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“Consolidation and Revolt”

Grade 11 Integrated UnitRoss School

East Hampton, New York

Team 11

History: Carrie Clark

English: Shelby Raebeck

Science: Hugh McGuinness

Performing Arts: Gerard Doyle

Mathematics: Gary Skellington

Wellness: Michelle Delgiornio

Media Studies: Marie Maciak

Visual Arts: Jen Cross

Learning Specialist: Jamey Greco

Tech Support: Sy Abramowitz

Some Key Elements:

•Global perspective

•Cultural History narrative

•Integrated learning

•Multiple intelligences

•Understanding by Design

•Project-based learning

A ten-week unit, from mid-19th century to post-World War I (approximately 1920) Description

In this unit students look at various expressions of cultural consolidation in the late 19th century such as nationalism and imperialism, and consequent cultural exchange. We discuss the question of cultural identities, how they are formed and maintained, and their relationships to groups, individuals, and government. Students study the forms and causes of imperialism in this time period, the accompanying imperialist attitudes, rationales and justifications, and the perspective and experience of the colonized. The centerpiece of the unit is an integrated project in which students work in groups to examine and peer teach a particular revolt or resistance movement against imperialism.

Enduring Understandings (year-long)

Cultural identity can be a source of political power.

One of the features of planetary culture is the retrieval of nativistic cultures that have been repressed by the forces of industrial modernization and colonization.

Modernization has created a web of interconnections that call for global dialogue and cooperation

Globalization and transnational phenomena challenge nationalism and internationalism.

Essential Questions:

What is cultural/national identity and where does it come from?

How does cultural identity create bonds and/or boundaries?

What are the costs and rewards of imperialism?

What is the legacy of resistance to consolidation and expansion of cultural and/or political power?

In the Cultural History class…

•Nationalism

•Demographic shifts

•The 2nd Industrial Revolution

•The doctrine of “progress”

•The New Imperialism

•China & Britain

•The Scramble for Africa

•The “opening” of Japan

•Social Darwinism

•Marxism

•Reactions to Western Imperialism

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RAILROAD MILEAGE

In the English class…

Students examine, respond to and reflect upon texts that render the conflict between colonized and colonizing cultures.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)

"White Man's Burden” (Rudyard Kipling)

"To the Person Sitting in Darkness” (Twain)

"The Philippine Mess: Letter to Joseph Twitchell" (Twain)

"Shooting an Elephant” (Orwell)

"A Hanging" (Orwell)

Skills: Narrative technique, point of view, character development, textual analysis, critical thinking, timed writing, public speaking, listening to others











In the Science class students study Evolution and Genetics:

Evidence of evolution

HMS Beagle

Radioactive dating

Natural selection

Mendel’s experiments

Mitosis & meiosis

Introductory population genetics

& Punnett squares

Gene pool and the definition of evolution (macro- versus micro-evolution).

Evolution vs Creationism

What are the primary mechanisms of evolution?

How are species created?







In Mathematics students study Statistics:

Density curvesNormal distributionsStandard deviationCorrelationRegressionRandom samplesComparative experimentsGraphical representation of data

How can data be organized and interpreted?How can patterns in data be summarized?How can relationships be described using scatter plots?How can these methods be used to understand social organization?

In the Integrated Arts class students study Theater Arts:

Theatrical works, methods & movements in 19th & 20th century Europe & America

Playwriting

Interpreting theatrical scripts.

Dramatic content and structure

The “common man” as hero

Character motivation

Role of protagonist and antagonist

Conflict and resolution

Character construction

Scene construction

Conveying information through dialogueTEXTSA Jubilee by Anton ChekhovRiders To The Sea by J. M. SyngeThe Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill

Playwriting

Textual analysis and interpretation

Theater history

Dramatic content and structure

Elements of a “hero”

Character definition and motivation

Conflict and resolution

A Jubilee

Riders to the Sea

The Hairy Ape

BIOLOGY--EVOLUTION

Origin of life

Mechanisms of evolution

Darwin

HMS Beagle

Migration and Isolation

Evidence of evolution

Mutation

Observation skills

Data recording

Scientific reading and writing

STATISTICS

Density curves

Normal distributions

Standard deviation

Correlation

Regression

Addition of integers

Division of integers

Percentages

Graphing

Calculator use

Narrative technique

Point of view

Character development

Textual Analysis

Critical thinking

Timed writing

Public speaking

Listening to others

Huckleberry Finn

Things Fall Apart

Various topical essays or poetry

Nationalism

Demographic shifts

The 2nd Industrial Revolution

The doctrine of “progress”

Imperialism (China, Africa, Japan)

Marxism

Research

Writing

Critical Thinking

Performing Arts

ScienceMathEnglishHistory

Integrated learning experiences

: Bridgewater , Using Excel spreadsheets students examine and manipulate statistical information from passenger lists 19from an immigrant ship from London in the late th . century

: , , , Domains involved Math History English Technology

.Students manipulate data and make graphs

, Students write a brief essay assessed by Math English and .Cultural History teachers

Integrated learning experiences (continued)

Social Darwinism

Students evaluate contemporary texts about Social Darwinism in light of what they have learned about evolution and its mechanisms.

Students explore whether the ideas they have learned about how physical traits evolve can be applied to complex behaviors and phenotypes in human society.

Domains involved: Cultural History, Science


George Orwell essays

In two essays by George Orwell (“Shooting an Elephant,” “A Hanging”) students reflect upon Orwell’s portrayal of the psyche of the oppressor.

In a 400 to 500 word reflection, students discuss how Orwell portrays the effects of British imperialism on the British themselves, particularly Orwell himself who plays a central role in each of the essays.

Domains involved: English and History


Mark Twain assignment

After reading Twain’s “To the Person Sitting in the Dark,” and “The Philippine Mess,” as well as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, students compose a speech or a letter from Twain’s point of view on the subject of US imperialism.

Students draw upon Twain’s general feelings, and the evolution of his feelings, about imperialism, as well as on his specific thoughts about the situation in the Philippines.

Domain’s involved: English and History


Eugenics

Students look at the American eugenics movement in the context of late19th/early 20th century immigration, Social Darwinism, genetics, modern statistics, nativism, and fascism.

Domains involved: History, Math, Science

Student assignment: short answers to questions on topics.

Learning experiences using Multiple Intelligences

National Anthems

In learning how cultural & political identities are formed and maintained, students listen to various national anthems, writing and reflecting on what they evoke.

Students view a controversial interpretation of the US National Anthem during a time of political turmoil (Vietnam War era--Jimi Hendrix at the Woodstock festival).

Students reflect upon how cultural symbols develop, maintain and shift meaning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4AU7oK-xMQ

Learning experiences using Multiple Intelligences (continued)

Images of Imperialism: Students analyze images to understand the motivations, justifications and rationales for 19th century imperialism.


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Learning experiences using Multiple Intelligences (continued) The Industrial Workplace

Students read texts related to late 19th century industrial workplace and respond to them with a tableaux or another physical demonstration of its core ideas.

For example: “Perhaps the most prominent single element in modern scientific management is the task idea. The work of every workman is fully planned out by the management at least one day in advance, and each man receives in most cases complete written instructions, describing in detail the task which he is to accomplish, as well as the means to be used in doing the work… This task specifies not only what is to be done but how it is to be done and the exact time allowed for doing it… Scientific management consists very largely in preparing for and carrying out these tasks.”

(Frederick Winslow Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management, 1911)

Another example:

“Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army, they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overseer, and, above all, in the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is….…”

Marx and Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848

The unit’s centerpiece: “The Trial Project”

In this simulation activity, students research a leader of a resistance movement against western dominance in the late 19th/early 20th century. They work in groups to construct a play whose story is that of charging the leader with a crime (usually “treason”) for which he or she is tried. They then perform the play in front of their peers and communicate the varying points-of-view connected with these resistance movements and the circumstances surrounding them.

Students role-play witnesses, advocates, judges and leaders.Domains involved: History, English, Integrated Arts

Tasks: Individual research on assigned leadersGroup preparation of storyboard and scriptGroup rehearsal and performance

Wovoka (the United States)

The Mahdi (Sudan)

Louis Riel (Canada)

Patrick Pearse (Ireland)

Emiliano Zapata (Mexico)

John Chilembwe (Malawi)

Marcus Garvey (United States)

Teachers create the leader list and assign groups. Students randomly choose the leader they will work on.

Over the years the list has changed and been varied; usually 6-8 in total.

Leaders have included:

Mary Baker Eddy (United States)

Victoria Woodhull (United States)

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (India)

Makario Sakay (Philippines)

Emilio Aguinaldo (Philippines)

Ida B. Wells (United States)

Script excerpts:

Trial of Mohammed Ahmed (the Mahdi)

JUDGE: Mohammed Ahmed, known largely as the Mahdi, is charged with raising a rebel army, treason, resisting arrest, murder, incitement to murder, and conspiracy to murder…How do you plead?

DEFENSE ATTORNEY: …He has done nothing but inspire people to believe a new freedom is attainable. This rebel army was not raised by my client. If you were only to look at the Sudanese, you would see how much they unanimously wish to overthrow the Anglo-Egyptian government…

Speaking for himself…

THE MAHDI: By corrupting our society, by forcing a way of life, an alien culture on the people of Sudan, the Anglos kill off the best parts of Islamic culture, our culture. Even this court I’m tried in has no place in our true society…

You say your government is here to benefit our community, to “uplift” it, but if that were true your government wouldn’t oppress our people. What right does one people have to impose cultural policies on another? You do not practice what you preach. Instead of benefiting our society you demand heavy taxes and force innocent people to join your military and kill for your meaningless causes.

Student Work: Scripts. Another example:

Trial of Patrick Pearse

JUDGE: Mr. Pearse I will remind you that this court will only recognize Ireland as a province. There is no such thing as the Irish Republic. Mention it again and I will order you executed on the spot.

Prosecuting attorney: Thank you your Honor. Mr. Pearse, please try again to explain your justification for this revolt.

Mr. Pearse: My politics are the politics of nationalism. I am an Irish nationalist. I believe, like you, in the logic of self-rule for a distinct people, in our case a Gaelic people whose traditions and language and history unite them. My revolt was successful--

Prosecuting attorney: Not very successful.

Mr. Pearse: My revolt was successful in that it gave my people hope; it gave them inspiration for the Irish Republic that should exist…

“Nativistic rebellions against westerners were not only to liberate the people from oppression but also to keep alive the culture that had existed long before the arrival of western powers. Many indigenous peoples did not like the influence of the western ways and fought to keep their old traditions.”

“It was amazing how the western powers justified their domination by using not just technology but also ideas about science like Darwin’s new theory that helped them ‘explain’ how their guns could kill off a massive native army which of course has nothing to do with biology.”

Student Work: Unit Reflections

Student Work: Unit Reflections

“I always knew that statistics could tell any story you want them to and I guess this was true from the very beginning of probability theory when eugenics (white imperialists) tried to explain why one group was better than another.”

“It was interesting how the modern cultures combined their traditional religious beliefs with their weapons of modern science to dominate the cultures that didn’t have those modern ideas yet.”

“Sometimes the indigenous groups, as in Wovoka and John Chilembwe [sic], were influenced by the imported ideas of the peoples they fought against, such as Christianity. It was like the guy in China whose name I can’t remember who thought he was Jesus’ brother.”

Student Work: Project Reflections

“When I first heard about [the Trial Project] I had strong doubt that I would enjoy the process. What I liked about it though was that since students had to write a play, they had to present the emotions and the impact that the leader really had on the people. Whereas, in a paper, it would mainly just be the facts about what happened. …”

“Writing a play and having to use acting as tool to express the impact, was challenging but not impossible. I was also very passionate about the leader I was studying and so I felt a personal connection to him, and so writing about him, and expressing his feelings was fun for me.”


“The Trial Project involved not only researching the leaders but creating a production that re-lived the actual struggles and beliefs. This helped me gain a better and more realistic understanding of the leaders and a revolutionaries; I gained a better understanding of the situation [Chilembwe’s] people were in and how their oppression had affected him.”

“The Trial Project allowed you to really see what your leader went through. Working in the group was helpful because you got to hear other peoples ideas. Also hearing how other groups decided to present their trial was really helpful. When groups really got into it, you could see what a trial might have actually been like. By making the rest of the class decide if the defendant was innocent or guilty made the overall trial more interesting and made people listen more closely.”


“One of the strengths of the Trial Project was that it really displayed how none of these situations was really clear-cut, how can you find the right answer? Ms. Clark always says don’t judge the past by the standards of the present and this really forces that idea.”

THE END

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