This lesson directed the discussion of imperialism to modern day in an effort to have students engage with real world, current issues that were a direct result of the United States being an imperial power at the turn of the 20th century. This lesson asked students to dissect an extremely metacognitively challenging text and to pull patterns and themes about imperialism from an article about the modern day imperialism.
Essential Question: The essential question of this lesson is “What long term effects can we trace to western imperialism?” This is different from my CHQ, which I will get into in the “Historical Lesson” section. The reason I had a different essential question from CHQ is because I wanted the CHQ to focus on the article whereas the essential question was aimed at the whole lesson. This essential question is something that can be bigger than history because western imperialism has had effects on all areas of life and there are huge modern implications for the world and for students on an individual level.
Historical Lesson: The historical value of this lesson is embedded in the CHQ and relies on the abilities of the students to make connection between historical facts we discussed earlier in the unit and the article we read in this lesson. The CHQ, “What does the ‘new imperialism’ look like? How does America play a role?” seems to focus solely on the modern day implications and while it is rooted in that topic, it requires students to dig into the past as well. Tomlin and McTighe (2006) discuss the importance of a student grappling with a concept and write, “Coming to understand requires active intellectual engagement on the part of the learner” (p. 123). This CHQ requires students to get a good grasp on a fairly complex text and then to apply prior knowledge to that text.
Modern Connections: Surprisingly, the article about modern day imperialism does not get a 10/10 on my scale; instead I gave it a 7/10. The reason behind this grade is twofold. First, part of the rubric asks if there is a way students can connect with the material, and while I believe that there is a lot of connection for students with modern imperialism, I do not know if I did a good job leading them to that point. I think the article could have used some supporting documents that showed students what specific implications of imperialism are.
Historical Lesson: The historical value of this lesson is embedded in the CHQ and relies on the abilities of the students to make connection between historical facts we discussed earlier in the unit and the article we read in this lesson. The CHQ, “What does the ‘new imperialism’ look like? How does America play a role?” seems to focus solely on the modern day implications and while it is rooted in that topic, it requires students to dig into the past as well. Tomlin and McTighe (2006) discuss the importance of a student grappling with a concept and write, “Coming to understand requires active intellectual engagement on the part of the learner” (p. 123). This CHQ requires students to get a good grasp on a fairly complex text and then to apply prior knowledge to that text.
Modern Connections: Surprisingly, the article about modern day imperialism does not get a 10/10 on my scale; instead I gave it a 7/10. The reason behind this grade is twofold. First, part of the rubric asks if there is a way students can connect with the material, and while I believe that there is a lot of connection for students with modern imperialism, I do not know if I did a good job leading them to that point. I think the article could have used some supporting documents that showed students what specific implications of imperialism are.