October 24: United Nations Day
UN Day, celebrated each year on October 24th, marks the anniversary of the UN Charter's coming into force in 1945. The UN Day Unit provides high school teachers with interdisciplinary lesson plans intended to increase student understanding of the United Nations-how it works, its history, its accomplishments and the obstacles it faces--as well as points of view within the US about UN membership. At the end of this unit, students should be able to meet the following objectives within the following categories:
Knowledge
- Explain the reasons for the creation of the UN
- Name the main bodies of the UN
- Discuss at least two main areas of UN activity
- Describe different perspectives on US membership in the UN
Skills
- Read a text and extract the main ideas
- Make inferences from reading material and answer questions
- Effectively present information to a group
- Carry out research using the Internet
- Debate a controversial issue
- State a point of view and defend it with evidence
Attitudes
- Listen to others with respect
- Demonstrate understanding of different points of view
- Work with a group, as well as independently
The unit is comprised of activities aligned with national standards. The national organizations responsible for developing these standards are:
Social Studies: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS).
Standards are described in detail in the NCSS publication "Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Expectations of Excellence", NCSS Bulletin 89, 1994. Available from the National Council for the Social Studies, 8555 Sixteenth Street, Suite 500, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Order online at www.socialstudies.org.
English Language Arts: National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
NCTE standards for English Language Arts are available at http://www.ncte.org/about/over/standards/110846.htm
Mathematics: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
NCTM standards for mathematics are available at http://www.nctm.org/standards/
Visual Arts: Consortium of National Arts Education Associations (CNAEA)
The CNAEA has developed National Standards for Arts Education that address standards for dance, music, theater and visual arts. The full text of these standards can be found online at http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teach/standards.cfm