Rationale:
· Some, if not all of the students may be unaware of our nation’s past as an imperial power , so this lesson is intended to help the student begin to digest the concept that our nation not only has historical roots as an empire, but still retains many characteristics of an empire. This can be an unsettling notion for some students since our nation proclaims to its own citizenry and the rest of the world that it is the freest nation on earth and a shining example of equality and liberty for all nations. This lesson is intended to gradually introduce the idea of an American Empire to the students, to ensure that some students do not immediately lash out and deny the authenticity of the content and shut down or storm out of the classroom.
· The particular strategy that I will be employing in this lesson is to give a mini-lecture about the attributes of empires and listing examples, advantages and disadvantages of empires, combined with class discussions on the topic, and the students filling out a graphic organizer on this information based upon a handout they will read in-class combined with a short historical creative writing assignment.
· Some, if not all of the students may be unaware of our nation’s past as an imperial power , so this lesson is intended to help the student begin to digest the concept that our nation not only has historical roots as an empire, but still retains many characteristics of an empire. This can be an unsettling notion for some students since our nation proclaims to its own citizenry and the rest of the world that it is the freest nation on earth and a shining example of equality and liberty for all nations. This lesson is intended to gradually introduce the idea of an American Empire to the students, to ensure that some students do not immediately lash out and deny the authenticity of the content and shut down or storm out of the classroom.
· The particular strategy that I will be employing in this lesson is to give a mini-lecture about the attributes of empires and listing examples, advantages and disadvantages of empires, combined with class discussions on the topic, and the students filling out a graphic organizer on this information based upon a handout they will read in-class combined with a short historical creative writing assignment.
· SWBAT identify and explain the factors that lead nations to become empires.
· SWBAT explain the advantages and disadvantages of empires.
· SWBAT express their personal views on empires in writing and verbally.
· SWBAT explain the advantages and disadvantages of empires.
· SWBAT express their personal views on empires in writing and verbally.
· Students will formatively be assessed during class discussions for content comprehension and critical thinking about the issues of imperialism.
· Students will also be assessed formatively by their completing a graphic organizer and a creative writing assignment where the students incorporate the data from their graphic organizers as express their personal opinions about empires.
· Students will also be assessed formatively by their completing a graphic organizer and a creative writing assignment where the students incorporate the data from their graphic organizers as express their personal opinions about empires.
· HS.19. Evaluate how differing points of view, self-interest, and global distribution of natural resources play a role in conflict over territory.
· HS.28. Evaluate how governments interact at the local, state, tribal, national, and global levels.
· HS.63. Engage in informed and respectful deliberation and discussion of issues, events, and ideas.
· HS.28. Evaluate how governments interact at the local, state, tribal, national, and global levels.
· HS.63. Engage in informed and respectful deliberation and discussion of issues, events, and ideas.
This lesson should last two-three standard fifty minute class periods.
· T-Chart Graphic Organizer: Attributes of Empires
· Empires in World History Handout
· Letter to the Editor Handout
· Empires in World History Handout
· Letter to the Editor Handout
· At the beginning of the lesson I will announce to the students that today we will begin a new unit on Empires and that our goals for the lesson is to learn the causal factors of empires and the positive and negative attributes of empires. These goals will be written on the board next to the agenda which I will likewise go over with the students and allude to the board where it will be clearly written. What I will not be telling them is that the unit is on American Imperialism that will be part of a reveal that I will be doing at the end of this lesson to help set up the next lesson in the unit.
· I will proceed to ask the students to write down what they already know about empires and if they can list an example either from history or that they can recall from popular media. After they have written for two-three minutes I will collect these. These will actually be part of my pre-assessment of the knowledge about empires that students are bringing with them to class, before I teach this unit. Moreover, this will be activating and acknowledging the information about this topic that the students bring with them to class.
· Before I move on I will as part of my anticipatory set for this lesson and the unit as a whole, will be to have the students share aloud what they think of when they hear the word empire, and any examples that they can think of.
· The next step in my anticipatory set will be to tell them that when I think of empire I generally think of the British Empire, since our country was once part of their empire before we fought our war for independence. I will then play a short humorous video entitled “History of the British Empire” produced as an educational aid by the BBC. Before I play the video I will instruct the students to write down three facts things they learned about the British Empire from the video. After the video is viewed I will as the students to share aloud what they had learned from the video and what their views on the British Empire are.
· I will proceed to ask the students to write down what they already know about empires and if they can list an example either from history or that they can recall from popular media. After they have written for two-three minutes I will collect these. These will actually be part of my pre-assessment of the knowledge about empires that students are bringing with them to class, before I teach this unit. Moreover, this will be activating and acknowledging the information about this topic that the students bring with them to class.
· Before I move on I will as part of my anticipatory set for this lesson and the unit as a whole, will be to have the students share aloud what they think of when they hear the word empire, and any examples that they can think of.
· The next step in my anticipatory set will be to tell them that when I think of empire I generally think of the British Empire, since our country was once part of their empire before we fought our war for independence. I will then play a short humorous video entitled “History of the British Empire” produced as an educational aid by the BBC. Before I play the video I will instruct the students to write down three facts things they learned about the British Empire from the video. After the video is viewed I will as the students to share aloud what they had learned from the video and what their views on the British Empire are.
· At this point in the lesson I will give a brief lecture about what an empire is and the factors that lead nations to become empires:
· Age of Empires: Imperialism reached its peak in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s.
· Definition of empire: A) a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority; especially: one having an emperor as chief of state. B) When stronger nations colonize and dominate weaker nations.
Factors that drove empires:
Economic
• Manufacturing nations need more natural resources and markets.
Nationalistic
• Nationalism drives nations to compete for new colonies.
Military
• Growing navies need new naval bases worldwide.
Humanitarian
• Westerners believed in spreading western ideas and Christianity to heathen peoples.
• Empires stretch from before recorded time to today.
· At this point I will be begin the main activity of this lesson where the students will begin reading the handout I have modified for their use describing what an empire is, and the positive/negative attributes of empires. The students will read and underline their handouts (This handout will also be part of pre-assessment of a learning gain I am going to chart throughout the unit, the student’s skills at critically reading and marking their handouts).
· The students will then fill out their T-Chart Graphic Organizers, so they can have practice picking out pieces of information from an article, and restating them in their own words so they will derive a kinesthetic learning gain by writing the attributes with their own hands and organizing them in the positive and negative columns. This exercise will prepare them for the next activity in the lesson.
· The students will then take their T-Charts, Empires in World History Handout, and Letter to the Editor Handout, and write their own letter to the editor advocating for or against the United States acquiring an empire in response to a fictitious letter to the editor that I will have the students responding to and articulating their own beliefs supported by the information they recorded on their T-Chart, in 1-2 paragraphs. The students will then work on this assignment until till I call the class back together.
· Age of Empires: Imperialism reached its peak in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s.
· Definition of empire: A) a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority; especially: one having an emperor as chief of state. B) When stronger nations colonize and dominate weaker nations.
Factors that drove empires:
Economic
• Manufacturing nations need more natural resources and markets.
Nationalistic
• Nationalism drives nations to compete for new colonies.
Military
• Growing navies need new naval bases worldwide.
Humanitarian
• Westerners believed in spreading western ideas and Christianity to heathen peoples.
• Empires stretch from before recorded time to today.
· At this point I will be begin the main activity of this lesson where the students will begin reading the handout I have modified for their use describing what an empire is, and the positive/negative attributes of empires. The students will read and underline their handouts (This handout will also be part of pre-assessment of a learning gain I am going to chart throughout the unit, the student’s skills at critically reading and marking their handouts).
· The students will then fill out their T-Chart Graphic Organizers, so they can have practice picking out pieces of information from an article, and restating them in their own words so they will derive a kinesthetic learning gain by writing the attributes with their own hands and organizing them in the positive and negative columns. This exercise will prepare them for the next activity in the lesson.
· The students will then take their T-Charts, Empires in World History Handout, and Letter to the Editor Handout, and write their own letter to the editor advocating for or against the United States acquiring an empire in response to a fictitious letter to the editor that I will have the students responding to and articulating their own beliefs supported by the information they recorded on their T-Chart, in 1-2 paragraphs. The students will then work on this assignment until till I call the class back together.
· First I will collect the student’s completed handouts if they have finished their writing assignment, if they have not then they are instructed to hold on to them because the writing assignment will now be considered homework and they will need them to finish the assignment.
· I will then ask the students if they feel it would have been a good thing if the United States had acquired colonies and become an empire like Great Britain and many other world powers? During this discussion I will briefly review the driving factors of imperialism and ask the students if nations are justified in falling prey to these factors.
· After the students have made their views on empires known I will show them video trailer of the main text that we will utilizing in the class. That video is also available at the bottom of this page.
·I will utilize the verbal exit ticket I have developed for this unit which is for each of the students to inform me of a new fact that they learned from this lesson. I will continue to go from student to student until the remainder of the period is complete; this will force the students to remember at least one new fact they learned either about Imperialism or the Spanish-American War and recite it to me. Not only will this help the information to sink in, but if they are asked at home what they learned in school today they will have a helpful talking point to discuss with their parents.
· I will then ask the students if they feel it would have been a good thing if the United States had acquired colonies and become an empire like Great Britain and many other world powers? During this discussion I will briefly review the driving factors of imperialism and ask the students if nations are justified in falling prey to these factors.
· After the students have made their views on empires known I will show them video trailer of the main text that we will utilizing in the class. That video is also available at the bottom of this page.
·I will utilize the verbal exit ticket I have developed for this unit which is for each of the students to inform me of a new fact that they learned from this lesson. I will continue to go from student to student until the remainder of the period is complete; this will force the students to remember at least one new fact they learned either about Imperialism or the Spanish-American War and recite it to me. Not only will this help the information to sink in, but if they are asked at home what they learned in school today they will have a helpful talking point to discuss with their parents.