SAMPLE LESSON PLANS EMBEDDED
WITH GLOBAL COMPETENCIES
Unit 1: History of Agriculture: Suplus, Systems, & Security
Stage 1 – Desired Results
ESTABLISHED GOALS
Students will be able to explain how agriculture and food surplus changed lifestyles around the world by accelerating cultural development and an increasing societal complexity.
Students will be able to explain the positive and negative impacts of agriculture and food surplus.
Students will create discussion and research questions to guide research and inquiry.
Students will cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of a variety of texts.
Students will compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics.
Transfer
Students will be able to independently use their learning to…
apply lessons from the history of food to address local and global food insecurity issues.
Meaning
UNDERSTANDINGS
Students will understand that…
Agriculture, food surplus, and the evolution of the food system has positive and negative effects on society.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Why are 820 billion people starving daily when food has never been in such abundance?
How have changes in the food system affected lifestyles?
Have these changes been for the benefit of humanity?
What lessons can be learned from the history of food?
Acquisition
Students will know…
The history of food in a variety of locations.
How the food system works.
Students will be skilled at…
Creating discussion and research questions, using textual evidence to support claims, and analyzing concepts relating to food security from two or more perspectives.
Stage 2 – Evidence
Evaluative Criteria
Assessment Evidence
1. Inquisitive, Listens to others’ perspectives, incorporates and expands on others’ ideas, promotes deeper analysis
2. Clearly articulated, insightful, well researched
3. Clear symbolism, includes diverse contributions, organized
4. Detailed, Accurate
5. Collaborative, Productive
6. Thoughtful, Relevant, Diverse
TRANSFER TASK(S):
1. Teaching Boxes: Research the impact of agriculture on one of the 8 features of civilization. Decorate three sides of a box to illustrate how agriculture caused the feature to become more complex & diverse through time.
2. You Don’t Know Hunger Poems: Layer hunger experiences from personal to local to global perspectives into a poem that expresses those experiences.
3. Food Aid Concentric Circles: Support or Attack the US Food Aid Policy.
OTHER EVIDENCE:
4. Textmaster Team Reports
5. Inquiry Chart Completion
6. Higher Order Question Creation
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction
1. Station Anticipation Guide – 4 topic exploration stations: a food game, photos of different families’ monthly food purchases from different nations’, and an interactive chart displaying the accessibility and quality of food in different locations and a map of hunger station.
2. Textmaster Teams – Traditional Lit Circle with Background Readings
3. Inquiry Chart: Chart to compare and contrast two perspectives on the impact of farming. One is from the textbook (Ch. 1 sect. 2) and the other is an article found on the Internet.
4. Teaching Box Teams – See notes above
5. Surplus Essay – Use Focused Question Cards to write & revise an essay regarding teaching box presentations.
6. Food Systems Text Talk Teams – Create open ended historical inquiry questions for discussion on food systems & food security.
7. You Don’t Know Hunger Poems – see description above
8. Food Aid Concentric Circle – see description above
9. I Can Collage - Class collage of solutions to food insecurity that students can participate in.
Unit 4: Evolution of Democracy
Stage 1 Desired Results
ESTABLISHED GOALS
Students describe the diverse contributions of several cultures, eras & documents to the establishment and continual evolution of the US governmental system.
Students can describe select government systems and evaluate the individualist and/or collectivist nature of the systems and their impact on culture.
Students can explain the cultural and hierarchical tension between absolutism and the divine right of kings and emerging philosophies of the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment and relate these tensions to differing modern political philosophies.
Transfer
Students will be able to independently use their learning to…
Identify places/times when basic human rights and freedoms are not recognized.
Apply historical knowledge about the evolution of democracy to current developments towards rights-based governing in diverse situations.
Identify ways they can support the preservation of human rights in our nation and the world.
Meaning
Students will understand that…
Modern democracies have evolved from past systems and continue to evolve to preserve the rights of citizens.
There are conflicting views on the fairness of the American democratic system and that other systems have contributed to the preservation of natural rights as well.
That there is still tension between the political philosophies of absolutism and democracy.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Where do my rights and freedoms come from?
Do others deserve/have rights and freedoms?
Do I have a moral obligation to defend others’ rights and freedoms?
What is the appropriate balance between self-rule and federal rule?
Why does local control matter?
Why is the Paleolithic model of consensus and equality important in modern government?
Acquisition
Students will know…
Specific documents that were precursors to our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
How European nations developed differently.
How different understandings of the philosophical concepts of Natural Rights and Social Contract lead to different governing systems.
Engaging in critical discourse ensures the preservation of natural rights and freedoms.
Students will be skilled at…
Interpreting legal /government primary source documents.
Demonstrating how changes in legal and government systems in different time periods would impact a legal decision.
Demonstrate the use of critical discourse to improve collaboration and inclusion.
Finding links between documents and philosophical perspectives.
Creating dialogue out of differences by being able to restate a concern, position or value from another political system/position without distorting it.
Stage 2 – Evidence
Evaluative Criteria
Assessment Evidence
1. Inquisitive, Listens to others’ perspectives, incorporates and expands on others’ ideas, promotes deeper analysis
2. Clearly articulated, insightful, well researched
3. Clear symbolism, includes diverse contributions, organized
4. Detailed, Accurate
5. Collaborative, Productive
6. Thoughtful, Relevant, Diverse
TRANSFER TASK(S):
1. Fish Bowl Discussion: Research a law/rule you dislike. Listen to a person who likes the law/rule. Discuss opposing viewpoints regarding it. Restate opposing view. Create a law/rule change that would more fully meet needs of all parties.
2. Trial of Socrates Transfer: Research Socrates’ trial. Research trials in a different time periods and locations. Create a skit where he is tried in the different time period/location and determine what his punishment would be in the different time period (and if he would be punished).
3. Visual Essay: Create a learning diagram that symbolizes the evolution of democracy and incorporates representations of several documents/ideas leading to the creation of our government system. Include symbols of opposing modern governing systems from other nations.
OTHER EVIDENCE:
4. Primary Source Notes
5. Observation of group work
6. Higher Order Question Creation
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction
1. Purpose/Necessity of Government Inquiry – series of readings from different areas/eras on the need/purpose of government ending with an analysis of the Preamble of the US Constitution.
2. Fishbowl Discussions – see description above
3. Types of Government Inquiry Readings – Sumerian, Greek, Roman, Feudalism, Italian City-State, French Absolutism vs English Parliamentary
4. Primary Source Inquiry: Hammurabi’s Code, Court of Athens, 12 Tables/Law of Nations, Justinian’s Code, Magna Carta, Petition of Right, English Common Law, English/US Bill of Rights
5. Trial of Socrates Transfer Skits – See notes above
6. Trial of Socrates Discussion/Era Comparison – Create open ended historical inquiry questions for discussion on balancing protection of rights with national security paralleling both “fair” and “unfair” aspects of era trials compared to US & international trials today.
7. Visual Essay – see description above
8. Written Essay – In what time/place would Socrates have obtained the most fair trial? Choose one era/place from this unit and explain in detail how the documents and ideas of that era have contributed to the modern democratic movements.
9. Following an economics unit the evolution of democracy topic will be revisited in the final course unit (Unit 6) with analysis of current Middle East Conflicts with a comparison between the evolution of democracy in Europe and the US with the current democratic movements in the Middle East.