The Americas

Learning Objectives

Students will identify major regional issues in the Americas and explain how they affect individual countries.
Students will evaluate the relative importance of various issues facing countries in the Americas and design a policy to address one issue.

Length

One 45-minute period

Grade Level

High School

Read the resource titled "Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas" from the learning journey linked above.

(5 minutes) Review homework and let students choose a country from the following list. Try to make sure each country is chosen by at least two students:
- Mexico
- Haiti
- Costa Rica
- El Salvador
- Venezuela
- Colombia
- Brazil
(25 minutes) Working individually, have students explore the rest of the Americas learning journey, taking notes on the worksheet about specific challenges their selected country faces. At the end, ask them to take a few moments to consider which challenges they think are most pressing.
(10 minutes) Working with other students who have selected the same country, ask students to compare notes on the challenges they identified and how they ranked them in importance. Students do not need to all agree on which challenge is most important.
(5 minutes) Introduce the homework assignment:
- Imagine you are an advisor to the newly-elected leader of the country you chose at the beginning of class. Write a memo that does three things:
  - Identify all the top challenges facing your country.
  - Of these challenges, which do you think is most important for your country to address?
  - What course of action do you suggest for tackling this most important challenge?