The 9th grade course I teach, Geographic Cultural Studies, is meant to be a mixture of geography and history with a bit of economics thrown in as well. The first semester focuses on the foundations of each discipline, while also including units on Europe and East Asia. While covering a range of geographic and cultural concepts the first semester tends to be more history focused since students are also working on their National History Day projects.
The second semester was designed with longer units in order to create more opportunity for inquiry using the C3 Framework, which guides course’s curricular structure. Each units corresponds to a geographic region and is paired with a guiding question. The first of these units focuses on Latin America, with the guiding question “Why have Latin American nations struggled with economic growth and political stability?” Students begin the unit by creating physical and political maps of the region, and then progress into the inquiry unit.
By this point in the year, students have experience developing and refining inquiry topics and questions as well as conducting and refining research. This unit is meant to be somewhere between controlled and guided inquiry. I have selected a set of sources that all students will use, but they will also be required to find additional sources as they develop their answer to the guiding question. The project type or medium they use to provide this answer will also be opened up to choice.
Unit Structure
Like any well designed C3 inquiry unit, the guiding question has been broken apart into supporting questions. For each of these, foundational sources have been selected. Question 1 is all geography, but is also meant to get students thinking about contemporary issues in Latin America. Questions 2 and 3 involve the requisite history, but also cover population demographics, political economy, and globalization trends. That’s a lot…I know. Finally, question 4 is meant to get into contemporary issues in greater depth thereby giving students some possible directions for the end of the inquiry.
Supporting Questions
- How has the physical geography of Latin America influenced the economic opportunities and challenges faced by different nations within the region?
- How has colonialism and its legacy shaped the demographics of Latin American nations and how do demographic factor impact economic growth and political stability?
- In what ways have historical challenges shaped the trajectories of economic growth and political stability in Latin American nations?
- To what extent should Latin American nations be considered “developing?”
The readings for each supporting question are in the image below. Some of the selections come from one of our textbooks.
The Harkness method will also be integrated into the unit through the formative performance tasks. There will be one formal Harkness for each supporting question, with students using both the provided resources and any additional resources they find and bring to the table. In previous units I have scored students summatively for an individual Harkness. For this unit, I will be giving a single summative score for all Harkness engagement at the end. I hope this allows me to lower freshman anxiety over a single day’s discussion while also helping initiate opportunities for student reflection on goal setting and growth over time.
In a previous post I explored my decision to increase the use of Harkness discussions with freshman and why I think it has had a positive impact. Eventually, I want to build a classroom culture where students prepare for and engage in the Harkness without any summative score dangling over the proceedings. My seniors in AP Comparative Government are at this point, but the freshman are not.
Reading Resources
The first link takes you to a word document version of the source that includes space for annotation and the glossary. The glossary provides not only the definition, but a translation in both Chinese and Korean thanks to my amazing EAL co-teacher. A second link, if applicable, leads to the original source found online.
I am sure there will be some unexpected obstacles, but I am looking forward to deepening the inquiry embedded in the C3 Framework into my course. The next two units, on Middle East & Africa and India & Southeast Asia, will continue with this structure.
Reference and News Sources
- South America: Physical Geography – National Geographic
- South America: Human Geography – National Geographic
- Environmental disasters slam Latin America and Caribbean – The Washington Post
- The Mexico City earthquake 30 years on: have lessons been forgotten? – The Guardian
- For us, the Amazon isn’t a cause, it’s our home: the riverside communities stranded by the climate crisis. – The Guardian
Primary Sources
- Cortez Describes Tenochtitlan
- Assorted sources on the treatment of Native Americans
- Casta Image
- Problems and Progess in Mexico – Alexander von Humboldt (1800)
- The Jamaica Letter – Simon Bolivar (1815)
- My Race – Jose Marti (1893)
Featured Image： “Gloriosa Victoria” (Glorious Victory) – Diego Rivera. Oil on linen. 1954. (Cropped)
Attached C3 Standards: D2.Geo.3.9-12, D2.Geo.4.9-12, D2.Geo.5.9-12, D2.Geo.11.9-12, D2.His.1.9-12. The next step will be better aligning these standards with the assessments so as to work within an standards-based grading system.