The Learning Circle Teacher Guide provides a structural approach to promoting cross-classroom collaboration with telecommunications. The first chapter is a condensed version of the whole guide. If you want to understand this model of online teaching and learning, this first chapter is a good place to begin.

The Learning Circle Teacher Guide provides a structural approach to promoting cross-classroom collaboration with telecommunications. The first chapter is a condensed version of the whole guide. If you want to understand this model of online teaching and learning, this first chapter is a good place to begin.

Learning Circle Introduction

The Learning Circle Teacher's Guide is organized around the six phases of Circle interaction:

Getting Ready for Learning Circles
Opening the Learning Circle
Planning the Learning Circle Projects
Exchanging Student Work on Learning Circle Projects
Organizing the Circle Publication
Closing the Learning Circle

Computer Chronicles Learning Circles
The material in this section parallels the Teacher's Guide and presents suggestions or ideas that are specific to the Computer Chronicles Theme. This is an outline of the content in this section related to the different phases of Circle interaction. This file can be read from beginning to end to understand the Computer Chronicles theme. Or, using the "hypertext" links from the phase structure of Learning Circles, it is easy to move back and forth from the phase structure of a Learning Circle to these theme specific examples. At the end of each set of Computer Chronicles examples and ideas, there is a button to make it easy to return to the general description of the Learning Circle phase.

Introduction to Learning Circle--Computer Chronicles

Computer Chronicles Learning Circle
Educational Benefits of a Computer Chronicles Learning Circle
Learning Circle Task of a Computer Chronicles Learning Circle
Learning Circle Timeline

Phase 1: Getting Ready
Narrative: "Be Prepared" is a great motto!
Introduction
Learning Circle Interaction
Teacher Preparation
Student Preparation
Your Learning Circle Theme and Project
Managing Electronic Mail
Teacher Comments
Getting Ready Checklist

Introduction

Participation in a Learning Circle can be a very rewarding experience for both students and teachers.

For teachers, it provides a way to team-teach with many different teachers in a virtual classroom. Developing working relationships with teachers all over the globe enables teachers to develop a very strong sense of the field of teaching. This professional development is more current and dynamic than more traditional avenues of education.

For students, working in a collaborative setting with peers around the world gives them a wider perspectives on issues and a greater understanding of similarities and differences. The work with others can be a powerful mirror that will help them see who they are, where they live, and who they live with in new way.

Now is a great time to have a discussion about expectations and procedures so that you and your students will have a successful experience in their Learning Circles. At the beginning of each of the phase descriptions is a short narrative that describes the Learning Circle experience from the perspective of a single teacher in an Hawaiian classroom.

iEARN GLOBAL
LEARNING CIRCLES
WEBSITE

Learning Circles: Setting the Standard for Excellence in K-12 Student Telecollaborative Project Work Since 1987;
Proudly Part of the iEARN Network Since 1995

Learning Circles are highly interactive, project-based partnerships among a small number of schools located throughout the world. There are two sessions each year, September - January and January - May. To join iEARN Learning Circles, you must first be a member of iEARN and complete an iEARN Learning Circle placement form two weeks before the beginning of the session. Once you complete the placement form you will be placed in a Circle for the next session.

MY HERO Learning Circle
by Wendy Jewell , The Schoolers

Subject Area: Art/Music, English/Language Arts, Social Science, Technology/Media Literacy

Grade Level: K-4, 5-8, 9-12

Overview/Purpose:

The MY HERO Project, in partnership with iEARN's Learning Circles, brings together students and teachers from diverse parts of the world to collaborate on the topic of heroism through writing, digital art and/or short films.

There are two sessions per school year, each lasting 4 months. These interactive sessions allow kids to discover not only who or what inspires them, but also who or what is a hero to someone halfway around the world. Over the 16-week session, circles, made up of between 6-9 classes from around the world, exchange class surveys, welcome packets and ideas about heroism over the Internet and through the mail. There are weekly missives from the MY HERO Learning Circle facilitator to keep everyone on track and working towards completion of their own hero stories, art or short films. When finished, everyone has a chance to share each other's work and share their thoughts about each other's heroes.

Resources

For more information about getting started in iEARN projects Click here.

Title: We Are Teenagers

Summary: Project allows young people to learn about popular fascinations of their peers and choose possible new hobbies for themselves.

Description: Everyone has their own individual interesting particularities. We have decided to create a website to help young people to learn about the most popular youth fascinations worldwide and about the possibilities for self-expression among young people.

Resources

For more information about getting started in iEARN projects Click here.

Title: My Identity, Your Identity

Summary: Students talk about their traditional celebrations and the famous monuments and landmarks in their countries.

Description:
Students are encouraged to explore and research the elements that form their identities. These elements include the traditions and the famous landmarks, which are part of their cultures and identities. Students talk about the traditional celebrations they have and how they celebrate them.

This lesson can be used in a unit on the Civil Rights Movement or as a part of a Character Education unit focusing on discrimination and stereotyping. It is a modified version of a lesson developed for an exhibition organized by the International Center for Photography in conjunction with the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The exhibition features works drawn exclusively from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery .

This lesson is best used within an "identity" unit, or as a means to learn about your students at the beginning of the school year. Your students will be able to write autobiographical essays highlighting how their life experiences and the individuals in their lives have helped them develop into who they are today. This is taught via explicit modeling. Therefore, although a sample model essay is included, it is a good idea to write your own autobiographical essay to better connect with your students.

OBJECTIVE
Students will be able to create autobiographical essays.
Students will be able to use appropriate adjectives to describe themselves.
Students will be able to use a graphic organizer to plan their written pieces.
MATERIALS
"Who Am I" graphic organizer (PDF) for each student
Model "Who Am I" essay (PDF) for each student
Essay rubric (PDF) for each student
Exit slip (PDF) for each student
Transparency paper
Overhead projector

Instead of waiting for a Hollywood movie studio to produce a film version of a popular novel, enlist the creativity of your students to make their own. Storyboarding, researching, and learning the art of film-making is the ULTIMATE way to test comprehension and increase learning about the novel style of literature.

OBJECTIVE
Watch students develop comprehension and increase learning while researching characters, storyboarding plots and learning the art of film-making by translating a novel into a Hollywood-style digital movie.

MATERIALS
At least five iBooks or Macintosh computers OR PCs
iMovie (Mac) or Windows Movie Maker (PC)
MS PowerPoint
Video camera or Flip Video
Digital cameras (2-4)
Microphones
Scanner
Internet access
Novel of choice (Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers will be used as an example)
Chart Paper and colored pencils for storyboarding (you will be posting these around the room)

OBJECTIVE
Students will:

Learn/re-learn the purpose of statistical data
Learn/re-learn how to work with various forms of statistical data
Investigate how data is gathered, analyzed and used
Learn/re-learn how to gather specific information from statistical data charts and graphs
Write summary statements of selected data
Learn/re-learn how data can be used to support one position on a topic
MATERIALS
Juvenile Justice Student Guide
Juvenile Justice Statistics (DOJ)

In order to examine our essential question of: If a teen commits a crime, would justice be served if he/she were punished like an adult who commits the same crime? Students need to have a strong understanding of the concept of JUSTICE.

OBJECTIVE
Students will:

Use a graphic organizer to classify ideas of the concept of JUSTICE
Hear and see examples of the use of the word and create their own examples
Learn/re-learn parts of the word, JUSTICE, in order to connect to related concepts
Become experts at using, explaining, and understanding the word and concept of JUSTICE
Teacher will:

Facilitate a gradual release of responsibility to students towards garnering an understanding of a key concept and vocabulary word.

MATERIALS
Juvenile Justice Study Guide (PDF), page 4: Concept Organizer "WHAT IS JUSTICE?" (one per student)
Overhead transparency of page 4 or use of a document camera for leading instruction and learning.

OBJECTIVE
Students will:

• Use a writing template that encourages exploration of their cultural heritage.
• Practice reading aloud their poems through spoken word presentations.
• Interview family members and co-write a cultural heritage poem using the same writing template.
• Explore diverse mediums of expression for sharing their poems with an audience.
MATERIALS

• "I Am From" Poem Template
• One copy of De donde yo soy/Where I'm From by Levi Romero
SET UP AND PREPARE
• Make copies "I am From" Poem Template. Two for each student.
• Prepare to read De donde yo soy/Where I'm From poem by Levi Romero to class and/or other cultural heritage writings such as "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon (www.georgeellalyon.com) and cultural heritage writings by Hispanic poets, youth and children available at www.nationalhispaniccenter.org

Suggested Talks for TEDxYouthDay

These TEDTalks are recommended for showing at TEDxYouthDay events.

• Arthur Benjamin does “Mathemagic”
• Arthur Benjamin’s formula for changing math education
• Richard Preston on the giant trees
• Roy Gould and Curtis Wong previes the Worldwide Telescope
• David Gallo shows underwater astonishments
• David Gallo on life in the deep ocenas
• Jill Bolte Taylor’s powerful stroke of insight
• David Bolinsky animates a cell
• Isabel Allende tells tales of passion
• Bruno Bowden folds while Rufus Cappadocia plays
• Robert Lang folds way-new origami
• Erin McKean redefines the dictionary
• Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when
• Hans Rosling at state
• Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen
• Hans Rosling: The truth about HIV
• Hans Rosling reveals new insights on poverty
• Wade Davis on endangered cultures
• Wade Davis on the worldwide web of belief and ritual
• J.J. Abrams’ mystery box
• Frans Lanting’s lyrical nature photos
• Dennis VanEngelsdorp: A plea for bees
• Rives on 4 a.m.
• Rives tells a story of mixed emoticons
• Rives controls the Internet
• Jill Sobule sings to Al Gore
• Vusi Mahlasela sings “Thula Mama”
• Raul Midon plays “Everybody” and “Peace on Earth”
• Raul Midon plays “All the Answers”
• Kenichi Ebina’s magic moves
• Dean Kamen on inventing and giving
• Dean Kamen previews a new prosthetic arm
• Ben Saunders skis to the North Pole
• Gever Tulley’s Tinkering School in action
• Gever Tulley on 5 dangerous things for kids
• Larry Lessig says the law is strangling creativity
• Sheila Patek clocks the fastest animals
• Steven Johnson on the Web as a city
• Steven Johnson tours the Ghost Map
• Sirena Huang dazzles on the violin
• Jennifer Lin improvs piano magic
• They Might Be Giants play at 8:30 a.m.
• Ursus Wehli tidies up art
• Keith Barry does brain magic
• Evelyn Glennie shows how to listen
• Pilobolus perform “Symbiosis”
• Michael Moschen juggles rhythm and motion
• Lennart Green does close-up card magic
• Clifford Stoll on everything
• Helen Fisher studies the brain in love
• Helen Fisher tells us why we love, cheat
• Paul Sereno digs up dinosaurs
• David Perry on videogames
• Robert Ballard on exploring the oceans
• Toys from the future
• Ann Cooper talks school lunches
• Jonathan Drori: Why we’re storing billions of seeds
• Jonathan Drori on what we think we know
• Charles Elachi on the Mars rovers
• Tim Brown on creativity and play
• Johnny Lee demos Wii remote hacks
• Tierney Thys swims with the giant sunfish
• Robert Full: Learning from the gecko’s tail
• Robert Full on animal movement
• Robert Full on engineering and evolution
• Susan Savage-Rumbaugh on apes that write
• Deborah Gordon digs ants
• Eva Vertes looks to the future of medicine
• Ken Robinson says schools kill
• Carolyn Porco: Could a Saturn moon harbor life
• George Dyson on Project Orion
• Einstein the Parrot talks and squawks
• Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows
• Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
• Theo Jansen creates new creatures
• Jonathan Harris tells the Web’s secret stories
• Bill Stone explores the Earth and space

Suggested Talks | TEDxYouthDay 2011

TEDxYouthDay
November 20, 2011
On November 20 — Universal Children’s Day — TEDx organizers across the globe will host events for (and by) young people. These TEDxYouthDay events will vary widely in size, format and theme, but they will share a common vision: inspiring curiosity, igniting new ideas, empowering young leaders.

To blog is to share and to share is to grow =D

Curriculum Units

All Choices curriculum units include extensive background readings, primary sources, a framework of policy options, rigorous student-centered lesson plans, and a role-play exercise that encourages students to apply their knowledge in an authentic setting.

Series

List of All Titles

Between World Wars: FDR and the Age of Isolationism

Using maps, transcripts, audio, photos, statistics, timelines, and simulations, students examine the inter-war years and recreate the American debate over the Lend-Lease Act.

See Details

Beyond Manifest Destiny: America Enters the Age of Imperialism

Readings, primary sources, and simulations enable students to probe the political and ethical issues raised by the Spanish-American War and consider its relevance for today.

See Details

Brazil: From Colony to Democracy

Students explore the choices Brazilians faced as their country transitioned to democracy in the mid-1980s and examine historical forces that informed debate.

See Details

Caught Between Two Worlds: Mexico at the Crossroads

Readings, maps, artwork, documents, and simulations enable students to see the world through Mexican eyes and to contemplate current Mexican policy choices.

See Details

The Challenge of Nuclear Weapons

Students use readings, primary sources, and simulations to examine the history of nuclear weapons, explore arguments for and against them, and consider current challenges.

See Details

Challenge to the New Republic: The War of 1812

Students use primary sources and readings to immerse themselves in the struggle to establish the new federal government's role in foreign policy.

See Details

China on the World Stage: Weighing the U.S. Response

Using readings, documents, statistics, timelines, and simulations, students explore the history of U.S. relations with China and consider the global impact of China's transformation.

See Details

Colonialism in the Congo: Conquest, Conflict, and Commerce

Drawing on readings, testimonials, and other primary sources, students recreate the international debate about the future of what as then the Congo Free-State.

See Details

Competing Visions of Human Rights: Questions for U.S. Policy

Students use readings, case studies, and primary sources to examine the role human rights has played in international politics.

See Details

Conflict on the Korean Peninsula: North Korea and the Nuclear Threat

This Lesson helps students better understand the domestic and international issues around North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

See Details

Confronting Genocide: Never Again?

Through case studies, primary sources, and simulations, students trace the evolution of the international community's response to genocide and consider how to respond in the future.

See Details

Contesting Cuba's Past and Future

Readings, and simulations, and primary sources help students step into the shoes of ordinary Cubans to consider Cuba's future in the post-Castro era.

See Details

Crisis in Zimbabwe

This Current Issues Lesson helps students better understand the current political, economic, and health crises in Zimbabwe.

See Details

The Cuban Missile Crisis: Considering its Place in Cold War History

Using declassified documents and other primary sources, students explore the dynamics of the Cold War and step into the shoes of President Kennedy's ExComm during the crisis.

See Details

Dilemmas of Foreign Aid: Debating U.S. Policies

Readings, speeches, statistics, case studies and simulations enable students to examine U.S. aid policy and explore the ethical dilemmas faced by policy makers.

See Details

To End All Wars: World War I and the League of Nations Debate

Using readings, primary sources, and simulations, students explore the causes and effects of World War I at home and abroad.

See Details

Ending the War Against Japan: Science, Morality, and the Atomic Bomb

Through readings, simulations, and primary sources, students explore the political, military, and ethical issues involved in the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

See Details

Teacher's Guide for The Fog of War

This guide provides a series of lesson plans to accompany Errol Morris' Academy Award wining full-length documentary. [Teacher's Guide only; DVD not included]

See Details

A Forgotten History: The Slave Trade and Slavery in New England

With readings, letters, maps, statistics, and simulations, students explore the triangular trade, the nature of slavery in New England, and the impact on life then and now.

See Details

Freedom in Our Lifetime: South Africa's Struggle

Using primary sources, and simulations, students consider the issues faced by opponents of apartheid and recreate the debate among Black, coloured, and Asian South Africans in 1961.

See Details

The French Revolution

Using readings, primary sources, role-plays, and simulations, students consider the issues facing France at a time of social and political upheaval.

See Details

A Global Controversy: The U.S. Invasion of Iraq

Students recreate the debate surrounding the decision to go to war, assess the war's impact in the United States, Iraq, and beyond. This unit will ship in summer 2011.

See Details

Global Environmental Problems: Implications for U.S. Policy

Drawing on primary sources, graphs, readings, and simulations, students assess global environmental problems and possible solutions from multiple perspectives.

See Details

The Haitian Revolution

Readings, primary sources, maps, simulations, and a digital timeline enable students to explore the history of Haiti and consider the legacies of the revolution.

See Details

Indian Independence and the Question of Pakistan

Using readings, primary sources, maps, and simulations, students examine the origins of independence and its legacy today.

See Details

International Trade: Competition and Cooperation in a Globalized World

Drawing on readings, statistics, and simulations, students explore the basics of international trade and consider its role in this era of globalization.

See Details

Iran Through the Looking Glass: History, Reform, and Revolution

Using readings, primary sources, and a digital timeline, students trace the history of Iran, explore the conditions that led to the 1979 revolution, and consider the legacy today.

See Details

The Limits of Power: The United States in Vietnam

Using maps, cartoons, and primary sources, students evaluate how successive U.S. administrations perceived the situation in Vietnam, weighed the stakes, and implemented policy.

See Details

A More Perfect Union: American Independence and the Constitution

Using primary sources, role-play, and simulations, students examine the context in which the U.S. Constitution was framed.

See Details

The Origins of the Cold War: U.S. Choices after World War II

Drawing on primary sources, statistics, a timeline, and selected biographies, students engage in the national debate on the U.S. role in the world in 1946.

See Details

Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy

With readings, primary sources, statistics, cartoons, and case studies, students prepare for a simulated debate in the U.S. Senate on the U.S. response to terrorism.

See Details

Russia's Transformation: Challenges for U.S. Policy

Using readings, maps, graphs, cartoons, primary sources, and simulations, students explore Russia's history and consider our country's relationship with Russia and its neighbors.

See Details

The Russian Revolution

Using readings, speeches, political reports, art, music, statistics, maps, and simulations, students explores events leading up to the Bolsheviks' assumption of power.

See Details

Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East

Drawing on maps, literature, cartoons, primary sources, and simulations, students examine the history of U.S. involvement in the Middle East from 1900 to the present.

See Details

The United States in Afghanistan

Students use primary source documents, readings, and new media sources as they consider the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

See Details

U.S. Immigration Policy in an Unsettled World

Drawing on statistics, speeches, and commission reports, students examine the historical and current dimensions of the issue and consider the current debate from multiple perspectives.

See Details

The U.S. Role in a Changing World

Readings, primary sources, political cartoons, maps, statistics, and simulations draw students into the promise and uncertainty of the modern era.

See Details

The United Nations: Challenges and Change

Using primary sources, charts, case studies, and simulations, students examine the historical origins of the UN and consider its role in the world today from multiple perspectives.

See Details

Weimar Germany and the Rise of Hitler

Using political posters, songs, art and literature as well as laws and speeches, students recreate the moment of the Reichstag elections in July 1932 and consider its legacy.

See Details

Westward Expansion: A New History

Students use readings, primary sources, and an in-depth case study to explore U.S. westward expansion from multiple perspectives.

See Details

Film Guides

The Fog of War

The official Teacher's Guide for the Academy Award winning documentary, The Fog of War. This provocative movie by the filmmaker Errol Morris examines issues of war and peace in the twentieth century through the lens of one of the century's pivotal figures. Robert McNamara offers his account of the century just past, as he remembers participating in it, as well as his reflections on its meaning for the twenty-first century.

Teacher's Guide Ordering Information | Film Website

 

The Official Teacher's Guide to Virtual JFK

This guide is designed to help students think about complex issues raised by Virtual JFK. The film investigates one of the most debated "what if" scenarios in the history of U.S. foreign policy: What would President John F. Kennedy have done in Vietnam if he had not been assassinated in 1963, and had he been elected in 1964? The story takes place in the midst of the Cold War and tempestuous partisan politics in the United States.

Teacher's Guide | Film Website

 

Secrecy

The Choices Program has developed the Teacher's Guide for Secrecy, a documentary by Peter Galison and Robb Moss. The film explores the tensions between our safety as a nation and our ability to function as a democracy.

Teacher's Guide | Film Website

 

 

 

Torturing Democracy

The Choices Program has developed a study guide for the film Torturing Democracy. This film, tells the inside story of how the U.S. government adopted the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program techniques as official policy in the aftermath of 9/11.

 

Teacher's Guide & supplemental activities | Film Website

Curriculum Units
All Choices curriculum units include extensive background readings, primary sources, a framework of policy options, rigorous student-centered lesson plans, and a role-play exercise that encourages students to apply their knowledge in an authentic setting.

Curriculum Units

All Choices curriculum units include extensive background readings, primary sources, a framework of policy options, rigorous student-centered lesson plans, and a role-play exercise that encourages students to apply their knowledge in an authentic setting.

Series

List of All Titles

Between World Wars: FDR and the Age of Isolationism

Using maps, transcripts, audio, photos, statistics, timelines, and simulations, students examine the inter-war years and recreate the American debate over the Lend-Lease Act.

See Details

Beyond Manifest Destiny: America Enters the Age of Imperialism

Readings, primary sources, and simulations enable students to probe the political and ethical issues raised by the Spanish-American War and consider its relevance for today.

See Details

Brazil: From Colony to Democracy

Students explore the choices Brazilians faced as their country transitioned to democracy in the mid-1980s and examine historical forces that informed debate.

See Details

Caught Between Two Worlds: Mexico at the Crossroads

Readings, maps, artwork, documents, and simulations enable students to see the world through Mexican eyes and to contemplate current Mexican policy choices.

See Details

The Challenge of Nuclear Weapons

Students use readings, primary sources, and simulations to examine the history of nuclear weapons, explore arguments for and against them, and consider current challenges.

See Details

Challenge to the New Republic: The War of 1812

Students use primary sources and readings to immerse themselves in the struggle to establish the new federal government's role in foreign policy.

See Details

China on the World Stage: Weighing the U.S. Response

Using readings, documents, statistics, timelines, and simulations, students explore the history of U.S. relations with China and consider the global impact of China's transformation.

See Details

Colonialism in the Congo: Conquest, Conflict, and Commerce

Drawing on readings, testimonials, and other primary sources, students recreate the international debate about the future of what as then the Congo Free-State.

See Details

Competing Visions of Human Rights: Questions for U.S. Policy

Students use readings, case studies, and primary sources to examine the role human rights has played in international politics.

See Details

Conflict on the Korean Peninsula: North Korea and the Nuclear Threat

This Lesson helps students better understand the domestic and international issues around North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

See Details

Confronting Genocide: Never Again?

Through case studies, primary sources, and simulations, students trace the evolution of the international community's response to genocide and consider how to respond in the future.

See Details

Contesting Cuba's Past and Future

Readings, and simulations, and primary sources help students step into the shoes of ordinary Cubans to consider Cuba's future in the post-Castro era.

See Details

Crisis in Zimbabwe

This Current Issues Lesson helps students better understand the current political, economic, and health crises in Zimbabwe.

See Details

The Cuban Missile Crisis: Considering its Place in Cold War History

Using declassified documents and other primary sources, students explore the dynamics of the Cold War and step into the shoes of President Kennedy's ExComm during the crisis.

See Details

Dilemmas of Foreign Aid: Debating U.S. Policies

Readings, speeches, statistics, case studies and simulations enable students to examine U.S. aid policy and explore the ethical dilemmas faced by policy makers.

See Details

To End All Wars: World War I and the League of Nations Debate

Using readings, primary sources, and simulations, students explore the causes and effects of World War I at home and abroad.

See Details

Ending the War Against Japan: Science, Morality, and the Atomic Bomb

Through readings, simulations, and primary sources, students explore the political, military, and ethical issues involved in the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

See Details

Teacher's Guide for The Fog of War

This guide provides a series of lesson plans to accompany Errol Morris' Academy Award wining full-length documentary. [Teacher's Guide only; DVD not included]

See Details

A Forgotten History: The Slave Trade and Slavery in New England

With readings, letters, maps, statistics, and simulations, students explore the triangular trade, the nature of slavery in New England, and the impact on life then and now.

See Details

Freedom in Our Lifetime: South Africa's Struggle

Using primary sources, and simulations, students consider the issues faced by opponents of apartheid and recreate the debate among Black, coloured, and Asian South Africans in 1961.

See Details

The French Revolution

Using readings, primary sources, role-plays, and simulations, students consider the issues facing France at a time of social and political upheaval.

See Details

A Global Controversy: The U.S. Invasion of Iraq

Students recreate the debate surrounding the decision to go to war, assess the war's impact in the United States, Iraq, and beyond. This unit will ship in summer 2011.

See Details

Global Environmental Problems: Implications for U.S. Policy

Drawing on primary sources, graphs, readings, and simulations, students assess global environmental problems and possible solutions from multiple perspectives.

See Details

The Haitian Revolution

Readings, primary sources, maps, simulations, and a digital timeline enable students to explore the history of Haiti and consider the legacies of the revolution.

See Details

Indian Independence and the Question of Pakistan

Using readings, primary sources, maps, and simulations, students examine the origins of independence and its legacy today.

See Details

International Trade: Competition and Cooperation in a Globalized World

Drawing on readings, statistics, and simulations, students explore the basics of international trade and consider its role in this era of globalization.

See Details

Iran Through the Looking Glass: History, Reform, and Revolution

Using readings, primary sources, and a digital timeline, students trace the history of Iran, explore the conditions that led to the 1979 revolution, and consider the legacy today.

See Details

The Limits of Power: The United States in Vietnam

Using maps, cartoons, and primary sources, students evaluate how successive U.S. administrations perceived the situation in Vietnam, weighed the stakes, and implemented policy.

See Details

A More Perfect Union: American Independence and the Constitution

Using primary sources, role-play, and simulations, students examine the context in which the U.S. Constitution was framed.

See Details

The Origins of the Cold War: U.S. Choices after World War II

Drawing on primary sources, statistics, a timeline, and selected biographies, students engage in the national debate on the U.S. role in the world in 1946.

See Details

Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy

With readings, primary sources, statistics, cartoons, and case studies, students prepare for a simulated debate in the U.S. Senate on the U.S. response to terrorism.

See Details

Russia's Transformation: Challenges for U.S. Policy

Using readings, maps, graphs, cartoons, primary sources, and simulations, students explore Russia's history and consider our country's relationship with Russia and its neighbors.

See Details

The Russian Revolution

Using readings, speeches, political reports, art, music, statistics, maps, and simulations, students explores events leading up to the Bolsheviks' assumption of power.

See Details

Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East

Drawing on maps, literature, cartoons, primary sources, and simulations, students examine the history of U.S. involvement in the Middle East from 1900 to the present.

See Details

The United States in Afghanistan

Students use primary source documents, readings, and new media sources as they consider the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

See Details

U.S. Immigration Policy in an Unsettled World

Drawing on statistics, speeches, and commission reports, students examine the historical and current dimensions of the issue and consider the current debate from multiple perspectives.

See Details

The U.S. Role in a Changing World

Readings, primary sources, political cartoons, maps, statistics, and simulations draw students into the promise and uncertainty of the modern era.

See Details

The United Nations: Challenges and Change

Using primary sources, charts, case studies, and simulations, students examine the historical origins of the UN and consider its role in the world today from multiple perspectives.

See Details

Weimar Germany and the Rise of Hitler

Using political posters, songs, art and literature as well as laws and speeches, students recreate the moment of the Reichstag elections in July 1932 and consider its legacy.

See Details

Westward Expansion: A New History

Students use readings, primary sources, and an in-depth case study to explore U.S. westward expansion from multiple perspectives.

See Details

Film Guides

The Fog of War

The official Teacher's Guide for the Academy Award winning documentary, The Fog of War. This provocative movie by the filmmaker Errol Morris examines issues of war and peace in the twentieth century through the lens of one of the century's pivotal figures. Robert McNamara offers his account of the century just past, as he remembers participating in it, as well as his reflections on its meaning for the twenty-first century.

Teacher's Guide Ordering Information | Film Website

 

The Official Teacher's Guide to Virtual JFK

This guide is designed to help students think about complex issues raised by Virtual JFK. The film investigates one of the most debated "what if" scenarios in the history of U.S. foreign policy: What would President John F. Kennedy have done in Vietnam if he had not been assassinated in 1963, and had he been elected in 1964? The story takes place in the midst of the Cold War and tempestuous partisan politics in the United States.

Teacher's Guide | Film Website

 

Secrecy

The Choices Program has developed the Teacher's Guide for Secrecy, a documentary by Peter Galison and Robb Moss. The film explores the tensions between our safety as a nation and our ability to function as a democracy.

Teacher's Guide | Film Website

 

 

 

Torturing Democracy

The Choices Program has developed a study guide for the film Torturing Democracy. This film, tells the inside story of how the U.S. government adopted the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program techniques as official policy in the aftermath of 9/11.

 

Teacher's Guide & supplemental activities | Film Website

Curriculum Units
All Choices curriculum units include extensive background readings, primary sources, a framework of policy options, rigorous student-centered lesson plans, and a role-play exercise that encourages students to apply their knowledge in an authentic setting.

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Graphic Organizers
The Choices Program's graphic organizers are designed to help students process information as they read, organize complex ideas, and prepare for deliberation on policy options. The Choices Program will provide two kinds of graphic organizers, generic organizers that can be used with a range of units and organizers specific to individual units.

Graphic organizers for use with multiple units will be available from this page soon.

Look for graphic organizers specific to an individual unit on the Supplemental Materials page for the unit.

Teaching with the News
The CHOICES Program's Teaching with the News initiative provides online curriculum materials and ideas to connect the content of the classroom to the headlines in the news. Topics cover a range of foreign policy and international issues.