Unit+Outline

Hello Social Studies Community,
====In our Community of Practice sessions, our community wanted updates of the curriculum work. This email is intended to provide you that update by sharing an outline of the unit being designed for global citizenship. The unit outline is listed below. You might remember that we mentioned the unit will have a common introductory set of lessons and then break into content area strands of geography, history, and government. There would also be a culminating activity in the form of an international summit where students would tackle a problem from the perspective of another country. We've added some information into the unit design and want to share major u pdates to our work. We have accomplished the following tasks since we our Community met: ==== ====Please keep in mind that the unit will be shared with you in more detail at the Buck Institute towards the end of June through Moodle (the course management software that houses all the state's eCurriculum). If you have any questions, please feel free to email jennifer.sigrist@vmbulldogs.com. Also, don't forget to share ideas on twitter #ssia.====
 * ==== Creating prompts/problems for each of the strands ====
 * ==== Completing the lesson plans for the introductory part of the unit ====
 * ==== Identifying the need and creating mini-lessons to help build background knowledge for research ====
 * ==== Working on the content specific lessons within each of the strands ====
 * ==== Finalized the rubrics for the culminating activity ====

Global Citizenship Unit Outline Draft Created June 1, 2011 Opening lessons include the following topic/lessons There are a number of research topics addressed in the International Summit project that require some direct instruction in order for students to make meaningful connections during their research process. In order to provide teachers with some instructional options for ensuring students can understand the research, mini lessons around the following topics have been prepared to be used regardless of the strand chosen: History Strand: Geography Strand: Government Strand: Culminating Activity has three tasks for students to complete.
 * 1) Students will analyze perspectives found in different sources of information.
 * 2) Students will define, develop a common understanding of Global Citizenship.
 * 3) Students will evaluate the role of technology in establishing the relatively new term of "global citizenship"
 * 4) Optional: Students will conduct a mini-summit to understand the process using another perspective to offer solutions to a problem
 * Study of Demographics
 * Explain the characteristics of More Developed Countries(MDC) and Less Developed Countries (LDC)
 * Determine if a country is considered MDC or LDC given its demographics
 * overview of religions
 * Describe characteristics of the major world religions
 * Identify areas of the world where religions are more/less prevalent than others
 * comparative government
 * Identify democracy, theocracy, dictatorship (by group - communism - or individual), Monarchy (constitutional versus absolute)
 * What are basic characteristics of these types of governments?
 * What is the government's relationship to the individual?
 * types of economies
 * Compare and contrast characteristics of the three types of economies
 * Use economic indicators to describe the lifestyle of typical citizens of a country.
 * Problem: For the past several months, the north Africa country of Libya has been in the midst of a Civil War. Though Libya may seem like a world away it is one of the largest producers of oil in the world and holds a position of power in north Africa. Currently, the nation's leader has been in power over 30 years but has held his country together by use of questionable tactics. Additionally, Libya is in the heart of the Middle East which continues to be an area of unrest. With all the conflict in Libya there has been a global oil shortage, refugees fleeing out of the country, and continued concern that if this conflict is not resolved soon how it could affect the region's stability and global economy. So, with all of these challenges, how do you as a nation intervene with this situation in Libya?
 * Problem : In the past few months Brazil has discovered a vast reserve of oil off its coast. Because of this, your country has been invited to an international summit to determine whether the natural resource should be harvested. Will your country advocate for or against the development of the natural resource?
 * Problem: Countries all around the world are impacted by the US in Israel. In tightening financial times, the US President announces, "The US has decided to pull it's $3 billion in aid to Israel.” As Country X, how will you respond?
 * Task one is part of the strand work listed above, research. There is a check list for students to use while completing their research.
 * Task two involves writing a position paper as a group. Guidelines and a rubric is provided
 * Conduct the actual summit. There will be a teacher planning sheet to help run the actual summit
 * Task three is the individual reflection piece that serves as the culminating assessment.