Lesson Four:
Subject: Social Studies
Grade: 4th/5th grade
Lesson Unit: Refugees
Lesson Topic: Guiding question: How are refugees settled and where are they allowed to go? (How would you feel? How do you think they feel?)
Time period: 45 minutes
Objectives:
· Students will be able to identify the term, “resettlement.”
· Students will be able to identify the term, “isolation.”
· Students, through role play, will begin to understand how an individual who is a refugee might be feeling after witnessing certain events in their lives.
· Students, through role play, will see how conflicts among people influence why refugees exist.
Standards:
· MMSD STANDARD: Behavioral Science
· NCSS STANDARD: Geography
Materials:
· Slips of paper with a short description of a character the student will role play as (1 per student)
· Document camera
· Chart of characters
· Poster board
· Post-it notes
Lesson Context:
Students have explored who a refugee is and three main reasons why refugees exist in today’s world. In this third lesson, students will delve into how refugees are resettled and emotions that they might be feeling or experiencing during those times. This exploration will then allow students to see what is happening to these groups of people in a different perspective because they will be role playing either refugees or government officials who are removing and resettling these people.
Lesson Procedure:
· Distribute slips of paper to students and allow a few minutes for them to group together according to who they are
· Provide students with about 5 minutes to go over what is on their papers and come up with an answer to the questions:
· Go around class and record their answers.
· Bring class back together and discuss what they found in the groups’ answers. Ask the students, “How do these answers relate to the accounts we heard in the book, Over A Thousand Hills I walk With You we read during read-aloud?”
· Divide students into groups of three. In their groups, students will come up with one thing or place to describe to their classmates. The trick is they cannot talk.
· Each student in the group will have a chance to try and describe the thing or place without talking. After each incorrect guess from the class, another team member in the group will try. After each member has gone and if the class cannot guess, then the group will tell them what they were trying to describe. No pictures can be drawn and no words can be written.
· Allow each group to have a turn.
· Discuss and define the term, “resettlement”
· Ask students how does this activity relate to refugees when they’ve been resettled?
· Explain some challenges refugees might face when traveling to a foreign place with unfamiliar people. Define isolation and use this link http://www.nais.org/resources/article.cfm?ItemNumber=147354 from the National Association of Independent Schools to further their understanding of feelings of isolation.
Closure:
· Pass out post it notes and instruct students to write down feelings they might have if they were facing isolation or resettlement.
· When students are done, have them come up and post their thoughts on a large poster board provided by the teacher.
· Afterward, for the last part of class, students will write a narrative text in their journals in the form of a diary entry recounting the time they were left out of a group.
· In another paragraph, but still a part of the journal entry, compare and contrast this experience with those of refugees based on what they learned from the activities and the defined terms.
· Students will also create a personal narrative from a refugee’s point of view about their first day at their school. Some stories to include might be:
· Bring class together for the last part of class and discuss if being alone is always a bad thing. When might it be a good thing?
Assessment:
· Informal assessment: Teacher will assess students based on participation and class discussions.
· Formal assessment: Teacher will collect post-it notes on poster board and will collect the journal entries the students wrote. Students will be graded based on connections they made in class.
Subject: Social Studies
Grade: 4th/5th grade
Lesson Unit: Refugees
Lesson Topic: Guiding question: How are refugees settled and where are they allowed to go? (How would you feel? How do you think they feel?)
Time period: 45 minutes
Objectives:
· Students will be able to identify the term, “resettlement.”
· Students will be able to identify the term, “isolation.”
· Students, through role play, will begin to understand how an individual who is a refugee might be feeling after witnessing certain events in their lives.
· Students, through role play, will see how conflicts among people influence why refugees exist.
Standards:
· MMSD STANDARD: Behavioral Science
- o Contributions/Legacies- Give examples of the importance of multiple viewpoints for understanding people, events, and issues.
· NCSS STANDARD: Geography
- o Students will examine how the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth’s surface.
Materials:
· Slips of paper with a short description of a character the student will role play as (1 per student)
· Document camera
· Chart of characters
· Poster board
· Post-it notes
Lesson Context:
Students have explored who a refugee is and three main reasons why refugees exist in today’s world. In this third lesson, students will delve into how refugees are resettled and emotions that they might be feeling or experiencing during those times. This exploration will then allow students to see what is happening to these groups of people in a different perspective because they will be role playing either refugees or government officials who are removing and resettling these people.
Lesson Procedure:
· Distribute slips of paper to students and allow a few minutes for them to group together according to who they are
- o Part of a family (father, mother, child)
- o Soldier
- o Government official
· Provide students with about 5 minutes to go over what is on their papers and come up with an answer to the questions:
- o Who are you/who do you represent?
- o What viewpoint does your character have? (What does your character feel at this point in time?)
· Go around class and record their answers.
· Bring class back together and discuss what they found in the groups’ answers. Ask the students, “How do these answers relate to the accounts we heard in the book, Over A Thousand Hills I walk With You we read during read-aloud?”
· Divide students into groups of three. In their groups, students will come up with one thing or place to describe to their classmates. The trick is they cannot talk.
· Each student in the group will have a chance to try and describe the thing or place without talking. After each incorrect guess from the class, another team member in the group will try. After each member has gone and if the class cannot guess, then the group will tell them what they were trying to describe. No pictures can be drawn and no words can be written.
· Allow each group to have a turn.
· Discuss and define the term, “resettlement”
· Ask students how does this activity relate to refugees when they’ve been resettled?
· Explain some challenges refugees might face when traveling to a foreign place with unfamiliar people. Define isolation and use this link http://www.nais.org/resources/article.cfm?ItemNumber=147354 from the National Association of Independent Schools to further their understanding of feelings of isolation.
Closure:
· Pass out post it notes and instruct students to write down feelings they might have if they were facing isolation or resettlement.
· When students are done, have them come up and post their thoughts on a large poster board provided by the teacher.
· Afterward, for the last part of class, students will write a narrative text in their journals in the form of a diary entry recounting the time they were left out of a group.
· In another paragraph, but still a part of the journal entry, compare and contrast this experience with those of refugees based on what they learned from the activities and the defined terms.
· Students will also create a personal narrative from a refugee’s point of view about their first day at their school. Some stories to include might be:
- o What happened during lunch time?
- o What happened during recess?
- o How did they feel in class if they were not fluent in English and only knew some of the language?
· Bring class together for the last part of class and discuss if being alone is always a bad thing. When might it be a good thing?
Assessment:
· Informal assessment: Teacher will assess students based on participation and class discussions.
· Formal assessment: Teacher will collect post-it notes on poster board and will collect the journal entries the students wrote. Students will be graded based on connections they made in class.