This unit map is built for 90 minute block periods and would need to be significantly altered to be utilized in a traditional class time of ~50 minutes.
Students will be able to evaluate the idea of ‘belonging’ in reference to ‘culture’ by responding to the question of the day and engaging in an opening discussion.
Students will be able to relate the idea of cultural belonging to the term ‘ethnicity’ by engaging in interactive direct instruction.
Student will be able to analyze diverse ideas about ethnic identity by engaging in small group reading, by responding to a graphic organizer, and by discussing their findings and responses in small groups and as a whole class.
Students will be able to create diverse definitions for the term ‘ethnicity’ by participating in small group discussion, collaboration, and word map making.
Question of the Day - “What do you think of when you hear the phrase ‘a sense of belonging?’ How might this phrase relate to culture?”
(10 minutes)
Slides to include photos of different cultural practices taking place within bounded geographical space, such as a single city or a single country. Slides to briefly describe the development of the idea of ethnicity as opposed to ‘race’, which will have already been discussed in a prior unit.
(10 minutes)
Activity 2 - 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.
(50 minutes)
https://www.minnpost.com/the-line/2013/12/how-minneapolis-somali-immigrants-are-keeping-their-artistic-traditions-alive/
https://www.hercampus.com/school/ufl/stuck-between-two-cultures
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/my-identity-haitian-american-asset-not-deficit
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-bilingual/201304/advantages-being-bicultural
https://news.ucsc.edu/2017/12/vargas-lecture.html
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/10/24/Cross-border-life-in-Jurez-El-Paso-Work-family-and-long-waits/7091540326157/?ur3=1
Activity 3 - 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?
These word maps will be posted on classroom walls.
(20 minutes)
Question of the Day: “In your opinion, how does conflict between people start?” The question of the day will precipitate an opening discussion. (10 minutes)
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. (15 minutes)
Short videos on introductory videos (specifics TBD) on ethnic conflict, or genocide. These may include but are not limited to:
Rwanda
Kurdish people in Iraq
Armenians in Turkey
Uigher people in Xinjiang Province, China.
These videos will be jigsawed via chromebook. Videos will be edited using EdPuzzle to imbed recall questions and opportunities for reflection and analysis. (40 minutes)
Groups will engage in small group discussion with those who watched the same video, responding to a set of guiding discussion questions which will be projected in the classroom. Then, the instructor will guide a whole class discussion, asking for volunteers and calling on individual students to share out when necessary. (2o minutes)
Closer
Ask three volunteers to share one thing they learned today.
Loving vs. Virgina - A brief history of “interracial” marriage and modern day experiences in the U.S.
TBD
Inter-caste and inter-religious marriages in India today
Question of the Day: “What’s one song or movie that you can think of that is a little bit like the Romeo and Juliet story? What obstacles stand in the way of the lovebirds in that movie or song?”
Activity 1 - Students will watch a short “Bollywood” style YouTube story.
- The instructor will carefully explain that this short movie is one person’s perspective of a still somewhat sensitive topic (intercaste marriage) and that it is meant to be an uplifting comedy. The instructor will remind students of their prior lesson on the caste system in India and clarify that the spin-the-wheel-to-assign-caste scene in the YouTube video is meant to represent that no one chooses where they are born. The caste system is very, very old, and no one is certain exactly how it was constructed – but people certainly didn’t end up in castes by spinning a wheel.
- Once the video is finished, the instructor will ask students what it was that separated the two lovers in the film. Then the instructor will ask students if the obstacles in this movie related to yesterday’s topic: Loving vs. Virginia and interracial marriage in the USA. The instructor will guide conversation, asking leading and clarifying questions.
- The instructor will then distribute printed texts - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47823588) to students and display this image from the article on the smartboard/projector: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/17BBB/production/_106311279_ayeshea2.jpg
- The instructor will ask for 5 reading volunteers. The instructor will then count off hands, 1-5, and remind students that the reader can call out “next” when they are ready to switch. The instructor will remind them that she/he is also able to call out “next” to initiate a reader switch.
- The instructor will remind students of their on-going “talk-to-the-text” routine. The instructor will ask students today to circle words or phrases that were unclear, as usual, to underline obstacles to romance, and to put a star next to words that might be included in ideas of ‘ethnicity.’ Various definitional word maps for ‘ethnicity’ will already be posted on classrooms walls from an earlier activity.
- Then, students will read the text – pausing occasionally for definition or comment. The instructor will stop the reading at the bottom of the “Shocking Level of Prejudice” sections and ask students, “what does the writer mean by ‘purity and pollution’ in this case?” The instructor will remind the students of the prejudices about interracial marriage in the United States from the previous lesson and ask students to make a connection. Once this connection has been made, the instructor will ask students to continue reading.
- When the reading is finished, the instructor will ask students to turn to a neighbor and pair up. The instructor will ask student pairs to first compare the underlines and stars on their texts, making note of the differences and adding any extra underlines or stars they feel that they should. Once this is done, the pair should agree upon and choose the three most important underlines and the two most important stars. The instructor will announce that students will be responsible to share out with the class. Then the instructor will ask students to begin. While the students begin to talk, the instructor will write on the board: “3 underlines, 2 stars.”
- The instructor will monitor student conversation and wait for the right time to begin asking pairs to share out – about 5-8 minutes. Then, the instructor will cold call on 5 student pairs to share 3 underlines and 2 stars that they both agreed upon, and to talk about why they decided those were most important.
- The instructor will ask for volunteers to explain why Aditya and Ayisha’s relationship might resemble the Romeo and Juliet story that they’ve been working on in English class.
- The instructor will then ask students to start thinking about the people groups on the continents that they’ve been building. What social obstacles might stand in the way of two star-crossed lovers on that continent?
- Then the instructor will dismiss the class.
Create Your Own Love Story
- The instructor will project the question of the day: “Choose a people group from your continent: what are some elements of their ethnicity? What might be some cultural prejudices they could have?”
- The instructor will ask student to take their time and give this some thought, to be creative and school appropriate in their responses. The instructor will give students about 8 minutes to work out a response to these questions.
- Then the instructor will ask for three volunteers to share out about the people group they chose from their continent, what elements might make up their ‘ethnicity,’ and what prejudices they might be prone to.
- The instructor will pair students up, with a possible group of three. Then, the instructor will distribute an assignment prompt:
“In pairs, you will create a story about star-crossed lovers who meet on one of your continents. One character must be from one continent, and the second character must be from the other continent.
You will work together to compose a story that answers these questions:
How did they meet? Why did they fall in love? What social obstacles stand in the way of their love? How will they overcome these obstacles?
Use the Romeo and Juliet model as a starter, but don’t simply copy that storyline. Your story should be built around the identities of the characters you design from each of your continents. If you must write a tragedy, you may feel free to do so. However, I strongly encourage you to write a story in which these lovers from your created worlds succeed and overcome their obstacles!
You may draw your story out like a comic, write it like a short story,
Be creative! And keep it school appropriate! If you have any questions, I’m here to help!”
- The instructor will pass out a simple rubric as well:
“3 – The story responds to each assigned question and is detailed and engaging.
2 – The story answers all assigned questions but needs more storytelling and details to make it more engaging.
1 – The story doesn’t answer all assigned questions.”
- The instructor will read the assignment prompt aloud. Then the instructor will tell students that these stories will be peer graded according to the rubric in front of them. The instructor will ask for any questions. Then the instructor will tell students how much time they have and then ask them to begin.
- Instructor will ask 3-5 student pairs to introduce their characters and tell the class how they end up falling in love. Then the instructor will remind students that they will share their stories the following class period.
Link to lesson plans for Days 4 and 5 - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EOmUpSCgt-yrxofpFUmZFzn1_eSokgNx38Jcx4oXPXA/edit?usp=sharing