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Topic 3: Economic Issues Affect Cooperation               between Germany, the European               Union, and Other Nations

Lesson 1
Step #1: Gathering Information

Strategy: Think/Pair/Share and Inquiry Chart

  • Why is it important for the European Union to have a single currency?
  • Why would a European nation want to use the Euro?

Activities

Have students complete an Inquiry Chart to answer this question:

Why is it important for the European Union to have a single currency?
Give each student a resource folder consisting of

Post several questions for students to explore. These are found at the top of each individual column of the Inquiry Chart. The rows are for recording, in summary form, the information already known and the key ideas pulled from sources of information. The final row gives a student the opportunity to pull together the ideas into a general summary or write new questions that still need answers. It’s at this time a student should try to develop new questions to explore based on any conflicting or incomplete information.

Printable Student View

INQUIRY CHART
Why is it important for the European Union to have a single currency?

TOPIC:
Introduction of the Euro currency
Why would a nation want to use the Euro?
Why are “convergence” criteria important to EU membership?
How effective is the Euro if many member states do not participate?
What do
I already know?
      
What did
I learn?
      
What questions
do I have?
      

Have students conduct a Think/Pair Share strategy to first complete the I-chart on their own, then with a partner to discuss and revise, then for the partners to share their chart with the class.

Making Inferences: What might be the relationship between whether a nation has adopted the Euro and public opinion toward the Euro? What might be a reason for that relationship?