Goals || Tasks || Resources || Process || Learning Advice || Evaluation
Goals || Tasks || Resources || Process || Learning Advice || Evaluation
Introduction
It's easy to agree with this saying if you have never been harmed by a rumor or a lie. However, imagine someone was lying about you. What if their words destroyed your reputation, your career, your family life? How would you feel? What could you do?
What was this man (on the left) doing to Americans?
By the time you complete this activity, you should be able to explain the following:
1. Who was this media hound? Where did he come from? Why was he suddenly so popular?2. What claims did he make? What forum was he using to make them?
3. How did his claims affect people? What impact did he have on personal freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association?
4. What caused him to cease his behavior? What happened to him as a result?
At the end of this activity, you should be able to meaningfully discuss the personal reflections below, applying what you learned from McCarthyism to your life experiences.
1. How have rumors and lies affected you and/or those you know?2. What can an individual do to counteract rumors and lies?
The War of Words will help you explore one of the most painful episodes in American history, the Red scare. As newspaper journalists, you will hunt out the truth about claims made by an infamous public figure, Joseph McCarthy. The reporters for your paper will inform the public of his political activities in a hard news story. The editorialists will write an op-ed piece to encourage the public to react forcefully to McCarthy's activities.
What did McCarthy claim that drew attention to the otherwise unknown senator? The following excerpt sets the stage.
JOE MCCARTHY ON COMMUNISTS IN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT (1950)
...Six years ago...there was within the Soviet orbit 180,000,000 people. Lined upon the anti-totalitarian side there were in the world at that time roughly 1.6 billion people. Today only 6 years later, there are over 800 million people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia--an increase of 400 percent! On our side, the figure has shrunk to around 500 million. In other words, in less than 6 years the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us. This indicates the swiftness of the tempo of Communist victories and American defeats in the Cold War. As one of our outstanding historical figures once said, "When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without, but rather because of enemies from within."
...The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this Nation.... This is glaringly true in the State Department. There the bright young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths are the ones who have been worst...
In my opinion the State Department, which is one of the most important government departments, is thoroughly infested with Communists. I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who are nevertheless shaping our foreign policy...
Where can your newspaper team find out more about McCarthy? The links below give background on everything from the Cold War era to McCarthy's fate in the senate. You can also view a video of one of the senator's challengers.
Visit this site for an overview of the struggle between the US and USSR.
Here is good background on what caused a Red scare again in the 1950's.
The Red Scare and Joseph McCarthy
This site has the real dirt on a real dirty guy.
Here's how an unknown became famous.
Jesse Friedman's excellent overview of the senator.
One of the hardest hit areas was Tinsel Town. See why for yourself.
McCarthy opposed in a video clip from the period
McCarthy's career as a Red hunter comes to a halt. See how.
Before you begin the WebQuest, find out what you know about Mr. McCarthy's era. Take the Red scare quiz . Click here. Good luck!
1. The first step in the WebQuest is to join a newspaper team of 4 students. Two students will write a hard news story; the other two will collaborate on an editorial.2. Next, research The War of Words using the resources above.
3. You will want to copy to diskette the facts that you believe are important for your writing. Save key passages to the disk for later viewing. Be sure you note where you got each one so you can easily return to the correct pages for more information!
4. Team members of each newspaper will have to find one or two pictures suitable for the hard news story. Your choice(s) should also be saved to disk.
5. After you have your facts, you will need to print them. Use this "hard copy" to organize your story or editorial, then begin writing. Type your piece on the computer using Word for Windows. Be sure to use the spell checker to find all spelling mistakes. Insert the photograph(s) into the hard news story before you save the clean copy.
6. Save your work to the diskette, and turn it in to Mr. Eckerson. As editor in chief, I will review your story or editorial, give you feedback, and a deadline for final submission.
Pair up a strong writer with a good researcher for the hard news story and the editorial. This will help you be efficient.
Cut and paste judiciously since some of the Internet sources have duplicate information. Read what you access before you copy it to the diskette.
Before you hand in the diskette, proofread the writing yourself and have a teammate read through it and give you feedback. Some of the web pages you access have atrocious spelling -- misspelled words that you will have to correct in your writing!
Revise before you submit your work to the editor in chief.
Be ready to discuss the items in the Extension section. Everyone is expected to participate in this closing activity.
Your grade will be based on group
work. The group grade is the average of the grades for
the editorial and the hard news story, so it's crucial to do a top
notch job on both pieces! The rubric for assessing the
two pieces follows.
|
Beginning 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
|
Headline |
No headline is provided or the headline is irrelevant. |
The headline states what will follow, but in an unexciting way. |
The headline reflects the content and catches a reader's attention. |
The headline perfectly reflects the content and cleverly grabs the reader's attention. |
|
Introductory paragraph |
The opening gives little information about the story or editorial. |
Some information about the story or editorial is given. |
The opening clearly indicates the content of the story or editorial. |
The opening powerfully indicates the content to follow. |
|
Use of research facts |
No facts are used to explain McCarthy's actions. |
McCarthy's actions are described with a few facts. |
McCarthy's actions are described with several facts. |
McCarthy's actions are described with several facts and additional details are included. |
|
Grammar & Spelling |
Many grammar and/or spelling errors make reading the piece very difficult. |
Several grammar and/or spelling errors make reading difficult. |
A few grammar and/or spelling errors sometimes interfere with smooth reading. |
No grammar or spelling errors are present -- reading is smooth and easy. |
|
Editorial persuasion |
The editorial does not persuade a reader to take any position. |
The editorial mildly encourages a reader to take a position. |
The editorial strongly encourages the reader to take a position, offering some support for it. |
The editorial strongly encourages the reader to take a position and offers plenty of support for it. |
|
Hard news story photo(s) |
No photo, or an irrelevant one, appears in the story. |
A relevant photo appears, but without a caption, or with a poorly written one. |
A relevant photo, correctly captioned, accompanies the story. |
Two relevant photos with appropriate captions appear in the hard news story. |
The War of Words WebQuest helps
you to learn about many aspects of U.S. history: the Cold War and Red
scare, McCarthy's abuse of power in a public office, and the courage
of those who finally confronted Senator McCarthy and brought him
down. It also gives you the opportunity to think about how
rumors and lies have affected people historically as well as in the
present. Now that you have set the record straight through your
hard news story or editorial, complete the quest by reviewing the
Extension section below.
1. The 1690's Salem witchcraft trials have often been compared to the McCarthy era. Identify some connections.2. Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witchcraft trials, The Crucible, is actually about the McCarthy hearings.
3. "High school students are rumor-mongers." Is this a fair characterization? Do some high school students you know behave like Senator McCarthy? If so, what can be done about them?
4. Some Jewish sages claim that destroying a person's reputation is worst than murder. How does McCarthyism support this thought?
5. Woody Allen is known for his comedic films, but he also appears in a film about the McCarthy era and how it affected Hollywood: The Front (1976). Allen plays a restaurant cashier who serves as a "front" for a blacklisted writer friend. The film is based upon the experiences of screenwriter Walter Bernstein, who wrote and sold scripts through "fronts" for 10% of what they were normally worth. Viewing this film and writing a brief summary (individually or as a team) will add bonus credit to your writing assignment.
About the author:
John Eckerson has taught Social Studies at Milton Junior-Senior High School since 1986, working in both the junior and senior high settings. Currently, he is teaching U.S. and World History, Sociology, Psychology, Canadian Studies, and Vermont History. The War of Words is his first WebQuest and is available for use by any U.S. History instructor at any level. Feel free to modify this WebQuest to suit your students' needs!
Social Studies -- MHS
July 1999