Looking at Issues Transnationally

( Volume 21, Number 3) By Angene Wilson

Download the lesson plan

The following lesson plan was inspired by the confluence of reading “Letter from China” in the current WorldView magazine about the destruction of the hutong or traditional courtyard homes in Beijing and the news in my own city that an entire block of old buildings in the center of the downtown would be bulldozed for a huge new building of offices and condos.  I had also watched the march of new apartment buildings across the landscape in Shanghai while in China last spring and wondered how long the old buildings in the French Concession or on the Bund in that city would remain.  Issues do indeed cross national boundaries.  The lesson plan could be used in any social studies or English class where students study issues and learn to research, write, and advocate for a particular issue, in this case taking into account how other countries are dealing with similar issues.

Objective:

Students will individually read, research, and explain an issue in a WorldView article and then in pairs research, write, and advocate about an issue of their choice.  That advocacy should include perspectives on the issue from at least one other country.

Materials:

WorldView Fall 2008 articles:

Procedure:

Begin with the following individual assignments, perhaps as homework.  Give half of the students in the class “Letter from Lesotho: Walking the Last Mile” and half the students “Letter from China: an excerpt from The Last Days of Old Beijing.”  Each student should answer the questions for their assigned article and be ready to explain to a partner what they have learned.  Each set of questions includes several that require extra research.

Questions and assignment for “Letter from Lesotho”:

  1. What is the subsistence life of Basotho elders like?
  2. What are the details of the social pension?
  3. How is the social pension unique?
  4. How do Basotho elders spend the money?
  5. How is this pension scheme different from U.S. social security in both how it works and numbers of people covered?
  6. Look at the author’s pictures online (FedoraPhoto.com) and describe what you learn from them.
  7. Be sure you can locate Lesotho on a map and find out a bit more about its government and economy and people.
  8. Now put what you have learned into a report of a page or two that you can read to your partner.

Questions and assignment for “Letter from China.”

  1. What is a hutong?
  2. What has replaced the old neighborhoods?
  3. What is Mr. Yang’s story?
  4. Why does he say it is useless to resist?
  5. Where will he and his neighbor live?
  6. Find pictures of hutongs and new apartments if you can.  Look at the May 2008 National Geographic on China to see spectacular new buildings in Beijing.
  7. How does the issue of developers versus historic houses in China compare to the same issue in the U.S.?
  8. Now put what you have learned into a report of a page or two that you can read to your partner.

Pair up students in class so one is reporting on pensions for the elderly in Lesotho and one on destruction of hutongs for new construction in Beijing and give them 10 to 15 minutes to share their reports with each other.

Then lead a general whole class discussion about both issues.  Overarching questions might be:

  • What is the role of government in social and economic policy in different countries?
  • In what ways must issues take into account specific national situations?
  • How can countries learn from each other as they solve similar problems?

Next, explain pair assignment and brainstorm possible issues as a class.

Pair assignment and Assessment: Choose a community or national issue you are passionate about and research possible answers in the U.S. and answers from at least one other country.  Possibilities are numerous, of course, but could include such issues as wind energy, electric cars, health care, transportation for elderly, water scarcity, hurricane preparedness, smart growth, HIV/AIDS awareness.

Prepare a brief proposal – as a poster to put in a school hall display or as a power point presentation for a community audience – that challenges other students and community people to consider how an issue has been dealt with in another country and how that issue could be dealt w

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