VITAL
INFORMATION
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| Subject(s): |
Language Arts (English) |
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| Grade/Level: |
10 |
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| Time Frame: |
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| Learning Context:
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The students are going to begin defining and playing with the idea of
Human Rights. Yesterday, we discussed the horrors of the gladiator
games and the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, and today we are
going to reflect back on why there was a violation of human rights during
those time periods. The students will be creating a working
definition of human rights and how this pertains to their own lives.
This will also be a significant theme within The Hunger
Games. |
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| Objectives and
Understandings: |
Long-term objective: Students will be aware of social injustices and
human rights.
Long-term objective: Students will be able to recognize when there is a
violation of human rights.
Long-term objective: Students will be able to internally question the
text as they read, thereby increasing their reading comprehension
skills.
Short-term objective: Students will be able to make notations on
post-its in their books to mark significant events or questions that they
may have about that particular section.
Short-term objective: Students will be able to use a working definition
of human rights so that we can continue to discuss the topic with a
general understanding. |
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| Essential
Questions: |
Why and how do I question the text?
How are students going to actively participate and engage in a
student-centered learning environment?
What are human rights?
What is human dignity?
Who deserves to have human rights?
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| Rationale: |
Administrators: Students will be working on
their reading comprehension skills through the mastery of questioning the
text. Students will also be learning about, exploring, and
recognizing what human rights are, how they affect us, how they affect the
world, and what we can do about social injustices against human
rights. Students can use this knowledge to transfer academia into
application; this will also make the students more well-informed citizens
who are compassionate about other people.
Students: This lesson will help you to
develop greater reading comprehension skills so that you can understand
the meaning of the text. You will be more well-informed citizens so
that you can enlighten other people about issues that not only affect the
world, but the community that we live in.
Critical Pedagogues: This lesson will allow
students to critically interpret world and local events around them and to
understand the importance of human rights. Through the use of
questioning the text, students will become empowered readers with str4ong
reading comprehension skills. |
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| Background
Knowledge and Skills: |
Students will have some prior knowledge on human rights, probably from
a history class or recent world events. Students must be able to
identify stereotypes that may infringe upon the universal human rights
model that we will be discussing (especially towards minorities in
America). Students have already read the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. |
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| Standards: |
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 NY- New York State Standards |
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� Subject: English
Language Arts (1996)
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� Learning Standard 1 : Language for
Information and Understanding
Students will listen, speak,
read, and write for information and understanding.
As listeners and readers, students will collect data,
facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and
generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral,
written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and
writers, they will use oral and written language that follows
the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire,
interpret, apply, and transmit
information.
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� Level : Commencement
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� Key Idea : Listening
and Reading
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 Performance Indicator
: Interpret
and analyze complex informational texts and
presentations, including technical manuals, professional
journals, newspaper and broadcast editorials, electronic
networks, political speeches and debates, and primary
source material in their subject area
courses.
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Performance Indicator
: Use a
combination of techniques (e.g., previewing, use of
advance organizers, structural cues) to extract salient
information from
texts.
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Performance Indicator
: Make
perceptive and well developed connections to prior
knowledge.
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� Learning Standard 2 : Language for
Literary Response and Expression
Students will read, write,
listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
Students will read and listen to oral, written, and
electronically produced texts and performances from American
and world literature; relate texts and performances to their
own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social,
historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances
represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and
written language that follows the accepted conventions of the
English language for self-expression and artistic
creation.
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� Level : Commencement
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� Key Idea : Listening
and Reading
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Performance Indicator
: Understand
how multiple levels of meaning are conveyed in a
text
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Performance Indicator
: Read
aloud expressively to convey a clear interpretation of
the work
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� Learning Standard 4 : Language for
Social Interaction
Students will listen, speak, read, and
write for social interaction.
Students will use oral and written language that follows
the accepted conventions of the English language for effective
social communi-cation with a wide variety of people. As
readers and listeners, they will use the social communications
of others to enrich their understanding of people and their
views.
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� Level : Commencement
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� Key Idea : Reading and
Writing
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Performance Indicator
: Use a
variety of print and electronic forms for social
communication with peers and
adults
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| Summary: |
Working in Socratic seminar fashion, we will be discussing social
justice and human rights. Students will also learn how to question
the text as a means of increasing their reading comprehension
skills. |
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| Procedure
(Including Motivation and Closure): |
- I will pose the question: "What is social justice and why is this
important to us?" I want the students to define social justice in
terms of what they read last night and what they personally believe that
it means.
- We will start to do seminars; there will be an inner circle and an
outer circle. The inner circle will discuss their questions, while
the outer circle redirects the conversation to keep it on topic.
If somebody in the outer circle has something to say, then they will
switch with the inner circle kids.
- I will ask students what their favorite article from the UDHR was.
- I will begin by talking about social justice and what it
means.
- I will have two words on the Smartboard: Human and Rights. I
will ask students what it means to be �human,� and I will have them
write their answers inside of a human being outline. I will ask the
students what is needed to protect, enhance, and develop our qualities
of being a human; these will be placed outside of the human
outline.
- I will ask the students:
- What people need to live in dignity
- Are all humans equal? What is the value of human difference?
- Can any of our essential human qualities be taken from us?
Example: if humans can only communicate with a complex language and
that language is taken away, does that make the person a �non-human?�
- What happens when a government or individual takes away our
essential human rights?
- What would happen if you had to give up one of these dignities?
- I will explain that everything inside of the human body represents
human dignity and that everything on the outside represents what is
necessary for human dignity. Human rights are based on these
necessities. I will read the two sentences from the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
- Have the students list synonyms for the word �right.� What are
some expressions that we use that have the word �right� in them?
What is a �right� when it comes to human rights?
- I will have the students get into groups and come up with a working
definition of human rights.
- I will write this definition on the board: Human rights belong to
all people regardless of their sex, race, color, language, national
origin, age, class, religion, or political beliefs. They are universal,
inalienable, indivisible, and interdependent.
- What does universal mean? Inalienable? Indivisible? Interdependent?
- I will write �Survival/Subsistence,� �Human Dignity,� and
Conveniences and Luxuries� on the board. The students must place
each of the words from the first part of the lesson plan (inside and
outside of the body) under one of these headings.
- We will have a discussion about this.
- Should human rights be addressed only when a human needs to
survive? Should human rights also include the things listed under
�conveniences and luxuries?� Why or why not?
- Is there a human rights violation when some people have only what is
necessary to survive while others have quite a few of the things under
the �luxuries� category?
- Can something be done to equalize the enjoyment of human
dignity? Should something be done? By whom?
- I will go over questioning the text today. I will do a
read-aloud to demonstrate how I question the text as I read. As I�m
reading, I will have the students write down questions that they may
have and we�ll go over them.
- I will have the students write down questions that they had from
what they read last night. We�ll discuss these questions in our
seminar.
- We will go over what it means to be a good moderator: what
characteristics are required and how to keep the discussion
flowing. The moderators must come prepared with well-thought out
questions, and the main ideas being discussed in their part of the
text. I will model how I want them to moderate by moderating the
discussion today.
- I will give the students a packet for the Hunger Games with chracter
list, places in the book, a sheet on reality TV (which we will use
later), a sheet on Dystopia, and a sheet with guided questions for each
chapter. I will close with a quick recap of what human rights is
and what it means to us.
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| Extension: |
Students will read Chapter 1 in The Hunger Games; the students
will have a character sheet that they need to use to record character
traits as the characters are introduced, and a sheet with the odd
words and places that need to be recorded as they are discovered in
the book. I want the students to notice how food is used within this
text. I also want them to start questioning the human rights that
these people have, and if they are being violated. I will hand out a sheet
that has analytical questions that the students must answer in 4-5
sentences each within their notebooks The students will once again use
summarization, but this time they must choose two paragraphs that they
will be summarizing (they must write down the page number and paragraph
number of the selection that they choose). They must also write down the
questions that they have about the text. I want the students to use
post-it notes to tag areas in the book where they are questioning the
text. |
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| Sample Student
Products: |
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| Differentiated
Instruction: |
The students will be sitting in Socratic seminar fashion so that all of
the class will be better equipped to help students struggling with the
lessons. I will be incorporating the Smartboard to make the
questions more engaging, and I will be using visual concepts (the human
body) to make the material easier to understand. |
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| Assessment/Rubrics:
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I will be checking the students' homework tomorrow. They will
also be evaluated based on their responses to their favorite article (with
justification) from the UDHR. |
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| Reflections on
Teaching: |
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| Materials,
Resources, and/or Handouts: |
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