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Robert Culpepper: CWI Lesson Plan

• CLASS:
  Contemporary World Issues
  
  
• GRADE LEVEL:
  freshman, sophomore, junior, senior high school
  
  
• TOPIC:
  The United Nations:The Origin and Creation of the United Nations
  
  
• RATIONALE:
  Because of the changing world political structure, and the common misconceptions people have of the U.N. it is important that the adults of tomorrow understand what the United Nations really is and how it really works.
  
  
• GOAL:
  The students will learn that the League of Nations was the previous form of the U.N., when the U.N. was officially founded and who initially shaped the U.N.
  
  
• BEHAVIORAL OBJECTIVES:
  
  
  1. The student, given this lesson of instruction will be name the predecessor of the modern day United Nations on a test without error.
     
  2. Given this lesson on the U.N., the student will identify on a test the date the U.N. was founded without error.
     
  3. After this lesson on the United Nations, the student will be able to name at least 3 of the major international powers that helped form the U.N.
     
  4. The student, given this lesson on the U.N. will without error identify the location of the U.N. headquarters and what is housed in it.
     
  5. Given a test and this lesson of instruction, the student will identify the meeting that laid the groundwork for the creation of the U.N. without error.
  
  
• PRE-TEST:
  
  
  1. Where is the United Nations headquarters building located? (New York City)
     
  2. In what year was the U.N. officially created? (1945)
     
  3. What meeting of powers laid the groundwork for the U.N. during WWII? (Atlantic Conf.)
  
  
• OUTLINE OF CONTENT:
  
  The United Nations:Origin and Creation
  1. The League of Nations
     1. Creation after WWI
     2. Collapse leading to WWII
  2. The Atlantic Charter and the Big Three
     1. Vision for the future -the new League
     2. The flaws of the League eliminated
     3. Consensus on a United Nations
  3. The U.N becomes a reality
     1. The end of the war and the need for peace
     2. The U.N. Charter -San Francisco, October 24, 1945
     3. An invitation from the United States
  4. The U.N. gets a home in New York
     1. The U.N. headquarters -New York, 1952
     2. What’s in the U.N.
  
  
• METHOD:
  The class will begin with a 5-7 minute discussion on the U.N. where the students will have a chance to say what they believe about the U.N. From the discussion, the class will progress to the lecture component of the lesson where several questions will be asked by the teacher of the students. After the lecture, students will be given a handout assignment to be completed.
  
  
• TEACHING ACTIVITIES:
  

  TRANSPARENCY	U.N. quote-of-the-day by Dag Hammarskjold
  TRANSPARENCY	Objectives for lesson 1
  DISCUSSION	Have the students tell what they believe about the United Nations, and what it really does.
  LECTURE	The League of Nations (based in Geneva, Switzerland) was founded in 1920 and was the centerpiece of the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points which were the basis of the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI. Throughout its 26 year history the League had 63 member countries, with 31 of those being full time members. Due to a bad relationship between President Wilson and the U.S. Senate as well as isolationists, the U.S. never joined the League which caused it to be a very weak body charged with protecting world peace.
  QUESTION	Why do you think that some Americans did not want to join the League of Nations? (Analysis) (a) Some feared U.S. international involvement would pull the U.S. into more battles in Europe. Also, many believed that the U.S. should put its own problems first before anything else.
  LECTURE	The League began to collapse as a second World War became evident. Germany’s and the U.S.S.R’s withdrawal from the League insured it’s failure. The League of Nations survived during WWII, but did nothing. The League officially ceased to exist in 1946, when it voluntarily voted itself out of existence in order for the United Nations Organization to replace it.
  QUESTION	What do you think would have happened if the U.S. had been part of the League of Nations? (Synthesis) (a) WWII would have probably still happened, but U.S. would have been in a better position to protect itself and allies. But, WWII may not have happened because severe reparations wouldn’t have been put on Germany -which let Hitler come to power.
  LECTURE	The Atlantic Charter, signed by President Roosevelt and P.M. Winston Churchill called for 'wider and permanent system of general security'. This laid the basis for the U.N. The term United Nations was suggested by Roosevelt, and was used first in the Declaration by United Nations, a document accepting the principles of what the U.N. would do, which was signed by 26 allied countries that were fighting the Axis.
  QUESTION	Why did the Allies start so early planning a new ‘League’? (Analysis) (a) The Allies knew that the failure of the League had led in part to WWII and they were determined not to have a third world war after WWII was over.
  LECTURE	From the outset, it was understood that any organization meant to replace the League would have to be stronger, more heavily supported and have a broader mandate. To make it simple, all sides knew that U.S. involvement was a must. The drafting of what would be the U.N. charter started way before the war was over. The main objective of the charter was to integrate the parts of the League that worked, and to eliminate those that didn’t. It was eventually decided that the major components of the League would be kept and modified: the General Assembly would still represent all the member nations, the Secretariat would stay but would be a post with few executive powers and the council was redesigned as the Security Council which had the most powerful mandates and rules to help it secure world peace.
  QUESTION	What pieces of the old ‘League’ were kept in the new U.N.? (Memory) (a) assembly, council, secretariat
  LECTURE	In 1945, the Yalta Conference was attended by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. Here the issue of voting on the Security Council was solved. There would be 5 permanent members, and each would have a veto that would stop any council action. At the end of the conference, the allied leaders called for a conference of united nations to draft the charter for the new organization.
  LECTURE	With the end of the war, the time for the United Nations had come. With the widespread destruction in Europe, those countries that had been hesitant to join the League saw the need for an international peace keeping organization. Delegates from 50 countries came to San Francisco for the United Nations Conference on International Organization. Over the period of two months, the charter of the U.N. took its final shape.
  LECTURE	The charter, when complete, consisted of 111 articles addressing economic, world security, space, ocean and other issues. The main world security issues were addressed by the U.N. peacekeeper article and the International Court of Justice. The charter was approved on June 25, 1945 and was signed on the 26th. It became effective October 24, 1945 after being ratified by a majority of the countries involved in its drafting.
  TRANSPARENCY	Structure of the U.N. as set up by the U.N. charter.
  LECTURE	Shortly after it came into existence, the U.N. was offered a permanent home. On December 10, 1945 the U.S. Congress invited the U.N. to locate its main headquarters in New York, New York. This was seen as a way to make sure the U.S. would be involved in the U.N. for years to come.
  LECTURE	The U.N. agreed to locate in the U.S. and by mid 1952 the U.N. headquarters had been completed in Manhattan. The U.N. building contains the General Assembly Hall where all member countries have a seat, the Secretariat Building which houses the administrative offices of the U.N., the Conference Building where mediators often negotiate treaties and agreements and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library which contains copies and originals of some of the most important document on the planet Earth.
  QUESTION	Tell me why you think is was important for the U.N. to be located in the United States? What do you think would have happened if the U.N. had not been in the U.S.? Give examples. (Evaluation) (a) It insured that the U.S. would continue to have a role in the U.N. for years to come, eliminating the problem the absence of U.S. involvement caused in the League. If it had not been in the U.S., the U.N. may not have made it this far.
  HANDOUT	U.N. Crossword Puzzle on the League of Nations and the U.N. U.N. to be completed and turned in on the day of the unit test.

  
  
• MATERIALS:
  

  Transparencies:	U.N. quote of the day Objectives U.N. structure
  Handout:	U.N. Crossword Puzzle on League and U.N.

  
  
• EVALUATION:
  
  Name
  
  
  1. What world organization did the United Nations Organization replace?
     
  2. We recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations (United Nations Day). What year was the United Nations officially founded?
     
  3. There were many countries that helped to create the U.N. and write its charter, but there were some major powers that had more of a say than others in the process. Name three of the world powers that helped to create the United Nations.
  4. Where is the United Nations building located? (circle the right answer)
     1. Washington D.C.
     2. Columbus, Ohio
     3. San Francisco, California
     4. New York, New York
  5. What meeting of powers laid the groundwork for the U.N.?
     1. Yalta Conference
     2. Atlantic Conference
     3. Pacific Conference
     4. Berlin Conference

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Pedagogy: Content Specific