Activities
Lesson I: Owning Your Ideas of America
Opening Activity: allow students five minutes to define the following terms in their own words: democracy, freedom, equality, opportunity, popular sovereignty, and independence. As a whole class, using poster paper or the board, have the class discuss their individual definitions of each term, come to a consensus and writing the key elements for each term and write it on the poster paper. Have students compile one list titled "Our Idea of America," with an abbreviated definition of each term. Note: there are three elements of American Democracy that need to be discussed, included or added; two party system, protection of rights and free elections.
Lesson: Ask students to name countries around the world that share the same values or ideas of democracy and create a list. Assign each student one country from the list (create a list that you would like to explore, include also: Japan, South Africa, Cuba, Iraq, Nicaragua, and Germany) and allow them to choose two more to research. Have students find information regarding their countries in the CIA Fact book, see Appendix A.
Closing: Create a political spectrum on the board with "government by the people" on one end and "government controlled by one" on the other. Have students choose one of the countries they researched and place it on the spectrum explaining why they believe it should be placed where it is relative to other countries. To begin, the teacher should choose a country to place at either end of the spectrum so students have something to reference. After every student has participated, they should individually answer the following journal prompt in no less than five sentences.
Part II: Researching the Spread of American Ideas
Opening Activity: Display Table 1 on page four of the Policy Brief "Lessons from the Past: The American Record on Nation Building." 1 1 Have students individually write a minimum of 5 sentences on their analysis of the data displayed. After writing, discuss observations in small groups and then each group will summarize their findings to the whole class. Prompt a discussion with the following question: If nation building has only worked four times, why continue in this line of action?
Lesson: Split the class into three groups and assign each group one of the three US foreign policy interventions: nation building, economic sanctions and supporting political factions. Each group is responsible for researching and presenting information on their assigned US Policy, see Appendix B. Students may use PowerPoint, moviemaker, or Prezi.com in their presentations. Presentations will be graded equally from the following categories: Content, Presentation, Creativity and Participation. During presentations, have each students answer the questions from Appendix B based on the presentations from the other groups.
Closing: Have students create a double bubble thinking map comparing two of the following examples of US intervention: Japan, South Africa and Iraq, see Appendix C. Students should begin with a basic bulleted description of each example, then they will sort and categorize the information trying to determine similarities and differences.
Part III: The Idea in the Mirror, Does this Action Make Me Look Fat?
Opening Activity: Have students complete a quick write comparison essay based on the following question: Compare and contrast U.S. influence in the two countries in your double bubble map based on the type of intervention and the success of that intervention. Students should write an essay that: has a relevant thesis, supports that thesis with relevant information, that addresses the question, analyzes either similarity or difference and that directly compares a similarity and difference between the countries. Allow students at least ten minutes to write the essay, and then allow them to pair grade essays based on the College Board rubric for an AP World History Comparison Essay.
Lesson: Assign one of the following countries to students in groups of two or three and allow them to search the CNN and Newseum websites to gain an understanding of the political changes and issues taking place: Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, North Korea, China, Venezuela and Haiti. Groups should answer the following questions: What are the basic political problems this country is facing? Is there evidence of human rights violations or conflict with other countries? Is the unrest in this country a threat to the United States? If so explain. Once everyone has completed these questions, the teacher will facilitate an inner/outer circle discussion on the following question: Based on your research of US Policy Intervention, what should US action be in this country? Choose four countries for discussion first. Students who researched those countries will sit in the inner circle and participate in a discussion that answers the prompt. Inner circle students will earn credit for participating in the discussion with relevant thoughtful analysis. Outer circle students earn credit by taking notes on inner circle discussion and by forming their own opinion on US Policy Intervention. After at least twenty minutes, discussion should conclude and the next four countries will become the subject of the prompt, inner and outer circle students should swap places and the same rubric will apply. At the end of the activity, students write a response to the following question: When should the U.S. use each of the three Policy Interventions?
Closing: Allow students to create a Document Based Question that analyzes global attitudes toward US influence and intervention. See Appendix D.
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