A peaceful Europe

15 - 16 years old, 2 - 4 weeks, 4 - 12 weeks, Collaboration and debate, Digital texts, Meeting, Presentations, Questions, Student homework or project work, Written online test

Methodological steps

Set up an individual brainstorming activity by asking: “What does the word “peace” mean for you?” Ask the students to fill in a Padlet wall or to answer via Sli.do or Mentimeter (you can learn more by enrolling in the Module 2 of the MOOC) and make a word cloud out of their answers. Please note that word clouds are automatic with Sli.do and Mentimeter, not with Padlet.

Next, set up a plenary activity: in a lecture, explain the concept of peace using a multimedia presentation. Suggested tools are Canva, Prezi, or check for other presentation tools at this page.

Then, divide the students into groups and ask every group to deal with different topics, such as: conflicts in Europe in the last century, politicians who contributed to peaceful resolution of conflicts, the building up of the European Union, European Union institution.

Ask each group to create a presentation on their topic; make sure to provide them a clear structure (length, number and type of images, presence of videos, keywords to use). Be clear on the fact that these criteria are going to be evaluated in a rubric, together with the quality of the content and the quality of the oral presentation. Suggested tools: Animaker, Powtoons.

Ask each group to present their work to the class and to prepare a Kahoot or something similar (learn more on Module 2 of the MOOC) to be submitted to the other students after the presentations.

Follow up activity: the role of our country within the European Union. Google Meet or Zoom meeting among different countries. Further tip: prepare a debate about the pros and cons of the European Union.

Skills assessment

Rubrics to assess the presentations and the debate as a summative assessment. Kahoot designed by the students and assigned after the group work as a formative assessment.

The activity develops both disciplinary knowledge and transversal and lifelong learning competencies, particularly digital and social ones for cooperative work. E-portfolios on specific tools such as Padlet or One Note represent a personal repository of the student.

Communication

This activity uses mainly video conferencing (Zoom, Teams, Meet) with breakout rooms for the communication between teacher and students. Other communication media are school email or messenger. Students can communicate with each other through social media.

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