Subject: Social Studies
Grade: 4th/5th grade
Lesson Unit: Refugees
Lesson Topic: Guiding Question: What is a refugee?
Time period: 45 minutes
Objectives:
· Students will be able to identify what constitutes as a refugee: The 1951 Refugee Convention describes a refugee as someone
who has been forced to flee his or her country because of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group; a refugee either cannot return home or is afraid to do so.
· Students will be able to locate on a global map where there are different groups of refugees.
· Students will be able to recognize the differences or even similarities between their cultures and the cultures of the refugees.
Standards:
· MMSD STANDARD: Behavioral Science
· MMSD STANDARD: Geography
· NCSS STANDARD: Culture and Cultural Diversity
· NCSS STANDARD: Individual Development and Identity
Materials:
· Outline of continents on a worksheet (2 per student)
· Large map of world
· Push-pins in different colors
· Pencils and markers (same colors as push-pins)
· Worksheets with questions (1 per student, 1 for teacher)
· Document camera
Lesson Context:
Students are currently being introduced to their new unit on refugees. A brief survey has been previously given to assess students’ previous knowledge about the subject or meaning of the word “refugee.” Before this class, the students were asked to go home and ask where their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents originated from. The (BOOK) was also read aloud during the time allotted in class when the teacher reads aloud to the students for a few minutes. The information in the book gave some background information about life for a refugee that the students can rely on for the lesson. (NOTE: The main focus for this lesson and on other lessons will be refugees in Africa, but it is not excluding the presence of refugees existing elsewhere in the world.)
Lesson Procedure:
· Teacher will pass out packets to students, the worksheets with the continents on top.
· Teacher will pass out two yellow push-pins, two green push-pins, two blue push-pins, and one red push-pin to each student.
· Teacher will tell students to flip to the second page with questions.
· Teacher will ask students if they know or heard of the word “refugee.”
· Teacher will tell students to flip to the third page in their packet with the second continent worksheet and instruct students to mark with a single dot, in pencil, where groups of refugees can be found today in the world (teacher will show class as a whole on document camera).
· Teacher will tell students to turn back to the page in their packet with the questions. Ask students to work independently and answer them as completely and honestly as possible.
· Teacher will bring class back together, and on document camera will record various answers provided by the students, discussing along the way why they chose the answer they did.
· Teacher will instruct students to look at their answers they recorded on the second sheet.
Closure:
· Ask the questions: Why move when X was taken away? How come gave it up? DISCUSS reasons, consequences, and outcomes and what it felt like to “be a refugee” and to have things they valued taken away.
· Connect to beginning activity.
Assessment:
· Informal assessment: class discussion responses to verbal questions stated at end of activity and during closure. Observe students in whole class discussion as they answer the guiding question.
· Formal assessment: participation during activities and students’ written answers to worksheet questions.
Grade: 4th/5th grade
Lesson Unit: Refugees
Lesson Topic: Guiding Question: What is a refugee?
Time period: 45 minutes
Objectives:
· Students will be able to identify what constitutes as a refugee: The 1951 Refugee Convention describes a refugee as someone
who has been forced to flee his or her country because of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group; a refugee either cannot return home or is afraid to do so.
· Students will be able to locate on a global map where there are different groups of refugees.
· Students will be able to recognize the differences or even similarities between their cultures and the cultures of the refugees.
Standards:
· MMSD STANDARD: Behavioral Science
- o Culture-define culture.
- o Respect Diversity-Compare personal cultural history with other diverse cultures.
· MMSD STANDARD: Geography
- o Map and Globe Skills-use map and globe reading skills.
· NCSS STANDARD: Culture and Cultural Diversity
- o Learners understand and can apply the concept of culture as an integrated whole that governs the functions and interactions of language, literature, arts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behavior patterns.
· NCSS STANDARD: Individual Development and Identity
- o Learners compare and evaluate the impact of stereotyping, conformity, acts of altruism, discrimination, and other behaviors on individuals and groups.
- o Learners understand how individual perceptions develop, vary, and can lead to conflict.
Materials:
· Outline of continents on a worksheet (2 per student)
· Large map of world
· Push-pins in different colors
· Pencils and markers (same colors as push-pins)
· Worksheets with questions (1 per student, 1 for teacher)
· Document camera
Lesson Context:
Students are currently being introduced to their new unit on refugees. A brief survey has been previously given to assess students’ previous knowledge about the subject or meaning of the word “refugee.” Before this class, the students were asked to go home and ask where their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents originated from. The (BOOK) was also read aloud during the time allotted in class when the teacher reads aloud to the students for a few minutes. The information in the book gave some background information about life for a refugee that the students can rely on for the lesson. (NOTE: The main focus for this lesson and on other lessons will be refugees in Africa, but it is not excluding the presence of refugees existing elsewhere in the world.)
Lesson Procedure:
· Teacher will pass out packets to students, the worksheets with the continents on top.
· Teacher will pass out two yellow push-pins, two green push-pins, two blue push-pins, and one red push-pin to each student.
- o Students are required to come up one at a time to the large global map on the board to place the red push-pin where they were born, the blue push-pins where their parents were born, the two green push-pins where their grandparents were born, and the two yellow push-pins where their great-grandparents were born. Draw a key on their maps to indicate what each color represents.
- o To make students feel more comfortable about where they come from, I will demonstrate that although I am a third generation American, my great-grandparents came from Europe and immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island.
- o Note that it is important to remind students the tip of the pin is sharp and the only place it should touch is the map (not for poking themselves or others).
- o Also note that it is perfectly acceptable if they do not know where a parent/grandparent/great-grandparent was born. They are only required to record what they know or are willing to share.
- o While students wait for their turn, on their worksheets they will keep tally of how many students have parents born in one continent or another. The tally marks should be in the same color as the push-pin (i.e. if every student had their parent/s born in the U.S. then there should be that number of RED tallies in the North America continent. If a student had a grandparent born in Europe, then that tally color would be BLUE, etc.)
- o Discuss as a class where, as a whole, were most parents/grandparents/great-grandparents from.
- o Side-talk: knowing where from gives sense of identity and where you come from as a family. Notice how come from all over in some generations, how at some point you can see that most of us are immigrants or had family members who were refugees, etc.
- o Reiterate that it is not a bad thing to be an immigrant or refugee, sometimes family or you are one because of other more complex global issues that we will discuss in a later lesson. Eliminate stereotype that an “immigrant” or “refugee” is a negative label-people shouldn’t be ashamed of who they are (create a feeling of safety in room especially seeing that teacher’s great-grandparents were immigrants).
· Teacher will tell students to flip to the second page with questions.
· Teacher will ask students if they know or heard of the word “refugee.”
- o As a class, define meaning and have students write definition on the worksheet they just received, under the question, “What is a refugee?” Define for students who constitutes as a refugee reminding them of examples from (BOOK).
- o Define “culture” and have students write responses under the question, “What is culture?” Instruct students to add too that response what are some things they value because of their culture.
· Teacher will tell students to flip to the third page in their packet with the second continent worksheet and instruct students to mark with a single dot, in pencil, where groups of refugees can be found today in the world (teacher will show class as a whole on document camera).
- o Explain to them why refugees are where they are. Explain the reasons why they are in certain parts of the world. Explain that at different times there have been refugees from many different places because of the particular context in which they live.
· Teacher will tell students to turn back to the page in their packet with the questions. Ask students to work independently and answer them as completely and honestly as possible.
· Teacher will bring class back together, and on document camera will record various answers provided by the students, discussing along the way why they chose the answer they did.
· Teacher will instruct students to look at their answers they recorded on the second sheet.
- o Teacher will set the scene that the middle of the classroom is where it is the best place to live. In other words, this is the place that the refugees used to live before they were forced to resettle.
- o Slowly, the teacher will take away different things that they value.
- o If student can give it up they can stay in the middle of the classroom with the main group.
- o If really value it and don’t want to give it up because too important, they have to move to one corner of the room where it is acceptable to have it.
- o Slowly take more and more things away until one or two end up floating because they don’t fit in center or four corners…don’t belong-hence refugee.
Closure:
· Ask the questions: Why move when X was taken away? How come gave it up? DISCUSS reasons, consequences, and outcomes and what it felt like to “be a refugee” and to have things they valued taken away.
· Connect to beginning activity.
- o Notice how not everyone in your family was born in the same place let alone the same country. Why do you think they moved? Or if they know, why did they move? Was it a choice? Were they forced?
- o Do they think the refugees chose to move? Why/why not?
Assessment:
· Informal assessment: class discussion responses to verbal questions stated at end of activity and during closure. Observe students in whole class discussion as they answer the guiding question.
· Formal assessment: participation during activities and students’ written answers to worksheet questions.