Second version of the cryptography video, featuring more explicit supports for note-taking - the blue boxes provide suggestions for main ideas and takeaways.
Messages deciphered by the Enigma team, using a simple substitution cipher.
Battleship-style board for keeping track of plane, ship, and submarine locations from the messages.
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Part I: Cryptography VideoThis lesson centers on a ‘flipped classroom’ video I edited together to offer students basic knowledge about breaking the Enigma code and about Navajo code talkers. For homework (to establishing prior knowledge), I asked students to take notes on the content of the video. In addition to the content, the video is designed to develop and scaffold note-taking skills in a differentiated manner. I made two versions of the video: The first only features prompts to pause the video and take notes at certain points, while the second offers significantly more note-taking scaffolding. These videos are an attempt to address several questions/problems: 1) How to create a successful ‘flipped classroom’ video for a history class, 2) how to teach and scaffold note-taking skills, and 3) how to successfully differentiate a lesson and provide academic equity for students.
Part II: Enigma and Navajo Code Talkers Cryptography GameTo solidify students' understanding of the importance of intelligence and codes during WWII, I had students play a cryptography game of my own design in class. The class was divided into two teams, with one team working to decipher "Enigma" messages (in reality, just a simple substitution cipher), and the other team working to decipher messages in Navajo using adapted section from the Navajo Code Talker Dictionary.
Each team was divided into 4-person decryption units, with each person in the unit performing a different part of the decryption process. For example, on the Navajo Code Talker side, the dictionary was split up into pieces, so the unit had to rely on each other to fully decrypt the message from the Navajo into its literal English meaning, then from the literal meaning into its encoded, military meaning. Both teams had 15 minutes to decipher as many messages as possible, pulling a new message from the bowl as soon as they'd completed the previous one. Each message gave information about the position of a plane, ship, or submarine, with units keeping track of this information on a Battleship-style grid. Adapted section from the Navajo Code Talker dictionary, which was divided up among members of each decryption unit.
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