Ian+Taggart


 * 8th Grade Social Studies
 * How political ideologies affect world events past and present.
 * The students will be representatives from various countries (ideologies) working to find an acceptable solution.
 * Trade or peace negotiation.

This idea is still in the early stages and I already realize this is going to be a beast. The students will identify, study and compare and contrast the major political ideologies of the world. The students will create a spectrum chart so they can visually see them. They will also look at the roles and positions played by these ideologies in past and current world events including World War II, Cold War and related events, terrorism and other current events.

I welcome your thoughts and suggestions.

__Visual Ranking__ - The students will rank and order a set of foreign policy goals based on a scenario developed by the teacher. The students will be assigned to groups, each representing a different government/country with different political ideologies represented on the political spectrum. The students will need to study and be familiar with historical events of WWI through present and the political ideologies of the various governments over time. They will need to be able to adapt ideas to current issues and various perspectives. From this, experience they should be able to propose various solutions to current issues and be able to consider all of the options to achieving the stated goals, including war. __Seeing Reason__ - The students will create seeing reason charts on each of the time periods or events to help establish cause and effect relationships. The events include World War I, World War II, Cold War including Korean War and Vietnam War, Middle East conflicts and current world events. The students will also create charts illustrating the cause and effect relationships between their foreign policy goals and strategies. They will work in groups and research the various events that occurred as a result. __Showing Evidence__ - This tool would be useful for individual elements of the overall unit. For example, the United States decision to use the atomic bombs on the Empire of Japan to end World War II. However, the purpose of the unit is to study foreign relations goals of various countries and examine how they influence major world or policy issues. It is also to see if countries or groups with differing views and ideologies can set aside differences and work out settlements or agreements that benefit both countries.