This lesson takes a critical look at modern day globalization by comparing it with 19th century European imperialism through the use of documents and political cartoons. To help students understand the historical aspects of imperialism, a connection to globalization, a term they have heard before, is made. When put into a modern context, this seemingly difficult concept becomes much easier to understand for high school students. Bringing historical content into a modern context increases the relevance and engagement of students overall. This can also help boost their understanding of complex terms.
This lesson is designed to introduce students to the process of forming foreign policy in the branches of government. Students will analyze a primary document (Obama's letter to Congress) to understand the relationship among the branches of government in making foreign policy decisions. Students will connect information they have learned from the Origins podcast about the value of an historian's perspective when making foreign policy decisions. Through class discussions, small group work, and reflection students will integrate multiple sources of information (slides, discussion, podcast homework, Obama's letter) to answer the essential question; What is the value of an historian's perspective when making foreign policy decisions?
This lesson will be a look at the role morality plays in presidential elections. The lesson will require students to view different candidates for president and their standpoints on moral issues. Students will be required to identify the impact they believe morality plays in elections, and based on their own results from a survey on political party affiliation, will need to identify why issue standpoints have proven more pertinent in elections and if this hold true for them.
In this lesson, students will compare and contrast textual evidence provided by primary and secondary sources. The second learning objective is for students to evaluate the influence and importance of the media's role in public opinion of Hiroshima.
In this lesson students will begin to understand the deep complexities that go along with immigration such as governments allowing immigrants in and the difficulties migrants face to force them to immigrate. This lesson is meant to be paired with the Origins Podcast entitled "Understanding the Middle East." The podcast deals with the Syrian Civil War and why historians are so valuable to politicians to help them make educated decisions in complex issues around the globe. To study the issue of the Syrian Civil War and the population displaced by it students will compare and contrast the role of the United States in allowing immigrants into the country in the 1975 Vietnam crisis and the Syrian Civil War crisis. The students will identify differences between the two events that allowed the U.S. to accept more immigrants in 1975 than in the more current Syrian crisis. Note: this lesson should be taught after going over the fall of Saigon and the ensuing refugee crisis in 1975.
This lesson compares civil and racial inequality during the Civil Rights movement with inequality in the present. Students will examine prison population statistics to gain an understanding of the issues with America's mass incarceration system. They will chose an event and write a newspaper article about it that describes the event and its significance. Students will then choose a present day related event that connects with the article they chose from the Civil Rights movement. Students will reflect and make connections between civil and racial inequalities that have been reoccurring in America's present day society to the civil injustices that occurred during the Civil Rights era.
In this lesson, students will analyze differences and similarities between the major religions and the countries they exist in to determine whether current conflicts in the Middle East are more a result of religion or nationalism. Conflicts in the Middle East dominate current events and much speculation surrounds the core cause behind these conflicts. The main goal of this lesson is to critically examine what that core cause is behind these conflicts through secondary source text analysis. Using Origins articles provides the distinct advantage of having students read materials of historical discourse to teach them about current events and show the impact that the past has on the present.
In this lesson, students will perform a close reading of an article that focuses on the modern economic emergence of Singapore in an era characterized by the globalization of trade. This lesson is designed to develop students' abilities to comprehend, synthesize, and analyze a complex text. Students will identify and define key vocabulary in each excerpt from the article. Next, they will summarize the main idea of each excerpt. Students will then analyze the factors that have contributed to Singapore's reliance or success on trade based on the reading passage. After the analysis of the excerpts and in the closing of the lesson, students will predict the future of Singapore in the form of an exit slip.
In this lesson, students are introduced to the idea of leakers and whistleblowers as agents of deviance, whether for good or ill, within the construct of modern society. They investigate these ideas through different sociological perspectives, culminating in a debate over the relative value of these actions in society.
Within this lesson plan students work with the current Syrian Civil War crisis and look at the intricacies of the roles of government in foreign affairs. This lesson is meant to be paired with the Origins podcast entitled "It Takes a Historian to Understand the Middle East. Doesn't It?" by Jane Hathaway et al. Through this podcast students gain an understanding of the issues present in the Middle East as well as the importance of consulting historians who are familiar with the people and culture when making foreign policy decisions.
This lesson aims to educate students about barriers and walls and how they influence different countries throughout the world. Students will be comparing the Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall to the US-Mexico Border. At the beginning of the lesson, students will analyze a graph and discuss whether or not, based on the graph, they believe that the events of September 11, 2001 led to an increase in the number of walls and barriers built by various countries. Throughout the lesson, students will complete a paired text activity in which they will compare their assigned wall (either Great Wall of China or the Berlin Wall) and the US-Mexico Border, discuss how their wall influenced access to their country, as well as how the US-Mexico Border influences who can enter the United States. After completing the Paired Text activity, in groups, students will perform a Jigsaw in which they will share findings with members of the other wall's group. The lesson concludes with students discussing reasons as to why countries decide to build physical walls and barriers.