Trotsky and the Splitting of the Socialist Democratic Workers' Party.

Lenin; the leader of the Bolshevik faction, and Martov; an historical footnote.

From a teacher's point of view, untangling the political landscape of Socialist Russia circa 1900-1905 can be a little tricky. I see one of the primary challenges as this:

How do I make this interesting or clear enough for my students to remember it? 

Of course, there are other issues to consider as well, like: 

• How much of this stuff is going to be relevant to the study of Trotsky?
• How do I avoid getting bogged down in just teaching content rather than skills?
• How can I check that students have taken in what I want them to take in?

What follows is a single lesson that covers the narrative of Trotsky's first escape from Russia, his meeting with Lenin in London, the split of the Socialist Democratic Workers' Party into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, and the Menshevik attempt to ally themselves with the Liberals.

It's a lot to ask students to process all this, especially when it concerns such a small segment of Trotsky's overall story, so I've deliberately kept my PowerPoint presentation quite simplistic in terms of detail. The real goal of the lesson is for students to be able to take in this information and then retell it in their own words. Here's a breakdown of the lesson and resources:

1. Move through the PPT with the students, reading each slide out and clarifying details. This presentation covers the narrative.

2. Students use the Scaffold Grid to summarise the PPT. For each slide, students are to write one point into a square of the grid. There are 12 squares for the 12 slides.

3a. Ask students to read over the notes they've put into the Scaffold Grid. Then tell them to flip the sheet over so they can't see what they've written. The final step is for students to retell the story of Trotsky and the Bolsheviks/Mensheviks using their (fresh) memory. The previous sheet should assist the students in building up their summary skills before they are asked to work in a semi-exam condition where they can't rely on their notes.

3b. It is, of course, possible to negotiate with your students. I might say to one, "You may look at your notes only 3 times while writing the 'story' out". The important thing is that they just have a go and try to increase their reliance on themselves because - as we all know - once they sit down in the HSC exam 'themselves' is all they've got. The trick is to get them writing without having to refer to any notes.

Resources:

1. PowerPoint presentation

2. Scaffold Grid