The Political Times of Richard Nixon
Video and audio of President Richard Nixon, ranging from his time as Vice President to Watergate and resignation.
The iTunesU collection I created was all about former President Richard Nixon. Nixon is a compelling historical figure for me and I think makes the good basis for a unit lesson plan because he has a crucial role in most of the interesting events taking place in U.S. History from the 1950s to the mid 1970s.
As a member of Congress and Vice President, Nixon was an important figure in the anti-communist movement. While Vice President, Nixon visited the Soviet Union, engaging in the famous "Kitchen Debate". He ran in the very contentious 1960 debate against John Kennedy. He took over as President during the middle of the Vietnam War. His "silent majority" comment provided counter-point for the culture wars of the late 1960s. He took a phone call from the Apollo 11 mission. He visited China in 1972, an important event in modern U.S.-China relations. And finally, he presided over the largest political scandal in U.S. history. For these reason, Richard Nixon makes an excellent focal point for a unit lesson plan in U.S. History.
In order to make this unit lesson plan more active for the students, I would put students into an investigative/journalistic role to cover some of these events. Students could report on his role discovering the "Pumpkin Papers" and his work with the House Un-American Activities Commission. Others could cover his vice presidency and the "Kitchen Debate." Another group could report on the 1960 Presidential election. Other topics could cover the Vietnam War, the moon landing, the culture conflicts of the 1960s, his visit to China, and Watergate. Each of these topics likely have some primary documents that students could use to create their presentation.
One strength of this unit lesson plan is that there's a wealth of resources referring to Richard Nixon and his life and times. A potential weaknesses is that students may have problems finding good resources with among the myriad resources available. Another weakness is that some of the topics seem more important than the others, although I personally believe each one has value for a U.S. History classroom.
Resources:
http://www.digitalvaults.org/record/1625.html
Digitalvaults.org has a wide range of primary documents referring the the events of Nixon's political career and would be a useful resources for students investigating Nixon.
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This is a hard blog to comment on because you explained everything so thoroughly! =)
ReplyDeleteIt could be really cool if students created their own podcasts describing their findings on Richard Nixon. This adds a technological aspect to the activity. Particularly with Nixon, students would love reporting a scandal (ie Watergate). I think it would be really fun for students to pretend they are journalists and report via their podcasts.
I like how you divided the different historical events of Nixon's life among different groups. This allows students to learn more about Nixon's personal experiences as oppose to everyone researching the same topic such as the Watergate scandal. Students get to learn from their peers and do more in-depth research about their topic. I also liked how you stressed the importance of primary sources; students should learn how to research for these type of sources therefore, they can be better prepare for college.
ReplyDeleteI like seeing the Nixon idea from more of a history viewpoint! I also did the Nixon and Watergate podcasts and took more of a civics approach to student learning rather than a history approach. I never knew all that Nixon did! Its super interesting! I agree with Louisa, your blog was very thorough! I agree, there are a myriad of sources on Nixon, but I think that it will be good to help teach students how to do "good research!" This will definitely help their research skills. =)
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