The Choices Program

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I recently attended a Choices Leadership Institute at Brown University in Providence. The Choices Program develops curricula on current and historical international issues, and the materials incorporate the latest scholarship to draw connections between historical events and contemporary international issues.

I have been using Choices curriculum materials for many years in my own teaching. My favourite unit is Weimar Germany and the Rise of Hitler. Primary source documents, readings, excerpts from literature, and political art immerse students in the spirit of the Weimar Republic and set them up to simulate the debate that surrounded the Reichstag elections of 1932, when, amidst Germany’s economic and political crisis, the NSDAP, the SPD, the Centre, and the KPD were the favourites among the Reichstag’s political parties (together receiving almost 90% of the vote). Each of these parties had a different perspective on the problems facing Germany and each proposed a different program to guide Germany towards the future. The Choices simulation examines the philosophies and sources of support for each party.

“Germany is at a crossroads. The economic depression is nearly three years old and there is no end in sight. Unemployment is approaching 30 percent. Political violence has escalated to dangerous levels. Political division has paralyzed the Reichstag, leading the government to increasingly rely on emergency powers. With the future of the Weimar system hanging in the balance, a Reichstag election has been scheduled for late July. Your assignment is to persuade German voters that your political platform represents the best course for Germany.”

The carefully designed simulations and role plays, and the ensuing deliberations, are the most powerful aspect of the Choices approach.

I also use the Choices unit The Limits of Power: The United States in Vietnam to enable students to evaluate how successive US administrations perceived the situation in Vietnam and implemented policy decisions. In addition to the curriculum materials there are also additional online resources, such as Retracing America’s Withdrawal which examines the key decisions that shaped US involvement in Vietnam from 1968 to 1973.

Choices resources are easily adaptable. I use the character descriptions (designed to introduce students to the public mood of 1989) from the unit China on the World Stage: Weighing the US Response when I teach ‘The Chinese Government and Tiananmen Square’ and I combine the Choices character descriptions with the Project Zero Step Inside thinking routine.

Now I am exploring the unit on Iran through the Looking Glass: History, Reform and Revolution, which considers why Iran become an Islamic republic in 1979, for use with the Year 11 Modern History case study on Ayatollah Khomeini and Islamic Fundamentalism.

For our Year 10 elective courses we are exploring The Russian Revolution and its simulation, set in Petrograd, that has students recreate the debate Russians had over their future in a role play. We are also looking at Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy, which examines the motivations for terrorism and the heightened worldwide concerns about terrorism following September 11.

The Choices resources focus on historical turning points through a student-centred, inquiry-based approach. In each unit, a central activity challenges students to consider multiple viewpoints on a contested issue and then prepare a presentation. The follow-up discussion requires students to analyse conflicting values and priorities, and shows that History is a series of difficult, complex decisions.

The Choices resource books are available in hard copy, pdf, or as iBooks textbooks. The resources are quite US-centric, although the material is easily adaptable to other contexts.

As a Teaching Fellow, I now conduct outreach activities to assist other teachers to discover, use, and adapt Choices materials for their own context. Please get in touch if you would like to learn more.

Reference: Some of the text in this blogpost has been sourced directly from Choices material.

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