SMART TASK Key Stage 4 Deciphering a Cold War cartoon, using the slow reveal technique.

stalin cartoon

The interactive PowerPoint presentation of the famous Stalin’ The Birdwatcher’ cartoon encourages students to add layers of meaning as more and more of the cartoon is revealed. They then have to guess the date from the internal clues, before seeing a detailed animated version.

Cartoon reproduced with permission of Punch Ltd. www.punch.co.uk

Resources

Lesson or enquiryHistorical focus
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Teaching international relations, 1945–1990Overview and planning
Who started the Korean War?Responsibility for the outbreak of war
The Marshall Plan: how should we interpret it? Just how philanthropic was it?Motives and interpretations of US aid
The end of the Cold War: taking a fresh lookApproaches to explaining the Cold War’s end
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Why did the US lose the war in Vietnam? A piece of cake?Explaining US defeat in Vietnam
How close to World War Three did the world come in the 65 years after World War Two?Post-war conflict and international tensions
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Written by Neil Thompson

All content on Keystage history is written and quality assured by Neil Thompson, a former history teacher, county history adviser and Ofsted inspector with more than 30 years’ experience in history education.

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