Past projects

New Zealand: An Illustration for Understanding Geography and Culture

New Zealand: Civil Liberties, Civil Struggles

Prepared by Annette L. Varcoe as part of the Fulbright-Hays Seminars 2002.

Grade: 9

Executive summary

New Zealand: An Illustration for Understanding Geography and Culture

The purpose of this section is to present a complete three week unit on geography and culture, utilizing New Zealand. The design of this unit focuses on ideas that ninth graders in New York State should know and understand about global geography and culture before they take the tenth grade Regents exam. These lesson plans incorporate a variety of techniques and resources for interdisciplinary lessons. This unit is all inclusive, with worksheets, readings, maps, notes, activities, quizzes, and a test. The test includes a Document Based Question (a DBQ), that is one of the two types of essays that students will have on their tenth and eleventh grade social studies exam. Because of this need in both curriculum, the topic for the DBQ - the impact of Europeans on the Pacific and the Americas - is for both the Global and US curriculum. Ideas for both levels and subjects can be found throughout this booklet.

New Zealand: Civil Liberties, Civil Struggles
( Using New Zealand history as a way to understand American history)

It is the intention of this section to illustrate some interesting comparisons about the government and founding documents of a foreign country to the United States. In this case, these five lessons illustrate ways to use New Zealand as a jumping off point to explore our nation's own government and treatment of native and minority populations. The first lesson focuses on developing comparative knowledge of the treatment of native populations, by using the Treaty of Waitangi as an introductory experience to exploring the treatment of Native Americans. The next three lessons address areas of American Constitution and government, examining ways that New Zealand has handled governing and rights. The final lesson invites to students to explore women's suffrage in the US with the global movement, for which New Zealand led the way. This collection of lessons is made more complete by examining lessons from the Global Studies unit, especially the DBQ and the lessons on cultural diffusion

Table of contents

• Welcome and Introduction to Both Curriculums
• New Zealand: An Illustration for Understanding Geography and Culture
• New Zealand: Civil Liberties, Civil Struggles
• Resources for this project
• Appendixes

New Zealand: An Illustration for Understanding Geography and Culture New Zealand: Civil Liberties, Civil Struggles

varcoea.pdf (1.1mB)