Choices Teaching Fellows

World Cultures is a required course for all freshmen at Duchesne. World Cultures focuses on area studies with units on East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia. This course stresses both the history and the culture of the areas studied. It is designed to eliminate student bias toward non-Western cultures and encourage student appreciation of the richness that can be found in the diversity of the world's cultures.

Almost every unit in World Cultures incorporates either a Choices reading for enrichment or a complete Choices unit. For example, during the unit on Africa, students read, Colonialism in the Congo: Conquest, Conflict, and Commerce readings to enhance their understanding of imperialism and its consequences. During our unit over the South Asia, students participate in the complete lesson plan that corresponds with Indian Independence and the Question of Pakistan. Also, as a Capital Forum participant school, we complete the entire U.S. Role in a Changing World unit. The Choices units correspond well with the goals of my World Cultures class and provide an excellent opportunity for student enrichment.

This was the first year that I explored and used the Scholars Online. It was very useful during the protests in the Middle East, when I did not necessarily have the time to stop what we were working on and teach an entire unit on what was happening in the Middle East, but wanted to provide my students with some background information to help them understand the situation. I definitely want to explore further use of both Scholars Online and the other Supplemental Materials.

The research that is put into the readings! A resource of this quality would take a long time for teachers to put together by themselves. I can even use the readings to educate myself about a topic quickly when I need to!

My students recognize that these units are more challenging than working out of a textbook, they also acknowledge that they are more interesting and engaging and appreciate the activities that go with them.

It is not always easy, but it is a matter of quality over quantity. Sometimes, students just do the readings as background information, other times we do not do all of the lessons involved in a unit.

If we just use the readings, sometimes we do what I call graded discussions. Students must participate and answer higher level critical thinking questions to receive a good participation grade. Also, sometimes students are assigned an update paragraph. For example, they have to do a little research and update the India/Pakistan situation or peace talks in the Middle East.

Choices units go beyond memorization to critical thinking. The activities give students ownership in the issue, and they feel invested in a certain point of view and have to understand it in order to participate.