CFR Education offers a wide variety of ways to help students connect theoretical debates to real-world global affairs in an engaging and civil manner. All of the teaching activities found on the CFR Education website were created by faculty and can help instructors liven up their global affairs classroom while encouraging critical thinking.
In this blog post, we suggest four classic activities and give them a global affairs twist. Each activity is designed to be innovative, practical, and (hopefully) entertaining. Keep reading to learn more!
Climate Prompts: Fact or Fiction
Most educators have used the “take a stand” activity, in which students physically position themselves in the classroom to represent their opinions or background knowledge on a topic. What's great about this activity is that it can involve as much or as little discussion as desired and can serve as a way to gauge student knowledge before diving deeper into a topic. If you are dealing with a contentious issue, this activity also allows the teacher to gauge existing beliefs or attitudes.
In the CFR Education version, ‘Climate Prompts: Fact or Fiction,’ you are given a list of climate prompts to read aloud and ask students where they stand on each prompt – literally – by positioning themselves along a physical spectrum. Each prompt is based on a CFR Education reading that can be assigned afterwards as part of a reflection. For example, the prompt “Winter and cold weather are proof that climate change is not really an issue” corresponds to the reading “How Climate Change Worsens Extreme Weather.”
During the activity, you may ask students to explain their reasoning to the students at the opposite end of the room, thereby opening the floor for civil disagreement and balanced discussion of each prompt. You might then encourage students to move to a new spot if the discussion has caused them to change their minds.
Access the full activity along with tips and classroom alternatives here.
Exploring Perspectives on China
When thinking about how to encourage students to develop their active listening, civil discourse, and oral communication skills, the fishbowl activity comes to mind. An example of the CFR Education take on this classic discussion-based activity is ‘Exploring Perspectives on China’, which starts by assigning five readings on Asia from the Regions of the World Collection and asks students to complete an activity worksheet.
As with all fishbowl discussions, start off by having students sit in two concentric circles and engage students in a brief discussion about the main themes of their assigned homework. Then use the slides included in the activity to introduce the rules and begin the discussion!
This activity suggests four 10-minute rounds of discussion, each based on prompts from the activity worksheet. At any point, you can rotate students in and out of the circle to keep them engaged and accountable. To conclude the session, ask students to reflect on how they think the discussion went and what they learned.
Explore all components of this activity here.
The "Genocide" Label and U.S. Foreign Policy
What better way to discuss current policies than by looking at the past? In this discussion-based activity, students explore the background and values of a historic individual who has made a significant contribution to a current issue. “The Genocide Label and U.S. Foreign Policy” activity asks students to connect the past to the present to evaluate contemporary conflicts from the perspective of Raphael Lemkin, the twentieth-century Polish lawyer who coined the term “genocide.”
The activity starts by assigning and discussing the CFR Education reading ‘'What is Genocide?’, then sharing a short video from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and holding a short discussion. It then asks students to read the CFR Expert Brief ‘What the ‘Genocide’ Label Means for U.S. Foreign Policy’ and discuss the pressures the U.S. government might face in determining a situation to be a genocide.
Students can then apply what they’ve learned by examining three modern-day case studies and using the provided questions to guide their exploration of their chosen topic. Conclude the class session with a discussion of what Raphael Lemkin might think about the world and his legacy today. As an optional add-on, you can assign students the task of writing a speech from Lemkin’s perspective on the current event.
Try the activity for yourself here.
Create a Mitigation Awareness Video
The classic jigsaw activity is great because it encourages cooperation and allows students to demonstrate their mastery of the material to their classmates. If you want to do a cooperative exercise like this but are concerned about keeping your students engaged, this activity is for you.
Taking the initial concept of a jigsaw, divide students into groups. In this activity, the groups are based on the major greenhouse gas-emitting sectors (Industry, Buildings, Energy, Transportation, and Agriculture and Land Use) found in this collection of resources. After students work together in their small groups to answer questions about their assigned sector using the provided questions, call students back together as a full class and lead a brief discussion.
This is where things get fun. Have students return to small groups to create a storyboard and script for a 60-second TikTok video that raises awareness of their assigned sector and the opportunities to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Then provide students with time to film and edit their videos, and host a live screening, giving each group the chance to explain their video and answer classmates’ questions.
Access the full activity and accompanying slides here.
Cultivating Global Affairs Literacy in the Classroom
Whether you are using one of the existing CFR Education resources or creating your own, incorporating active learning techniques ensures that your students are building the skills they need to navigate an increasingly interconnected world. Exercises that prioritize active learning deepen students' critical thinking skills, while also empowering them to participate thoughtfully in conversations about their world.
All told, these strategies help cultivate globally aware learners who are prepared to engage with/think critically about important global affairs topics and collaborate across a diversity of perspectives and priorities, both in the classroom and beyond.