Lesson Five

Materials/Texts
Text E- CIA Plan to Overthrow Mossadegh (Excerpt)
Text F- CIA Report of Intercept of Radio Tehran Broadcast, Aug. 19, 1953
Text G- New York Times article on the Return of the Shah to Iran
Text H- New York Times article on the Fallout of the Coup, Aug. 23, 1953
Text I- New York Times article on the Trial of Mohammed Mossadegh, Dec. 22, 1953
Student Interactive Notebook

Activities
This lesson’s activities utilize a Jigsaw routine.TC_Bubble A Jigsaw is a routine in which you will first work with an Expert Group to understand a specific text together, and then you will meet with a Jigsaw Group. One Expert for each text will comprise the Jigsaw Group, where each member will present what he/she has learned from the text assigned to his/her Expert Group. By fitting all of your understandings together, you will have a more complete answer to your questions about Iran, piecing together the puzzle. Follow the instructions below.

1. Individual read
Read your document carefully, making your thinking (both comprehension and historical thinking) visible using either Think-Aloud with partner note-making, or Talk to the Text. Your teacher will say which to use. Be sure to attend to the following:

  •  Roadblocks, confusions, or areas that need more probing
  •  Source information and factors that might affect your understanding of the text
  •  Any information from the text about the reason, plan, events, or result of the coup that might be added to the notetaker

To view sample student annotations from this activity, click here.

2. Expert group
In your Expert Group, go through the text sentence by sentence (or paragraph by paragraph) discussing your reading. Take turns sharing and listening.

  • Help each other with roadblocks and clarifying questions.
  • Share notes that represent your evaluation of the sources and historical thinking
  • Write a “This is about..” for the text.
  • Give ideas about what information from the text should be added to the notetaker.
  • Ensure everyone in the group feels like an “expert” and is ready to share the text and notetaker with the mixed group.

3. Individual read in preparation for the Jigsaw GroupTC_Bubble
Take x minutes to skim, and scan and read the four documents in the text set (Texts E, F, G, H, I) that you have not yet read in preparation for the Jigsaw Group. You may not have time to read all of the documents closely, so strategize how to get the most out of the texts in the time available.