Lesson Two:
Subject: Social Studies
Grade: 4th/5th grade
Lesson Unit: Refugees
Lesson Topic: Guiding Questions: Why are there refugees? What are the reasons?
Time period: 45 minutes
Objectives:
· Students will be able to identify the three main reasons that there are refugees: persecution, war, and violence.
· Students will participate in a role playing exercise in order to explore possible reasons or explanations why refugees exist.
· Students will be able to recognize one or more of the main reasons within the story they are listening to during read-aloud and the YouTube video clip.
Standards:
· MMSD STANDARD: Behavioral Science
· MMSD STANDARD: Geography
· NCSS STANDARD: People, Places, and Environments
Materials:
· Document camera
· Map of the world
· Venn Diagram
· YouTube video clip (computer, internet, and projector required)
· Paper and pencils
Lesson Context:
In this lesson, students are building off of the first lesson. They have just been introduced to what defines a refugee. Now, the students are exploring different reasons why an individual becomes a refugee and what the situation might be or feel like by participating in a little role play. Students will also relate what they are learning in this lesson to the details they remember from the books they’d heard during read-aloud time. In the very first few minutes of class, have students brainstorm ideas or reasons why refugees might exist.
Lesson Procedure:
· Watch a YouTube video and have students pay attention to what the refugee sharing his story talks about when reviewing the reasons he became a refugee. Were their ideas or reasons accurate?
· Ask students to define a refugee and remind students of the three main reasons refugees have to leave their homes: persecution, wars, and violence.
· “How does this boy’s experiences compare or contrast to the characters in the books we read in class, (Over A Thousand Hills I Walk With You and Home of the Brave)
· Review reasons students came up with earlier and see if as a class the students can categorize the explanations for being forced to leave under one of the three main reasons: persecution, wars, or violence.
· Use a Venn Diagram to categorize ideas and see if any overlap and explain why.
· Have the students divided into groups of 3 and place them in different parts of the room.
· Each group will represent a different country in which refugees exist or from which they previously came. Each group will have the information of where the refugees came from, where they went, and an image on a map of the route they traveled.
· On a large map of the world up on the document camera, each group will mark with a dot where their group originated from in one color and where they are currently located on the map in a different color. Label the countries and draw a dotted line indicating the route they traveled from one place to another.
· Instruct the students to think about what they just viewed on the YouTube clip. Based on what they saw, think about a reason why they and their family are forced by the government (army) or the police to leave everything they know behind (examples are below to list a few)
· Ask them to imagine this situation is happening right now. In their small groups, come up with some details that come to mind:
· In their small groups, generate a list of things to take on this journey so that it is as accurate as possible based on the facts they have from the different scenarios/reasons in the video clip.
· Of the things they’ve listed, instruct students to categorize the objects into groups of most important and least important. They have one small duffel bag to hold everything for everyone in the group. Nothing can be taken that does not fit in the duffel bag (size is approximately what they’d take with them to a sleepover or overnight). Generate a new list of what goes in the duffel and what gets left behind.
· One at a time, each group will present which country they are from, what was happening that forced them to leave their homes, what they wanted to take with them but COULDN’T, and what items COULD they take.
· Groups must explain their decisions and talk about any disagreements or struggles they had coming up with the final list.
· The teacher will create a list of what students wanted to take and compare it to the list of what students ended up packing for their journey.
Closure
· Have students use responses to create a poem about what is happening at the moment, how they are feeling, what do they see, hear, taste, etc.
· Ask students to also add in their poems how the experience of the activity might or did affect how they view themselves.
Assessment
• Informal assessment: teacher will watch for student participation in group discussions and in small group activity.
• Formal assessment: Assign students the task of creating a fictional story about them being refugees, using one of the main reasons discussed in class, and thinking about what they are doing and feeling like they did in the activity.
Subject: Social Studies
Grade: 4th/5th grade
Lesson Unit: Refugees
Lesson Topic: Guiding Questions: Why are there refugees? What are the reasons?
Time period: 45 minutes
Objectives:
· Students will be able to identify the three main reasons that there are refugees: persecution, war, and violence.
· Students will participate in a role playing exercise in order to explore possible reasons or explanations why refugees exist.
· Students will be able to recognize one or more of the main reasons within the story they are listening to during read-aloud and the YouTube video clip.
Standards:
· MMSD STANDARD: Behavioral Science
- o Respect Diversity- Compare personal cultural history with other diverse cultures.
- o Cultural History- Participate in various groups and assume different roles in the classroom and at school.
· MMSD STANDARD: Geography
- o Map and Globe Skills-use map and globe reading skills.
· NCSS STANDARD: People, Places, and Environments
- o Guide learners in exploring characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth’s surface.
- o Provide opportunities for learners to examine, interpret, and analyze interactions of human beings and their physical environments, and to observe and analyze social and economic effects of environmental changes, both positive and negative.
Materials:
· Document camera
· Map of the world
· Venn Diagram
· YouTube video clip (computer, internet, and projector required)
· Paper and pencils
Lesson Context:
In this lesson, students are building off of the first lesson. They have just been introduced to what defines a refugee. Now, the students are exploring different reasons why an individual becomes a refugee and what the situation might be or feel like by participating in a little role play. Students will also relate what they are learning in this lesson to the details they remember from the books they’d heard during read-aloud time. In the very first few minutes of class, have students brainstorm ideas or reasons why refugees might exist.
Lesson Procedure:
· Watch a YouTube video and have students pay attention to what the refugee sharing his story talks about when reviewing the reasons he became a refugee. Were their ideas or reasons accurate?
· Ask students to define a refugee and remind students of the three main reasons refugees have to leave their homes: persecution, wars, and violence.
· “How does this boy’s experiences compare or contrast to the characters in the books we read in class, (Over A Thousand Hills I Walk With You and Home of the Brave)
- o This question leads into the discussion for the next lesson about examples of situations in which refugees exist and comparing and contrasting those situations.
· Review reasons students came up with earlier and see if as a class the students can categorize the explanations for being forced to leave under one of the three main reasons: persecution, wars, or violence.
· Use a Venn Diagram to categorize ideas and see if any overlap and explain why.
· Have the students divided into groups of 3 and place them in different parts of the room.
· Each group will represent a different country in which refugees exist or from which they previously came. Each group will have the information of where the refugees came from, where they went, and an image on a map of the route they traveled.
· On a large map of the world up on the document camera, each group will mark with a dot where their group originated from in one color and where they are currently located on the map in a different color. Label the countries and draw a dotted line indicating the route they traveled from one place to another.
· Instruct the students to think about what they just viewed on the YouTube clip. Based on what they saw, think about a reason why they and their family are forced by the government (army) or the police to leave everything they know behind (examples are below to list a few)
- o War
- o Famine/flood
- o Discrimination (religion/race/beliefs)
· Ask them to imagine this situation is happening right now. In their small groups, come up with some details that come to mind:
- o How are they feeling?
- o What do they see?
- o What are they thinking about?
· In their small groups, generate a list of things to take on this journey so that it is as accurate as possible based on the facts they have from the different scenarios/reasons in the video clip.
- o Each group present why they left
- o Each group present what they took with them
· Of the things they’ve listed, instruct students to categorize the objects into groups of most important and least important. They have one small duffel bag to hold everything for everyone in the group. Nothing can be taken that does not fit in the duffel bag (size is approximately what they’d take with them to a sleepover or overnight). Generate a new list of what goes in the duffel and what gets left behind.
· One at a time, each group will present which country they are from, what was happening that forced them to leave their homes, what they wanted to take with them but COULDN’T, and what items COULD they take.
· Groups must explain their decisions and talk about any disagreements or struggles they had coming up with the final list.
· The teacher will create a list of what students wanted to take and compare it to the list of what students ended up packing for their journey.
Closure
· Have students use responses to create a poem about what is happening at the moment, how they are feeling, what do they see, hear, taste, etc.
· Ask students to also add in their poems how the experience of the activity might or did affect how they view themselves.
Assessment
• Informal assessment: teacher will watch for student participation in group discussions and in small group activity.
• Formal assessment: Assign students the task of creating a fictional story about them being refugees, using one of the main reasons discussed in class, and thinking about what they are doing and feeling like they did in the activity.