A Mock Model U.N.

Before the U.N. was Cool

Assignment #1 Assessment Piece for a WWII Unit in History 20

Chace Bock
#11204613
ECUR 325
Monday, February 5, 2018
 U.N. Final Project Outline Handout
The United Nations was an organization formed to create cooperation on an
international level. Today it combines over 193 countries and sovereign nations. The U.N. was
formed after the events of WWII to prevent any such event from happening again which was
what the former League of Nations failed to do after WWI. The U.N. gathers together to discuss
global issues and events, and aims to work together to form peaceful resolutions. Think of it as
a bunch of different people living in one house who get together once a month to discuss
problems and concerns they have with each other and the house. This is done so everyone can
live together in harmony and peace, and to prevent a large-scale argument (battle) between
members of the house.
This Model U.N. is a final project to show your learning from the entire WWII
Perspectives unit, that we have been covering these last two weeks. Using your notes, the
power points, your journal entries, in class discussions and the internet, you will be forming
groups and we will be playing out a mock United Nations. In groups of 4, each group will be
assigned one of the countries we covered in the unit. Germany will be played by the teacher. In
your groups you will be given 2-3 days of class time to research and organize information about
your country. I will provide you with a guide on what information you should be focusing on.
The final day we will begin the U.N. meeting. The teacher, playing Germany, will write a
scenario on the board. Each country will be given time to discuss what they should do in
response to the scenario. Once each country is ready they will announce their ideas/responses
to the rest of the countries. All countries must agree on a course of action. If you find an
agreement can’t be made, groups must learn to comprise or change their original plan to help
reach an agreement. Remember that you can’t always get exactly what you want and
sometimes you must make sacrifices to reach your desired outcome later.
Attached is a timeline to help your group be prepared for the final day. Before splitting
into groups on the first day, we will all co-create two rubrics, one for the group mark, and a
second so you can evaluate the members of your group. The peer evaluation will be
anonymous, and you will just write your group name and the name of the peer being evaluated.
Remember the main goal of our unit was about gaining perspective and doing your best to get
into the mindset of the country and their leaders. Even if you disagree, it is still important to
gain their perspective, so you can better understand why leaders did the things they did. If you
have any questions, please feel free to ask. I’m here to help you and want to make sure each
group is ready for the U.N. meeting. Remember this is to show your knowledge and to have fun
while doing so. You are part of a team and a team must work together or the better of the
group. Team work makes the dream work!
 Timeline (Tentative)
Day 1
- Co-create rubric for the group and for peer evaluation.
- Assign groups to each country.
- Using computers, text books, your notes and journals, begin researching information
about your assigned country at the beginning and during WWII.
- You will need to research the leader of the country, political regime they follow,
resources (money, oil, lumber, goods, industry, etc.), military force, geographical
location, and anything else you feel is important.
- Make a game plan to better organize your info. You may want to assign each member of
your group a specific task or chunk of information. Assign person as the specific leader.
Day 2
- Continue doing research and making a game plan. Remember to refer to the co-created
rubric to make sure your group is covering all the bases.
- If you feel you have enough information, your group can start customizing your country
by making hats, flags, propaganda posters, nametags, images of the resources you have
for trading, etc. Get creative and have fun with this.
- I will be walking around to help you so please ask me any questions you have.
Day 3
- The desks/tables will be moved into separate groups in the shape of a “U”, with the
teacher’s desk at the top/middle of the room.
- You will meet back up with your groups and go over the game plan. If students need
more time to figure out a game plan, that's ok.
- I will explain the rules and how the activity will play out. Remember you have a say in
what we do and if there are any concerns or questions about the rules, please say so.
- I will be playing Germany and I will also act as the supervisor of the U.N. I will write a
scenario on the board.
- The countries will first meet with their own group and discuss how they will address the
situation.
- Each country will then have a certain amount of time to present their solution and the
countries must come to an agreement.
- The number of scenarios will be based on the time we have. This may extend to a second
day if we run out of time.
Assessment
- I will be marking through the activity looking to see if each group and member is
participating based on the rubric we created at the start. We will co-create the rubric
which will be a combination of everything required in the timeline. Use the timeline as
your checklist to help you make sure you have covered everything.
- The rubric should follow 4 main themes: research, organization, group work, and
communication/voice. Each theme will be divided into grade sections from 1-4.
(1= not yet meeting expectation, 4= exceeding expectations)
We will co-create the rest of the rubric, so you can have input on what should be
expected for each theme.
- During the U.N. I will mark each group and member using the rubric we created.
- At the end, each person will write a 1-2 page refection in their journals about the activity.
You will cover things like how you think it went, how your group did, how you did as an
individual. You will also talk about everything you learned for the unit and the final
activity. This can be important facts you didn’t know before or questions you still have
about any part of the unit and final activity.
- You will then fill out the peer evaluation rubric for each of the members in your group.
Be honest but also be fair. These will be anonymous so don’t write your name. Just write
the group name and the name of the individual begin marked.
- You will be marked based on a combination of my marking during the activity, your
reflection and the peer evaluations.
 Reflection/Justification of Assessment Piece

As you can see my resource is the first three pages, which is a handout I designed that

will be given to my students prior to the final assessment piece of my unit. To give some context,

my unit plan is covering a theme in history which I believe is extremely important. The theme is

perspectives and why it is extremely important to get into the mindset of people who lived in that

time and place that someone may be researching. My unit is a History 20 unit covering WWII

and the major countries involved in this major part of our world’s history. Each lesson will cover

a country, the leader of the country, resources, military and major events that involved them in

WWII. The lessons are designed around the main theme of perspectives and will help the

students understand why certain countries did what they did and what they believed to be the

best course of action. This assessment piece is the perfect choice to end this unit because it has

the students take everything they have learned to play the role of each major country in solving

important issues that occurred during the second world war. What better way to gain perspective

than to act as those involved and to make decisions based on what a countries leader was like.

The major outcomes focused on in this unit cover knowledge that there are various

political paradigms and that it effects the rights of everyone. Students will understand that groups

will choose a decision-making process that best influences the well-being of the people. Finally,

they will also develop a better understanding that there are challenges/issues that are global in

that they have global consequences and it requires a global response to deal with these issues. All

my lessons of course cover each of these outcomes with my final assessment focusing on all of

them together in a final United Nations format. Previous lessons will cover each major country

with a common theme of getting a better understanding of each countries major leaders and what

they were like. We will be covering questions such as: what was this leader like? was he/she
good or bad? why they did the things they did? etc. What’s good about this unit and final

assessment piece is that it will constantly produce new questions for inquiry.

Throughout the unit students will have a journal which will be a section in their binder or

a separate duo tang. Throughout the lessons I will either ask them to write a specific question or

for them to think of a question they want answered. They may be required to take those questions

and answer them as homework for next class. The journals are part of my formal assessment to

make sure my students are on the right track. I will also be asking them to reflect on what they

have learned throughout the unit. They will then be able to use their journals as a resource when

researching their countries for the final activity. When they ask why they are doing this, now you

know. If you read the assessment part of the final project outline, the rubric will be co

constructed at the beginning of the final assessment piece. A detailed explanation about the

rubric is included in the assessment section of the handout. It is important to co-create the rubric,

so students have a say in their learning. Students will then write 1-2 pages in their journals

reflecting on the learning that took place during the activity and what they have learned for the

activity. Following the activity there will be a classroom discussion on the activity and this will

give students a chance to unpack everything and further their understanding of why this activity

was done. Finally, with the teacher being the leader and the country of Germany it gives them

control of the room and to further negate any inappropriate behavior and so students can’t use

sensitive topics from the war as an argument (concentration camps, total war, Nazi salutes, etc.).

As far as this assessment piece being sub-ready, I believe I have provided enough info that a sub

can take this assignment and make it their own. Of course, I can’t say for sure because I have yet

to test it in a real classroom. I hope that people can use this and adapt it to their own classrooms.