Review the Academic Content Standards related to this lesson. Define an alliance, identify alliances among countries, assess the function of alliances of countries with regard to international affairs, and discuss NATO s functions. Learn about the creation of NATO fifty years ago, how NATO functions, the criteria for a country s acceptance to NATO, and NATO s involvement in international conflicts. Explore, in small groups, the involvement and subsequent results of NATO s actions in international conflicts and affairs, focusing on an assigned decade. 5.
Students then share their answers.
Divide students into five small groups, and assign each group one of the decades spanning NATO s existence. Each group then creates a timeline of their researched decade of NATO history, including all of the information gained through research. It may be best to have students indicate NATO involvement and actions on the top part of the timeline and results in the appropriate places below the timeline. On a blank map, students should indicate what countries joined NATO during their decade by using the color of marker used on their portion of the timeline. Students will be evaluated based on written journal entry, participation in class discussions, participation in group research on a decade in NATO history, and creation of an accurate, thorough timeline of a decade in NATO history to serve as part of a classroom timeline.