1. Lesson suggestion
Subject: Art and Humanities
Area: Challenges of the current world
Thematic unit: A world organized in States
Topic: Failed States (Why do some States fail?)
Target group (class): 3rd of ESO (14-15 years)
Time required: 3 lessons of 55 minutes. In case of shorter lessons, it is possible to
divide content into smaller units.
Content standard: The State and its functions.
Performance standard: The student establishes basic connections and
relationships between knowledge and information acquired, preparing synthesis and
transferring the knowledge acquired by source of oral presentations and audiovisual
media.
Educational standard: The student identifies the problems to which societies are
facing today through the development of research projects and the use of reliable
sources.
Set-out: computers / tablets, Office 365, Padlet, projector, interactive whiteboard,
web pages.
Digital skills: Information (browsing, creating, sorting, evaluation), Communication
(through technologies, sharing information, cooperation via digital technologies,
Digital content creating, Problem solving (creative use of digital technologies).
Cross-curricular relations: Oral and written expression. Audiovisual
communication and ICT. Values based on Human Rights: freedom, justice, equality
and non-discrimination, peace, democracy, respect and inclusion.
Education forms and methods: Group Work, Inquiry-based learning.
2. Structure of the lessons
1st lesson (Evocation)
1. Students are already familiar with the concept of the State and its functions. After a
short review of this contents, the teacher proposes the topic of Fragile States. The
teacher shows some pictures from Fragile States and asks the students what
geographic area they may be from.
2. The teacher shows the students the map of the Fragile States Index (Fund For
Peace, 2022) and asks the students to identify some of the countries that are in the
different groups (Sustainable, Stable, Warning or Alert).
Source: https://fragilestatesindex.org/analytics/fsi-heat-map/
3. The teacher proposes the reading of several articles about “Failed States” that he
has shared on the school's web platform. They do a cooperative summary and share it
in Padlet.
4. Every team (4-5S students) choose a country among those that occupy the top
positions in the Fragile States Index in order to carry out a research on why the chosen
country is considered a fragile State in the next session.
3. 5. The teacher shows the students the instruction guide that they must follow to carry
out the investigation (it is shared on school website). The teacher resolves any doubts.
Source: https://fragilestatesindex.org/global-data/
2nd lesson - (Research)
1. Using the computers, each team conducts Internet research on why the state they
have chosen is considered a fragile state, following the given instructions.
2. The teacher resolves the doubts of the students during the search for information.
3rd lesson - Exhibition of what has been learned and evaluation
1. Each team show the rest of the students the results of their research through an oral
presentation. Students will use Powerpoint (Office 365) as support during their
presentation (images, graphics, videos...).
4. 2. The rest of the classmates evaluate the presentation of each team, following a rubric
provided by the teacher (peer evaluation). Students of every group evaluate the work
of their teammates (peer evaluation). They will also carry out a self-assessment.
3. With the help of the feedback cards, students say whether they have enjoyed the
lesson, what would the change, if they found it difficult to understand a concept and
what they want to know/learn more about.