Explore the geography of ethnicity. How does culture divide people? To what degree are these divides transcendable? What about syncretism?
Explore the geography of race. Cover the arbitrary, imagined nature of ‘race’. How does this imagined category structure our lived realities? How do we see this concretely in space and in data?
Highlighted Activities:
Jigsaw Reading and Small Group Presentation - Students will be placed in 6 mixed ability groups. These groups will each receive a different article dealing with a perspective on ethnic background and identity. Groups will receive a graphic organizer to help them analyze their article and prepare to share out with the class. Groups will briefly summarize their article to the class and share the analysis and reflections from the group of the reading.
Defining Ethnicity - students will engage in making word maps in their small groups to broadly define the idea of ethnicity as it relates to an individual’s connection to a group identity or group identities. Key questions: Should there be a single definition of ethnicity? Why might this concept need to be fluid? Why should this concept keep some definitional boundaries?
Genocide - IDI on ethnic conflict and the development of the term ‘genocide.’ Introduction to the story of Raphael Lemkin, his creation of the word, and his fight to establish the term via a Genocide Convention at the UN in order to protect human rights and human life.
Loving vs. Virginia and “interracial” marriage today in the U.S. - students will explore the ruling, as well as readings from modern times to assess how much has changed since.
Inter-caste and inter-religious marriages in India today - students will explore what this looks like in modern times, as well as the connection to Romeo and Juliet. What do they think of the practice?
Create Own Continent and Inter-Marriage Activity - students will create their own continent with a population of their own design and then will be asked to create a story of intermarriage between someone from their continent with someone from another students' continent.
Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.3 Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4 Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.5 Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them. Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.6 Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.7 Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8 Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9 Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.10 By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.