Joanne L. Finley
Pleasant Hill High School
11th/12th grade/Sociology
Subject of Unit: Race and Ethnicity
Time Frame: 5 -6
class periods, 50 minutes each
Rationale: Students
need to understand that genocide is not an isolated historical event.
They need to understand the causes of genocide and challenges in trying
to move a country forward.
Lesson Objectives:
The learner will understand how prejudice is learned and how members
of a group internalize dominant group norms. The learner will learn
obstacles to normalization after genocide and propose possible solutions
to neutralize those obstacles.
Standards: Show
Me Standards, Social Studies: relationships of the individual and groups
to institutions and cultural traditions, the use of tools of social
science inquiry. Goals: students will acquire the knowledge and skills
to gather, analyze, and apply information and ideas; students will acquire
the knowledge and skills to recognize and solve problems.
Primary Sources:
Secondary Sources:
Text, Sociology:
a down to earth approach by James Henslin; BBC
News Timeline: Rwanda; CIA
map of Rwanda, BBC
News Country profile: Rwanda; "Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers."
Videos: "A
Good Man in Hell" and clips from "Hotel Rwanda"
Scoring guides:
www.rubrics.4teachers.org/
was used to help develop scoring guides for products
Students will have read the text assignment on race and ethnicity.
Major points covered in text and lecture prior to activity: Louis Wirth's
definition of a minority: a minority group consists of people who are
singled out for unequal treatment and regard themselves as objects of
collective discrimination. Also that minority is not based on status
but on political power and discrimination. The students will also understand
how a group becomes a member of a minority group through political boundaries
and migration. The learner will also understand the five characteristics
that minority groups share according to anthropologists Charles Wagle
and Marvin Harris: membership of a minority group is an ascribed status,
the physical or cultural traits that distinguish minorities are held
in low self-esteem by the dominant group; minorities are unequally treated
by the dominant group; minorities tend to marry within their own group,
and minorities tend to feel strong group solidarity. Source for the
above material is Sociology: a down to earth approach By James Henslin,
7th edition, 2005.
Students will be divided into groups of three. Each group will have
a time line of Rwanda, a time line of the genocide, and a map of Rwanda.
Each group will have a first person account of the genocide as a victim
or as a perpetrator. One group will also have as their person Romeo
Dallaire
As a class they
will view the video, "A Good Man in Hell."
As a class they
will see clips of "Hotel Rwanda."
In their groups
they will prepare collages representing the information they gained
from their group activities, video clips, and the experiences of their
person.
Students, in their
groups, will research two means of reconciliation: Nuremberg Trials,
truth and reconciliation tribunals of South Africa. Students will have
handouts giving them information on both. Media center time will be
scheduled so groups can further research both examples. They will then
formulate a proposal for the Rwandan government on how to obtain justice
for the victims and to heal their country. Each group will present their
proposal and its possible consequences and drawbacks.
The class as a whole
will come to a consensus on which proposal or will create a hybrid solution
based on many proposals.
Students will then
complete self-evaluations and write reflection essays at the conclusion
of this unit.
