Students will learn about the Theory of Karl Marx. Students will analyze and distinguish the differences between Communism, Capitalism, and Socialism.
10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.
Common Core:
CCSS-Literacy Reading 9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
The words Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism will be written on the board as students walk into class. The teacher will ask students to brainstorm out loud any ideas, themes, or any other preconceived notions they have about the three forms of government. The teacher will ask students to attempt and point out the differences between the three forms of government. The teacher does not expect the students to fully understand the differences but this will lead into the lesson. After the short Brainstorm out loud, the teacher will play a short video comparing Capitalism to socialism and Marxism, “Make Mine Free Video.”
The teacher will go over and define each word while the students take notes. Students will also be engaged in each of the words during the content delivery and student engagement.
Socialism
Capitalism
Communism
Karl Marx.
The teacher will pull up a short Prezi presentation for the students describing Marx’s theory. The students will be handed guided notes to accompany the presentation and will fill it out during the presentation. The teacher will also be asking students questions during the presentation in order to engage the students in the content.
Rock, Paper, Scissors Game
Game is designed to illustrate to students the differences between communism, socialism and capitalism. The teacher will divide the whole class into groups of two and give them two pieces of candy. The teacher will explain that having one piece of candy is the minimum for survival and anything more than that provides more resources to do as they wish. Some students can and will get more than two, this represents the inequality of Capitalism—some people are born into this world already at an advantage. The group will play rock/paper/scissors for a couple of minutes for those pieces of candy. Each time a player wins in a r/p/s game they get a piece of candy from their opponent. The first round the teacher will give each group of two an uneven amount of candy (making sure that one student has significantly more than the other student). Students will then play r/p/s/ for a couple of minutes. After a couple of minutes the teacher will tell the students to stop and count their candy. In most situations the student who had the most candy before the game still will have the most candy at the end. Some people who started with a very little amount of candy will end up with none after the game. And only a few players with the lesser amount of candy will end up with more at the end of the game. This part of the game is an attempt to demonstrate capitalism. The second round the teacher will give all the students an equal amount of candy. At the end of the round, most of the students should still have about the same amount of candy or only a little less than their partners. This part of the game demonstrates socialism. Next, the teacher will take all the candy away from the students and they will react angrily. The teacher will ask the students what would appease them or keep them happy. The students respond by asking for their candy back. So the teacher gives them just as much as they needed to be survive, one. This part of the activity demonstrates communism.
After the end of the game, the students will be asked to answer questions debriefing the Rock, Paper, Scissors game. The completed questions will be their exit slip from the class.