union as well as to confirm some tropes about Soviet lifestyles. The exhibit is a primary inspiration for the culminating project.

Philadelphia, CBS. “Philadelphia Has Highest Murder Rate per Capita among Country’s 10 Largest Cities.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 July 2021, www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-highest-murder-rate-per-capita-countrys-10-largest-cities/.

Short article which is used for an assignment in a unit lesson.

Stornaiuolo, A., & Thomas, E. E. (2017). Disrupting Educational Inequalities Through Youth Digital Activism. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 345.

Article focused on how authorship about history and the placement of students as generators of knowledge creates more student buy in and better outcomes. Informs the theory of the unit.

Appendix A:

Appendix B: