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Education

U.S Foreign Policy After 9/11 Lesson Plan

Length
One 60-minute class period
Grade Level
High School
Course
AP U.S. History, AP World History, U.S. Government and Civics, U.S. Government and Foreign Policy, U.S. History, World History

Learning Objectives

  • Students will use the Question Formulation Technique to generate and prioritize their own historical questions about the Authorized Use of Military Force joint resolution.

Instructional Plan

  1. (Introduction: 5 minutes) - Display the statement: “A single 60-word sentence, written and passed by the U.S. Congress within days of a national tragedy, was used to justify American military action in multiple countries for the next two decades.” Tell students: “You will not get any more information than this right now. Your job is to ask questions — as many as you can.”
  2. (Producing Questions: 5 minutes) - Post and briefly explain the rules below. Working in groups of 3–4, have students generate as many questions as possible about the statement on the board, numbering each question on their paper. Enforce the rules strictly — no answering, no debating yet.
    • Ask as many questions as you can.
    • Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any question.
    • Write down every question exactly as it was stated.
    • Change any statement into a question.
  3. (Categorizing Questions: Closed vs. Open: 5 minutes) - Introduce students to “closed” versus “open” questions. Explain that closed-ended questions are answerable with yes/no or a single fact, whereas open-ended questions require explanation.
    • Students mark each question C (closed) or O (open).
    • Discuss as a class: What changes if a closed question is opened up (and vice versa)? Example: “Was someone punished?” (closed) “How did the U.S. decide who to hold responsible, and how?” (open)
  4. (Prioritizing Questions: 5 min) -  Ask each group to choose their top 3 questions they most want to investigate, with this guiding criterion:
    • “Choose the questions that would best help us understand WHY this phrase was written the way it was, and WHY it kept being used for over 20 years.”
    • Steer students toward the historical thinking skill (causation/context) without telling them the answer.
  5. (Research in Small Groups: 20–30 min) - Reveal at this point: this is about the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Then, distribute the CFR reading, “How a Single Phrase Defined the War on Terror.” Working individually or in pairs, students should actively read for answers to their prioritized questions, annotating where the text confirms, complicates, or fails to answer their question.
  6. (Full-Class Discussion: 10–15 min) - Use the discussion prompts below to facilitate a full-class discussion regarding the activity.
    • “Which of your original questions did the reading answer? Which are still open?”
    • “What historical context (Cold War comparison optional here, or simply ‘national emergency,’ ‘Congress moving fast,’ ‘who counts as an enemy’) explains why the AUMF was written so broadly?”
    • “The reading shows the AUMF being applied to Iraq, Syria, and groups that didn’t exist in 2001. Was this a natural continuation of the original context, or a departure from it? Use evidence from the text.”

Notes:

For more information on the Question Formulation Technique, please visit The Right Question Institute.

Materials