Transcription
The “Dot” Activity
Directions: You will participate in an activity in whichyou will form groups based on your secretidentities You will each receive a piece of paper Some are blank Some have a dot drawn on them There are fewer dots than non-dots When you receive your piece of paper youmust secretly look at it. If you receive a dotyou must not reveal it to anyone. When you are done looking hide it or put it in yourpocket
Goal of Activity: The goal of the activity is to form aslarge of a group of “non-dot” members aspossible Points: The largest group of “non-dot” students willwin points The whole group will lose if there is one “dot”member in your group “Dot” members will win points for being theonly dot in a group
Advice: Since everyone in the class will denyhaving a dot you must look for anyindication of suspicion If you suspect someone has a dot youshould say out loud, “Bob is a dot!” If you are a “Dot” then you must bluff toconvince others that you are not a dot.
Ready? What questions do you have? On GO: You have 5 minutes to talk toeach other and form groups with “nondot” members. When I turn off the lights, you mustfreeze in your place and talking mustend immediately. No exceptions.
GO!Online Stopwatch
So, what? This activity was designed to allow you toexperience the anti-communism hysteria andsuspicion of the McCarthy Era in U.S. Historyduring the 1950’s During this era, Americans turned on theirfellow citizens and denounced them asCommunist sympathizers based on little to noevidence If you were a “dot,” what were you? Guilt by Association: If students were friendswith suspected “dots,” they were accused ofbeing “dots.”
Now you will learn aboutanti-communism during the1950’s & the McCarthy EraWorksheet
Watch Him!
HUAC & the Hollywood Ten HUAC- House Un-American Activities Committee Congressional Committee whose original purpose was toinvestigate ALL radical groups in the U.S., including fascistand socialist, but over time it came to focus only on thecommunist threat. Hollywood Ten was a group of screenwriters who wereaccused of being Communist during the McCarthy Era They did not cooperate with the House Un-AmericanActivities Committee's investigation, They refused to admit to being in the Communist Party They wouldn’t provide any names of others who might beCommunists Punished! The ten were fined and sentenced to a year in jail. They were also blacklisted from working in the film industryin Hollywood, until the 1960's when the ban was lifted.
Hollywood Ten:
Protester to Free the Hollywood Ten
HUAC INVESTIGATIONSWhat was the artist tryingto communicate aboutHUAC in this cartoon?What does the carrepresent?What is happening to thepeople who are in thecar’s path?
McCarthyism
Who is Joseph McCarthy? Republican Senator Famous anti-Communistactivists Why did he do this? He wanted to be reelected, sohe needed a good issue He claimed that Communistwere taking over thegovernment Claimed he had a list of 205known Communist working inthe U.S. Department of State. His tactics: Sensationalism Bullying
McCarthyism: The practice of publicizing accusations ofpolitical disloyalty with little to noevidence 1950-1954 What happen then? People got sick of it! They didn’t like the way he treated people inthe courts.
How did the TV help/hurt McCarthy?
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What should our country’s leaders bemore focused on protecting – securityof the nation or freedom of thenation’s people? Should this change?Should it remain the same? Why?
Some have a dot drawn on them There are fewer dots than non-dots When you receive your piece of paper you must secretly look at it. If you receive a dot you must not reveal it to anyone. . Red Scare Dot Activity Author: ATrost Created Date: 2/22/2011 2:35:56 PM .
