#Is it my problem?Lesson for 7th Grade Language Arts

Created by: Courtney Moore

NPR.org

Abstract: Students will evaluate the following question: Do we have a collective responsibility to crisis? Students will also explore the meaning of collective responsibility to various types of crises. Students will view the Save the Children video as a class as an introduction to the lesson. A brief discussion as a class will follow so that the teacher can answer any questions that the students may have about the Syrian Civil War and the displacement of Syrians. Students will watch a video from the Guardian explaining the crisis in a nutshell. Students will receive vocabulary words that they can look up the definition to with iPads or computers. This can be done in class or assigned for homework. Students will break up into groups of 5 or 6 with an iPad or students' phones to research various crises at the local, national, and

international level. Each group will fill in the graphic organizer and then share it with the class. The graphic organizers can be used as an assessment but students will also be assessed individually with a writing assignment in which they will answer the question: What are our collective responsibilities to crisis?

Essential Question: What are our collective responsibilities to crises?

State Language Arts Standards: Standard Three: Students will apply critical thinking skills to reading and writing Standard Four: Students will expand their working vocabularies to effectively communicate and understand texts.Standard Seven: Students will acquire, refine, and share knowledge through a variety of written, oral, visual, digital, non-verbal, and interactive texts.

NCHE Habits of Mind: Shared Humanity and Change and Consequences

Objectives and Goals: Students will analyze the question: What are our collective responsibilities to crises? Students will also explore various types of local, national, and global crises.

Assessment: Students will be quizzed over the selected vocabulary to assess knowledge of meaning. The graphic organizers will serve as a formative assessment. Students will also write a response to the following prompt what are our collective responsibilities in a crisis as a summative assessment.

Rubric: Your response should include a geographic context of local, national, or global crisis and a specific crisis as evidence.

Requirements 25pts 15-20pts 5-10pts Did not useUse of geographic context

Specific crisis

Use of vocabulary

Writing Mechanics (Grammar, punctuation, and spelling)

Key Concepts/Vocabulary: What does collectively responsibility mean and how can students apply the concept to local, national, and global crisis?

Vocabulary: Students will define the following- Refugee- An exile that flees for safety.Crisis- A crucial stage or turning point in the course of something.Civil war- A war between citizens of the same country.Conflict- A serious disagreement or clash.Humanitarian- Of or relating to the promotion of popular warfare.Exodus- A mass departure of people, especially emigrants.United Nations- an international organization that works to solve international problems.Migration- movement from one country to another.Migrant- A person that moves to another country.Asylum- A shelter from danger.Collective responsibility- Every member's responsible regardless of an individual member's involvement in decisions or actions.Immigrant- A person who comes to live permanently in foreign country.Regime- A government, especially an authoritarian one.Funding- Money provided to make some project possible.Infrastructure- The basic features of a system or organization.Deteriorate- To change to an inferior state.Chaos- Complete disorder and confusion.Allocate- Distribute according to a plan or set apart for a purpose.Sanitation- The state of being clean and conducive to health.

Materials:

Youtube: Save the Children- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQ-IoHfimQThis video is great for introduction to the Syrian Refugee crisis and features a young girl who the students cannot relate to.

The Guardian: The Syrian Conflict in a nutshell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5H5w3_QTG0This short video uses graphics and statistics to explain to students how the conflict began.

Graphic organizer: To compare and contrast types of local, national, and global crisis.

This grid will help students organize the various types of crisis and promote discussion.

Local National GlobalPolitical

Humanitarian

Economic

Voices of Syria articles:These articles help humanize the refugee crisis and tell the stories from the refugees’ point of view. These articles also use the vocabulary words in the proper context.

Visuals of the crisis from various news sources:Students will evaluate the photos and graphics and analyze what information visuals give that articles or literature does not give.

Extension: Introduce Oklahoma’s Catholic Charities' Refugee Resettlement Program (or another local refugee resettlement

organization) and have students brainstorm the various ways that people around the world can collectively aid with a crisis.

Instructional Procedure: 1.) Teachers can begin the lesson by showing the Save the Children

video to introduce the content of the lesson and then ask students what they saw and what they think the video is trying to convey. This would be a good bellwork activity for discussion or a good writing activity.

2.) Introduce the following vocabulary words as listed above: refugee, crisis, civil war, conflict, humanitarian, exodus, United Nations, migration, migrant, asylum, immigrant, regime, funding, infrastructure, deteriorate, chaos, allocate, sanitation, and collective responsibility. Have the students search for their meaning and then practice putting them into their own words.

3.) Show the Syrian Conflict video to provide context for the students and to fill in the missing information about how the conflict and crisis began.

4.) Read the Voices of Syria article together and discuss the emotional appeal and reason for the article. Images can be used if time allows in order to provide a better understanding of the refugee crisis to the students.

5.) Break students into groups to work on the graphic organizer activity and have students compare and contrast local, national, and global crises that are political, economic, and humanitarian. This graphic organizer can be used as a formative assessment.

6.) Assessment will consist of a vocabulary quiz and a writing prompt in which students will respond to the essential question using geographical context and a specific crisis as evidence.