University of South Florida



Teaching Democracy & Diversity:

A Summer Seminar for Caribbean Teachers

University of South Florida

By Nelson De la Cruz

Title

The role of the United States in Latin America (specifically: Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico.)

Concept/Main Idea of Lesson

In this lesson, the students will learn that Latin American democracy has been significantly influenced by the role of the United States as an “overseer” of the region.

Intended Grade Level

9th-12th

Infusion/Subject Area(s)

American History, Latin American History, and Government/Civics

Instructional Objective

The students will:

• learn about the democracy process and its characteristics in the Caribbean;

• analyze U.S. participation in the formation of democracy systems in the Caribbean;

• value the importance of preservation of national sovereignty;

• appreciate the international organizations’ contributions in conflict resolution;

• compare the democratic process of different L.A. countries with a focus on the Caribbean.

Learning Activities Sequence

a. Set Induction/Lesson Initiating Behavior: The students will complete a (KWL) chart based on the topic of democracy in Latin America using the photos provided by the teacher.

b. Learning Activities: The class will be divided into groups of 3-4 students. The teacher

will give each group a reading on a different country. Students will discuss and reflect on the positive and negative aspects of U.S. participation in Latin American democracy. The students should organize this information by creating a T-Chart for “Positive Aspects” and “Negative Aspects”. All ideas should be written in students’ notebooks.

After the groups have completed their readings/discussion, the class will collectively discuss all of the findings from each of the group’s readings. From this discussion, the students will be completing the graphic organizer below.

U.S. participation in Latin American democracy

Country Positive influence Negative influence

c. Closure: As a closure activity, the class will continue the discussion of the findings and engage in a mini debate the reasons for U.S. involvement in the region, and this will also be a time for students to share their own opinions on whether or not they agree with the rationale for U.S. involvement.

Evaluation

After this, each group will be collaborating to create a poster that identifies what they believe about the participation of U.S. in terms of the democratic process in the Latin American countries emphasized in the following activities (Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, and Puerto Rico).

Materials and Resources

Map of Latin America

Graphic organizer/ KWL Chart/ T-Chart

Photos.

References

Bras, M. “The world of 1898: The Spanish-American War”. Accessed July 23, 2009, from:

.

Sierra, J.A. . Accessed July 23, 2009, from:

http//historyofcuba/history/siderar4.htm.

United States Occupation of Haiti (Photograph). Accessed July 23, 2009 from:

.

United States 1965 Occupation of the Dominican Republic (Photograph). Accessed July 23, 2009

from: .

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