As a fifth grader during the Gulf War, I distinctly remember Mrs. Spina helping calm our fears around the war. After giving us a background on the war, Mrs. Spina brought us to some large world map to point out us just how far away the fighting was from our small town in Massachusetts. Going going home and feeling more confidant writing about the war with my parents. Because i would not completely understand the whole situation, I understood the war a little bit better. As i did start to watch what is this great alone that background proved invaluable because could follow in addition to the news anchor.

While everybody has metrics and curricula to have through, as teachers we should help our students comprehend the world around them. The unknown is scary. As teachers, we help shine a flashlight around the unknown. We empower students through knowledge.

When ISIS attacked Paris on Friday evening, I knew that whatever lesson I did originally planned for Monday was from the window. I spent lots of the weekend studying the attacks, about ISIS, regarding the Syrian Civil War, about the refugee crisis. I assumed in regards to the lesson from Mrs. Spina while I could possibly not prove to them a map about fighting distant to assuage their fears, I could help them understand more about the proceedings in Syria.

When class began on Monday, my students were very concerned. We began just dealing with the bombing normally – both in Paris and Beirut. Playing them and concerns helped move the week because wanted resources to apply with them.

With this particular blog post, My goal is to share resources we have gathered and my final activity for discussing American involvement during the Syrian Civil War.

Resources to your Attacks in Paris and ISIS

  • Video: Global Wrap Nov. 18, 2015 from NewsHour.
    • This episode of Global Wrap provides a great summary of the attacks as well as response and is also positioned on Discovery Streaming. For that content on using Global Wrap within your classroom, visit Theresa Henkel’s post.
  • Article: The Attacks in Paris from The New York Times Upfront Magazine
    • While I didnrrrt have this during the time, this content supplies a great report on the attacks on Paris and details about ISIS.
  • Article: What ISIS Wants with the Atlantic
    • This article provided good web sites ISIS. Simply because of its length, we read it together in a few classes and just educate yourself towards Devotion on other occasions.

Resources for that Syrian Civil War

  • Video: Syrian Revolution from John Green
    • John Green does a 4 minutes from 1946 to 2012. It’s quick but provides some advice about Syria around the larger stage and the current government (and also guidance for Syria and Lebanon). Because he talks fast, Used to pause to talk about what he stated maybe once or twice inside my lesson.
  • Video: 5 minute history on Syrian Civil War along with the Rise of ISIS from VOX
    • This video enters the multiple players inside Civil War and also the shifting allegiances; my students found this to remain essentially the most helpful resources to learn the complexness on the Syrian Civil War.
  • Article: A Confused Person’s Owner’s manual for the Syrian Civil War from the Atlantic
    • A who, what, where, when, and why from the Civil War.

After experiencing most of these readings and videos, I built an action much like one I had put together just seen presented by Discovery Education within the NCSS Annual Conference in New Orleans, the Key Decisions: Defeating Japan activity. In such a Key Decisions model, students are made aware of the individual and exhibited material to higher comprehend the problem, analyze alternatives, and propose an alternative.

In the Key Decisions model, students go through the advantages and drawbacks for the proposed solutions.

The lesson culminates with students ranking their decisions from most to least important while explaining their reasoning.

For this activity, the issue was, “What in case the Country involvement be in the Syrian Civil War?” I gave my students some potential solutions which i gathered in the media and presidential candidates. In pairs, just like the above model, students discussed the strengths and weaknesses of all of the potential answers to the Syrian Civil War along with the refugee crisis.

  • Work with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to combat ISIS.
  • Unite and work alongside the many enemies of ISIS.
  • Send US soldiers to Syria to combat ISIS.
  • Create no-fly zones to safeguard Syrian citizens from bombings.

We spent about Half an hour starting a number of strengths and weakness for each. All things considered, my class couldn’t take action to ending the Syrian Civil War. That is never the intent. My students discovered that a fix for this cannot simply a talking point with a political rally, and may be complex.

My students really don’t grasp the extent in the Syrian Crisis, ISIS, or their methods. As being the Syrian Civil War appears to be a constantly shifting event, it could be not easy to understand fully it. But my students walked away having a better understanding of the events in Paris and Syria and knowing that our class was obviously a space to share what was happening on this planet.

How do you think you’re working with current events inside your classroom? The alternative resources in case you share?