It's hard to read state and national education standards without superimposing a global lens on them. When you do that, invariably you want to change them. As part of the online course for the Teachers for Global Classrooms program, we did precisely that.
Here are two examples of lessons grounded in national standards that have been modified to globalize them.
Here are two examples of lessons grounded in national standards that have been modified to globalize them.
Lesson #1:
GLOBAL NOTIONS OF CITIZENSHIP AND CITIZENS' RIGHTS
Standard (and source):
V: What are the roles of the citizen in American democracy?
b) What are the rights of citizens?
Source: Center for Civics Education, National Standards for Civics and Government, 9-12 content standards, 2014
How global education could be integrated into standard:
In order to integrate relevant global themes into this standard, one could modify the language to read “What are the roles of the citizen in local communities, at the national level, and globally? “ and then modify item (b) to indicate “What are the rights of citizens at the local level, as guaranteed at the federal level, and on the global level?”
If the language can’t be changed, then the integration of global education into this theme could be achieved as follows:
Specific Lesson Plan Modifications for Global Competencies:
The global competencies that would be addressed are focused primarily on (1) investigate the world, (2) recognize perspectives and (4) take action to improve conditions.
There are various ways to modify lessons to address global competencies in response to this standard, and which one an educator would choose would depend on the context in which s/he is addressing the standard.
Informal outcome assessment:
GLOBAL NOTIONS OF CITIZENSHIP AND CITIZENS' RIGHTS
Standard (and source):
V: What are the roles of the citizen in American democracy?
b) What are the rights of citizens?
Source: Center for Civics Education, National Standards for Civics and Government, 9-12 content standards, 2014
How global education could be integrated into standard:
In order to integrate relevant global themes into this standard, one could modify the language to read “What are the roles of the citizen in local communities, at the national level, and globally? “ and then modify item (b) to indicate “What are the rights of citizens at the local level, as guaranteed at the federal level, and on the global level?”
If the language can’t be changed, then the integration of global education into this theme could be achieved as follows:
- Students will recognize their rights under federal documents, from the Bill of Rights to their rights under specific amendments (e.g.—Amendments XIII, XIV, XV, XIX to the US Constitution. They will also examine United Nations documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Universal Declaration on the Rights of the Child and understand their rights as human beings on this planet as guaranteed by those documents.
- Students will consider what citizens’ recourses are in the event that these rights are violated, as guaranteed under US law and under international law. In order to study how citizens’ rights are protected (or not) in settings around the globe, students will look at and compare the charges and outcomes in legal cases that touch on issues of freedoms of assembly, speech, and expression:
- Perinçek v. Switzerland (2007), a case involving an outspoken Turkish politician (chair of the Turkish’ Workers Party) who spoke on 3 occasions while in Switzerland, describing the Armenian genocide as a “lie.”
- Smith v Collin, also known as National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977), a case related to the plans of the National Socialist Party of America to march through the town of Skokie, Illinois
- The 2011 arrest of Ai Wei Wei, a Chinese artist, and subsequent charges of violations of tax law, in China
Specific Lesson Plan Modifications for Global Competencies:
The global competencies that would be addressed are focused primarily on (1) investigate the world, (2) recognize perspectives and (4) take action to improve conditions.
There are various ways to modify lessons to address global competencies in response to this standard, and which one an educator would choose would depend on the context in which s/he is addressing the standard.
- Students will look at the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well as subsequent amendments to the Constitution to understand their rights under the founding (and amended) documents of the United States. They will then look at the ways in which those rights have been upheld and/or violated in this country. To make this more global, they will look at parallel rights documents in other countries: in the Chinese constitution, chapter II: The Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens, especially articles 33-54, and the Swiss Confederation Federal Constitution, notably title 2: “Fundamental Rights, Civil Rights, and Social Goals.”
- Students will examine how court and appeals systems work in other nations by tracing the three legal cases cited above through their respective court systems.
- Students will debate each of the cases named above by doing a mini-mock trial, capturing the key arguments on both sides of the case.
- Students will consider how a citizen’s rights under national law is separate and/or interconnected with a citizen’s rights under more global documents (e.g.—the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
Informal outcome assessment:
- After studying these foundational documents and looking at various court cases, students will collaborate on a google spreadsheet (in groups of four) to identify what basic rights all of these documents protect.
- Students will use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a document to be evaluated as if it were a report card, creating a Padlet that takes the 30 articles in the UDHR and assesses each country under study by how well it is protecting those rights. This will require heavy use of internet searches to lead not simply to national government sites (including our own Department of State annual reports) but to the sites of NGOs that monitor human rights. One Padlet will be created for each country and then the 30 articles will constitute 30 individual posting on each Padlet. The students will then compare findings across the Padlets.
Lesson #2:
HOW SOCIETIES ESTABLISH CULTURES THAT DISCRIMINATE, GIVING ONE GROUP RIGHTS THAT DIFFERED FROM THOSE OF THE MAJORITY IN A PARTICULAR COUNTRY
Standard (and source):
USI.41 Explain the policies and consequences of Reconstruction. (H, C)
A. the rise of Jim Crow laws
USII.25 Analyze the origins, goals, and key events of the Civil Rights movement. (H)
USII.26 Describe the accomplishments of the civil rights movement. (H, E)
source: Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Studies, August 2003. http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/current.html
as well as:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9
Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
source: Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts and History, grade 11-12. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/11-12/7/
How global education could be integrated into standards:
Specific Lesson Plan Modifications for Global Competencies:
The global competencies that would be addressed are focused primarily on (1) investigate the world and (2) recognize perspectives.
Informal outcome assessment
HOW SOCIETIES ESTABLISH CULTURES THAT DISCRIMINATE, GIVING ONE GROUP RIGHTS THAT DIFFERED FROM THOSE OF THE MAJORITY IN A PARTICULAR COUNTRY
Standard (and source):
USI.41 Explain the policies and consequences of Reconstruction. (H, C)
A. the rise of Jim Crow laws
USII.25 Analyze the origins, goals, and key events of the Civil Rights movement. (H)
USII.26 Describe the accomplishments of the civil rights movement. (H, E)
source: Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Studies, August 2003. http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/current.html
as well as:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9
Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
source: Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts and History, grade 11-12. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/11-12/7/
How global education could be integrated into standards:
- Students will do a close study of the emergence of a civil rights movement in the United States, engaged in advocating for the rights of African Americans during the country’s post-reconstruction Jim Crow era. They will explore primary source documents, legislation from specific states, photographs, speeches, and writings by both US government officials upholding Jim Crow laws as well as advocates for overturning such laws. They will chronicle legislation as well as Jim Crow laws that affected all facets of African-American lives by examining materials available at http://www.nps.gov/malu/learn/education/jim_crow_laws.htm (the National Park Service site related to the Martin Luther King, Jr. historic site in Atlanta, Georgia) and through the “Remembering Jim Crow” series produced by American Public Media’s Radio Works http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/remembering/laws.html .
- Students will recognize that such discrimination and resulting civil rights movements are not unique to the United States. They will study the experiences of other nations that have had their own civil rights movements. We will look closely at the experience of South Africa’s population under apartheid as well as the experience of indigenous peoples (the “Stolen Generations” in Australia and the “First Nations” in Canada).
Specific Lesson Plan Modifications for Global Competencies:
The global competencies that would be addressed are focused primarily on (1) investigate the world and (2) recognize perspectives.
- Students will examine the strategies and practices of setting up a discriminatory culture that gave one group rights that differed from that of the majority in a particular country. By using the case studies of the US, South Africa, Australia and Canada, students can learn to recognize patterns of marginalization.
- Students will identify the ways in which marginalized groups have tried to galvanize public sentiment and attention to addressing injustices they have experienced. They will examine non-violent as well as violent strategies, weighing the diverse perspectives on this, and the effectiveness of both.
- Students will recognize the patterns in human behavior that result in favoring one population over another that transcend national borders. They will consider practices of stereotyping, prejudice, and discriminatory practices.
Informal outcome assessment
- Students will be divided into groups and, using Dipity, they will be tasked with creating a series of concurrent timelines, tracing patterns of marginalization, looking for patterns in practices of discrimination and separation and then tracing efforts to end these practices.
- Students will then evaluate legislation, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, Canada, and Australia, Australian and Canadian courts and legislation, the debate over paying reparations, and assess efforts to address these practices in the past.
- Students will examine data from government and NGO sources (eg—Amnesty International, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, the South African Human Rights Commission, Reconciliation Australia and the Australian Human Rights Commission) to identify whether the effects of marginalization are still being felt in the economic, health outcomes, political, and related realms. Based on their results, they will begin to develop further action plans to propose how they could build on what has been done to address these practices through today to recommend what should be done in the future.