Grade 11 Cold War origins: defending Schlesinger, Williams or Gaddis on Padlet

Grade 11 (Year 12, age 16 to 17) · 60 min · 1 device per student

The teacher posts short extracts from three historians on the origins of the Cold War: Arthur Schlesinger Jr (orthodox), William Appleman Williams (revisionist) and John Lewis Gaddis's 1972 study (post-revisionist). The Padlet has one column per historian, and each student posts a 150-word defence of the interpretation they find most convincing in that column, quoting the extract and citing one piece of evidence such as the Long Telegram or the Marshall Plan. Each student then replies to one post in a different column with a counter-argument. The teacher looks at the size of each column, invites the smallest camp to open the plenary debate, and ends by asking students to name the evidence that would make them change sides.

Why this is Interactive Amplify

Students read, judge and defend interpretations the teacher has chosen, and reply to classmates' arguments, working with existing scholarship rather than writing a new interpretation. Padlet sorts every defence into its historian's column as it is posted and threads the counter-arguments beneath, so the teacher can see the balance of opinion and choose who opens the debate.

Compared with

Students write a defence in their notes and the teacher takes a show of hands before a whole-class debate.

Watch out

If students wrote an extended essay setting out their own interpretation, that would be producing a new piece and sit in Creative.

Tools: Padlet Nine ideas for your own version in Generate

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Grade 11 Cold War origins: defending Schlesinger, Williams or Gaddis on Padlet.

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