Written by From Russia with Love
Because apparently I couldn’t get enough holidays, I am already prepping for Valentine’s Day.
Depending on what unit you’re in around February 14th, you might want to try your hand at a V-Day inspired lesson.
Throughout the years, I’ve tried out a bunch of creative ones depending on where my units fell on the calendar. (Reminder that a V-Day lesson needn’t be on the very day).
- Students wrote one-liner Valentines based on the courses’ vocabulary terms. After decorating and cutting, these made for a fun word wall and students were actually eager to make more than one. This is a popular one one the Facebook group, and strongly recommend that you do a search for some really good examples. (Made famous by other teachers in the FB group)
- I’ve had students complete a worksheet about Valentine’s Day itself, covering culture, agriculture (chocolate & roses), and sustainable practices. This is a good one for the Ag. Unit. (Made famous by other teachers in the FB group)
- Students made pick-up lines for another country, meme style. This was another smallish and quick lesson (good for one day when including cutting, decorating, and writing. (Also in the FB group)
Other awesome ideas that I’ve not had the opportunity to try yet include:
- Teacher Anne C. of Virginia has students complete Conflict Poems when in her Political Unit. Do a quick search to find it.
- Rik K. of Washington has students do a chocolate taste-off, which always made me jealous (Details in the FB group).
But last year I outdid myself. It was literally my best executed lesson plan of the year. It was so good that my last-year’s students remind me about it in the halls. The only reason I switched it up from the other great lessons was because Valentine’s Day landed on the part of my calendar that dealt with Geopolitics.
The connection of Geopolitics to V-Day is so obvious, I know! 😬
But I’m always a glutton for a punishing challenge, so I created a lesson where students researched real-world geopolitical issues between two countries. It’s hard enough to fully keep track of our own country’s international relations, and sometimes it’s abstract to think that other countries have relationships with each other too! Who knew that Mexicans need a visa to enter Bulgaria (Rodrigo found out when men with big guns escorted him off the tour bus). 🤷🏾♀️ – real story I experienced.
But other countries do have relationships Sometimes juicy scandalous ones! In fact there are great web sources dealing with just that! My favorite is Stratfor.
Your class will FALL IN LOVE with this Geopolitical Valentine’s Day writing activity.
Like many of you, I have students “adopt” a set of countries throughout the school year to use as case-studies. I had my students research the transnational issues that surrounded their country of choice, and they wrote an 11 stanza poem. My kids were super hesitant at first, (much like when you ask the non-artists to do one-pagers), but they really knocked it out of the park after presenting high-bar examples. And they ended up geeking out over the whole thing.
Here is a brief example of this Valentine Day Geopolitical goodness. In this Valentine poem, Switzerland wrote a Valentine to itself, because they are neutral and have no enemies of course. (Thanks to my student Emily A. for permission to share).
To my Sweetest Switzerland, myself,
Roses are red, our people are free,
There is no other country that is better than me.
Our crimes rates are low, yet we let our guns flare,
This is the place where Albert Einstein discovered e=mc^2.
We have the second largest life expectancy, right after Japan,
81 years exactly would be the lifespan.
We are the happiest country in the world, there’s no doubt about that,
Out of all the countries in the world, we have the best chocolate.
Our mountains are high, we have a great Swiss military force,
And yet half of our marriages end in divorce.
We are a neutral country, we cause no stirrup,
And we were ranked to have the best mathematicians in all of Europe.
It’s illegal to own just one social pet, they can’t be lonely,
To have one main religion would just be unholy.
If there were ever a nuclear war, we would be ready and in order,
And just to be safe and secure, we have dynamite lined up at our border.
Be my own Valentine,
Switzerland
Just in case your students are hell-bent on using the United States and Canada/Mexico, check out my country spinner website and nudge them towards a country whose geopolitics are unbeknownst to them.
Before students jump into this lesson, I’m having my students read my Illustrated Text pages on geopolitics. There are 8 pages of geopolitical goodness here, and is a great primer before they get started.
Next, I have students research the geopolitical issues surrounding the country they chose with one other country (their choice). A good start is CIA World Factbook’s Transnational Issues page. They will quickly find out who they have beefs with. I encourage students to try and woo another country despite being enemies; besides, V-Day is a good time to make-up.
The idea is free for the world, but if you’re interested in how my class pulled this off, and want to see more awesome examples from Your’s Truly, you can find a very well organized lesson plan HERE at TpT. Seriously, it’s sick.
I’ve established 6 objectives for your students to accomplish when writing their geopolitical Valentine poem. After your students research the international relations between two countries, brainstorming and writing their poem will be easier than they initially think. I included hot-linked sources where your students can quickly access information. Without providing clear objectives and sources for research, the geopolitical poem is a bit more difficult to pull off.
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Title Page
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Instructions and Ideas Page with hot-link to the Student Google Drive file.
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Citations and User Agreement Page
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Rubric for the assignment
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Title Page
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Clear set of instructions with guidance for writing each Valentine poem objective (useful hot-links included)
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Two original sample Valentines that clearly illustrate the goals
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25 Valentine background “papers” for them to choose from
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A rubric with point values (editable if necessary before distribution to students)
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Have your students save their Valentine as a JPG or PDF page from Google Slides, and proceed to upload it to a shared folder for the entire class.
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Celebrate V-Day with mood-lighting, candies, and have your students read their Valentines to the class. My students had a great time with this.
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Have students work in groups of two for brainstorming purposes. Have them write their Valentines to each other. Pair them together when sharing with the class.
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Host a Valentine exchange. Have them print out their Valentine and seal it for someone else in the classroom. Whoever opens it, will read it to the class.
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Have students post their Valentine poem to their Instagram and Snapchat using hashtags for their countries. Return at week’s end and see whose Valentine went viral!
