Pretty standard. Doing some volunteer work and need to design a lecture outline covering the Russian Revolution to teach kids. Also: (just in case someone thinks I'm being lazy by posting on reddit about it, I'm drowning in essays and coursework man. Just need an apt summary to go about it.)
Pretty difficult task since 6th graders usually have not encountered the concept of revolution and the transition of monarchal to popular government yet. How about juxtaposing pre- and post-revolutionary Russia by listing the most important structures of both systems and the problems they faced. out of curiosity: what kind of school includes the Russian Revolution in its curriculum for 6th graders? (I'll be a teacher myself)
Assuming it's a World History Class? Is this all going to be just once lecture or several? All the depends on how much you will need to simplify or streamline the story. This is material I would probably cover over two classes. If I were cutting it down to one, I would focus more on big issues and names, not worry so much about a step by step guide to revolution. Some of it depends on how much background has been potentially covered earlier in the semester.
I like to frame lectures as questions. So what questions are we answering by talking about this?
If you haven't covered Marx and communism, you better start with a rundown on who he was and communism as a revolutionary ideology or one that is adopted by revolutionaries to varying extents in 1848 or 1871 Paris for example.
Better explain that Russia was exceptionally agrarian. Need to explain "serfdom" and why Russia appeared backwards to Western Europe where serfdom was long gone and peasants were not legally tied to their lands.
Need to explain the Czars- maybe even mention earlier attempts to revolt and the limited reforms undertaken before WW1. Should probably mention Bloody Sunday. I find student get interested when I talk about Rasputin, this would be a good place to mention him and maybe how he represents a cultural disconnect between elites and a more conservative lower class.
Then boom, WW1, and Russia's experience there. How has Russia suffered during the war- why is there discontent? How did ethnic nationalism affect Russia? What was Russia's part in starting the war? How did this feed into discontent back home.
Lenin- "peace land and bread". Why were his philosophies or why did his revolutionary agitation connect with Russians.
Then you could go into the Bolshevik vs Menshevik divide and some of the elections and the abdication of the monarchy. Then the October Revolution and the real culmination of the Russian Revolution- execution of the royal family and the descent into civil war and then 1922 creation of USSR.