CURRENT EVENTS
Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.
Overview | Why is Secretary of State Clinton urging an uprising in Iran? What is at stake under Iran’s current leadership — for the Iranian people and the rest of the world? In this lesson, students immerse themselves in the complicated issues that have brought growing alarm to the international community. They trace and research the issues, and then create a concept map that connects each issue’s causes and effects. Finally, they write an open letter to Secretary Clinton.
Materials | Handouts, computers with Internet access, projector and audio/video capability and word-processing software, research resources
Note to Teacher | If taught in its entirety, this lesson will likely take multiple class periods. Depending on how much your students already know about Iran, you can customize it to delve more deeply into issues that are already familiar to them or use it as an introduction to Iran’s domestic and international policies and ongoing U.S. diplomatic relations. For a lesson focused on a historical overview of Iran, see Talking ‘Bout a Revolution, from the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Warm-up | Ask students what they know about politics, the political climate and government in Iran, and write their ideas on the board. If necessary, introduce the fact that in June 2009, Iran held a presidential election, the results of which were contested, and protested, by thousands of Iranians.
Distribute copies of the Identifying Cause and Effect graphic organizer (PDF). You may want to make extra copies, as students will continue to work with these organizers throughout the lesson. Or, if students can work on computer, have them download the sheets themselves and type their causes and effects in the writeable document.
Show the interactive feature “Timeline: Aftermath of the Iranian Elections.” If time is short, show only the main headline and content for any given day. As students read, watch and listen, have them use the graphic organizers to list the events they learn about as causes and effects. Remind them that some events can be both, like the post-elections protests, an effect of both candidates declaring victory and a cause of the crackdown on dissidents that followed.
