About Our Curriculum Units

Choices develops curriculum units for use at the secondary level. All units include extensive background readings, primary sources, a framework of policy options, rigorous student-centered lesson plans, and a role-play or simulation exercise that encourages students to apply their knowledge in an authentic setting.

Our resources bring ground-breaking research on critical turning points in history and pressing issues of today to secondary classrooms. In order to ensure high quality, balanced, and accurate teaching resources, Choices draws on the content expertise of scholars at the Watson Institute, Brown University, and a range of other universities and research institutions.

Choices materials:

• Promote critical thinking about multiple perspectives and competing interpretations of current international challenges and historical turning points.
• Actively engage students in informed deliberation on the uncertainties of history and the challenges of the present.
• Engage students in exploration of critical primary sources that give them a grounded understanding of the moment—past or present.
• Draw students into a fuller understanding of moments in history and dissuade them from applying the values of the present to historical dilemmas.
• Help students to make connections across time and place, making the study of history relevant in their lives today.

The Structure of a Choices Curriculum Unit

Choices units put students in the position of decision-makers, sometimes at an historical turning point, sometimes facing a critical current question. Using this approach students examine the historical, cultural, and political circumstances leading up to that moment and then, taking on the roles of those who faced difficult choices then or must face them now, to make decisions.

Choices materials are updated frequently. The teaching resources and pedagogical approach of the Choices Program fit in well with the need of classroom teachers to address National and State Standards.

Supplemental resources are available online from the Teaching with the News, Supplemental Materials, and Scholars Online sections of our web site. See also the Online Ballots, and Teaching Tools sections.