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Jarrett McCall’s Lesson Plan for English I:

Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

Standard(s)

Standard 4 - Research

Grade Level Expectations

CLE 3001.4.1 Define and narrow a problem or research topic.

CLE 3001.4.2 Gather relevant information from a variety of print and electronic sources, as

well as from direct observation, interviews, and surveys.

CLE 3001.4.3 Make distinctions about the credibility, reliability, consistency, strengths, and

limitations of resources, including information gathered from websites.

CLE 3001.4.4 Write an extended research paper, using primary and secondary sources and

technology and graphics, as appropriate.

Essential Question(s)

Who was Joseph Stalin?

What is life like under Communism? 

How was life in the Soviet Union similar and/or different to my life now in the United States?

Lesson Goals

TSW know who Joseph Stalin was.

TSW know what life is like under Communism.

TSW be able to perform solid, thorough research by using appropriate web-based sources.

Objectives

TSW identify Joseph Stalin.

TSW recognize life under Stalin in the Soviet Union.

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TSW plan a project by researching various web sources dealing with Communism, the Soviet

Union, and Joseph Stalin.

Prior Knowledge

TSW have already read the Eugene Yelchin novel Breaking Stalin’s Nose in class.

TSW know some of what life was like under Stalin in the Soviet Union through the book.

TSW know how to navigate through the Web.

TSW have done research projects in previous classes and grades.

Procedures (Instructional Sequence)

A.     Hook (5 minutes)

On a PowerPoint slide, TTW show a poster by the artist Leonid Denysenko titled “Why!?”. It

features a picture of a weeping starving child in front of a barbed-wire field of wheat. At the top

is the word “Ukraina.”On the lower half, on the sides, is written, on one side, “Matthew 5:10.”

The other side also says the same but it is in Russian. At the bottom it says, “7,000,000 1932-

1933 Genocide by Starvation.”

On a PowerPoint slide, TTW read and discuss the verse, from the Bible, Matthew 5:10, “Blessed

are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

TTW describe the mass starvation of the Ukrainians by Joseph Stalin in the early-1930s, known

as the “Holodomor,” which means “Killing by hunger.”

TTW ask volunteer students to give examples of similar situations throughout history.

B.      Focus (Introduce the Focus of the Lesson) (2 minutes)

Now that you have seen how Sasha experienced life under Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, you

are going to research Joseph Stalin and the many atrocities (or evil deeds) that were committed

under his rule as Soviet premier through the political system known as “Communism.” Based on

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what you learn through your research, you will write a report about Stalin’s rule and how you

yourself would have experienced and dealt with life under Stalin and the Communist system. It

would be best if you answered this question: How was life in the Soviet Union similar and/or

different to my life now in the United States?

TSW identify Joseph Stalin.

TSW recognize life under Stalin in the Soviet Union.

TSW write a report on Stalinist Russia by researching various web sources dealing with

Communism, the Soviet Union, and Joseph Stalin.

Who was Joseph Stalin?

What is life like under communism? 

C.    Curriculum Correlation

How is the lesson organized so that it is personally meaningful and relevant to students? 

It is organized so that, through the research, the student can know how fortunate their life is in

the United States compared to a Communist country where they have no freedom.

How is this lesson integrated with other content areas?

This lesson begins as an English lesson because of the study of the novel and is integrated with

social studies by researching the history of the Soviet Union under Stalin.

What explanations are necessary for student learning?

TSW know about Joseph Stalin.

TSW know about the people who lived under his rule in the Soviet Union and what life was like

for them under his brutal dictatorship.

D.     Guided Practice

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What are the steps (sequenced and segmented) by which the essential information will be

communicated concisely by the teacher to ensure the lesson is relevant?

1. Show the poster on a PowerPoint slide. (1 minute)

2. Read and discuss the Bible verse from Matthew on a PowerPoint slide. (1 minute)

3. Describe the Holodomor. (2 minutes)

4. Ask the students if they can give other examples throughout history of similar events to the

Holodomor. (2-3 minutes)

5. Have a brief discussion about the novel. (3-5 minutes)

6. Show the lesson objectives on a PowerPoint slide. (1 minute)

7. Introduce the assignment. (2-3 minutes)

8. Monitor the students as they perform the research. (The rest of the class period)

How will the teacher model thought processes (think aloud) and/or demonstrate performance

expectations to students?  

On an overhead, TTW show the resources offered online. TSW will follow along on some of the

ones that the teacher will show. Then, TSW begin performing their research.

E.     Independent Practice

How will students be actively engaged in the learning process? 

Through discussion and researching the web sources offered.

What types of activities and interactions will engage the students? 

Through the research process, TSW identify Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union, and Communism

on the Internet.

TSW draw conclusions/justifying a solution by composing a research project comparing their

lives to the lives of the Soviet citizenry under Stalin.

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How will students be grouped (individuals, pairs, groups) for learning? 

TSW be grouped individually.

F.      Closure

How will the students refocus on the objectives?

TTW, on a PowerPoint, show the lesson objectives again and ask the students how the objectives

were met.

What activities will be used to check for understanding of all students?

Discussion, following along on the overhead with the various web sites, and the final project.

Assessment

What formative and summative assessments will be used to determine student mastery of the

lesson objective(s)?   

Through the final research project and checking for understanding through the student input

during the introduction.

Questions

What are some historical similarities to Stalin’s Holodomor that you have learned about before?

What did you think of the novel?

What would you do if you were in Sasha’s situation?

How do you find reliable resources when performing your research online?

Who was Joseph Stalin?

What is life like under Communism? 

How was life in the Soviet Union similar and/or different to your life now in the United States?

Accommodations

Visual learners: The poster in the introduction and the pictures and videos in the research links.

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Verbal learners: Discussion and audio clips.

Learning disabled: Elementary level resources that will be given to the student’s educational

assistant or inclusion teacher.

Gifted: Upper high school and college-level resources.

Reflection

Eugene Yelchin’s debut YA novel Breaking Stalin’s Nose recently received acclaim by

being named one of the two Newbery Honor books for 2012. Loosely based on Yelchin’s own

life in Stalinist Russia, it tells the story of Sasha Zaichik, a boy whose father is a member of

Joseph Stalin’s secret police force. At the beginning of the novel, Sasha, believing Stalin to be a

great man because of the constant propaganda that is a daily part of Soviet life at the time,

aspires to be a member of the Young Pioneers, a group, much like Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Youth,

that consists of Soviet boys loyal to their leader. But, after his father is wrongly imprisoned and

other unfortunate events happen to him, he becomes disillusioned and comes to the realization of

how evil Stalin truly is.

I chose this book because it is a recent Newbery Honor book and because I have always

had an interest in Russian history and Communist history, not because I am sympathetic to this

political system but because I am very much opposed to this system. I chose the book and the

research project because I wanted the students to learn more about this oppressive form of

government and the atrocities it has the potential to commit by using one of its worst

practitioners, Joseph Stalin. Usually, when students learn about evil rulers, they usually learn

mostly about Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust of the Jews. Since they have a pretty thorough

amount of knowledge about Hitler, I believed they should know more about someone that was

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just as evil as he was. This was why my pre-test scores were so low because they had never

received a comprehensive understanding of Stalin.

Before beginning the lesson, I met with the educational assistants and the inclusion

teachers of the students who need accommodations. I showed them the elementary-level web

sources that dealt with the subject matter and how to navigate through them, so that their

students would now how to successfully perform the research. For the gifted students, I

provided them with a sheet of paper that contained more scholarly sources to view when

performing their research. To meet the needs of the visual learners, I provided an image as the

hook to the lesson and several video links. For the verbal, or aural, learners, I provided several

audio clips of primary and secondary sources of the subject matter, such as speeches, narration,

and music.

Materials (Teacher and Student)

What resources (print, non-print, technology, supplies, models, etc) are necessary to teach this

lesson?

PowerPoint containing the introductory image “Why!?” and the web links.

A web portal provided by the teacher where the students can find the links for their research.

The links will range from articles to images to videos to audio clips.