Case Study: Connecting Students to the World; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Lesson Plan:

"Retain Your Integrity": The Life of Alan Cranston

Exploring the life of Senator Alan Cranston and his views on politics, nuclear weapons, and contemporary issues.

Subjects

American Democracy, United States History (Secondary School Level)

Overview of Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students explore the different factors that influence a person to become an elected official. They examine how a famous person views his life and how he lives his life, with emphasis on a vision of a future. They will be acquainted with a person who believes in public service and in world peace.

Suggested Time Allowance

Three 45-minute classes

Objectives

Students will:

1. Explore the evolving notions of sovereignty, committment, the disarmament movement, and the role of a public official.
2. Examine the life of a famous person and relate the cultural,social,and historical context by which this person formed his sense of identity and role in the society.
3. Articulate their views of government, the globetrotter website experience, and using the internet.
4. Refine the experience of peer group interaction in the articulation of the above goals.

Resource Materials

student journals
pencils/pens
paper
classroom board
copies of or access to the globetrotter website
classroom research resources (computers with Internet access, newspapers)

Activities/Procedures

Note to teachers: As in any lesson involving the use of the internet, care should be taken to ensure that all students have access to the computers,the internet,and that they have the guidance necessary to navigate throughout the web. Care should be taken to ensure that students in small groups understand the task and the responsibility of each group member to the group process.

1. WARM-UP/DO NOW: In their journals, students respond to the following questions, written on the board prior to class:
   • Have you had any experience working with Connecting Students to the World or the Globetrotter Website?
   • Do you have any opinion on working with UC Berkeley and working at a computer lab?
   • Do you know of people in this class who can work together on a three day project?
   • Do you know the educational benefits of working together in a small group?
   
   
2. As a class, in the computer lab, ask students to navigate through the globetrotter website for 10-15 minutes. This will enable students to begin to form an impression on the structure of the website, the set up, and the content. They will begin to gel as a group and work together as well.

Discussion/Feedback

3. What is the general reaction to the website? Reflect this in a written journal, followed by a discussion in class, either in small groups or as a whole group.

Assignment

4. Return to the computer lab, work in pairs and answer the following study questions (regarding Alan Cranston, based on the globetrotter website). Ask students to read through the website,find the answers to the questions, and write them down. They are to write down their own answers to the questions.
   

   STUDY QUESTIONS:

   1. What impresses you about Cranston as a journalist?
   2. Why did he quit journalism?
   3. How did he wake up a lot of Americans to the Nazi threat?
   4. What kind of abolitionist was he?
   5. What is the freeze movement?
   6. What two issues does Cranston see that are related to the nuclear arms?
   7. What opinion does he have regarding a major American city?
   8. What is Cranston's future defintion of sovereignty?
   9. What is START II?
   10. What is globalism?
   11. What does Cranston see as the role of citizens today?
   12. What advice does he give to young people?
   13. Why does he feel his is accomplishing more today than when he was in the Senate?
   14. If you were able to ask him a question about what you've read about him, what would it be?
   15. What would you ask Cranston about his years in public service?

5. Return to class the next day and discuss the experience of working in the computer lab with a partner, navigating the website,and writing the answer to the study questions.

6. Discuss the answer to the questions and discuss the unique qualities that students found to be interesting to Senator Cranston.

Vocabulary

Nazism, abolitionism, nuclear freeze movement, nuclear arms, sovereignty, globalism, senate, public service

Evaluation/Assessment

Students will be evaluated based on participation, reflection, discussion and journal commenting on the use of of the Globetrotter website, the studyquestions, on Senator Cranston's life and accomplishments. They will be further assessed on their ability to work in a small group and/or with a partner.

Extension Activities

1. Based on the research,discussion,and peer work, students may formulate questions that delved into some aspect of the Senator's interview. (REFER to Journal-Writing: Students Prepare for their E-mail Exchange with Alan Cranston: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Cranston/journals.html.)

2. Students may want to continue reading about Mr. Cranston's e-mail exchange with High School Students where Mr. Cranston answer's personal questions about his philosophy, history, views of life. (REFER to E-mail Exchange: Life History: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Cranston/cranston-email.hist.html)

Interdisciplinary Connections

CIVICS (GOVERNMENT)

What makes a person want to be a Senator? What happens after a senator finishes his/her office? What are the global issues that are impacting the current Senate?

GLOBAL HISTORY

Find a biography of another famous person in government (see the Globetrotter research gallery on Politics: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/PubEd/research/politics.html) and compare their life as a legislator with Senator Cranston's. How are they different, how is the comparision similar?

HUMANITIES

Compare the poem that Mr. Cranston carried (by Lao Tzu) with some other poems that might be inspirational to someone who believes in globalism, world peace, or public service. Look in the poetry section or search in the net for some samples. Find these poems in contemporary as well as in classical/world poetry.

JOURNALISM

Interview a local politician and focus on questions of the nuclear freeze, globalism, public service, optimism, and philosophy of life. Write an article for publication in your school or local paper. Use the Globetrotter Interview Website: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/PubEd/interviewing2/ as a resource.

MATH

Research and graph the data of the major countries and the amount that is spent on nuclear arms of the last three decades.

FINE ARTS

Using the library or the internet, find songs that were written in Cranston's era that relate to the anti-freeze movement, globalism, world peace, or public service. Perform one in class, on stage, or at a school concert.

WORLD LANGUAGES

Find poems, music, or short stories that relate to Cranston's life dedication to the nuclear arms movement, world peace, or globalism. Learn one and read/recite it to class in the language of the original work. If possible, have the work in the primary language and in English.

CALIFORNIA CONTENT STANDARDS

This lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards listed below. These standards are from the 1998 California Framework and Standards for Social Studies and History.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (Grade 12 Standards)

The student will analyze a contemporary world issue, relate it to local,state,or national affairs, and discuss it from different viewpoints.
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the responsibilities of citizenship and the importance of the individual as the basis for civil society in a constitutional republic.

UNITED STATES HISTORY (Grade 11 Standards)

The student will place the recent past in historical perspective.
The student will understand the rule of the US in WWII and the impact of the war on the home front.
The student will analyze the causes and consequences of the Second World War.

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