Gregory M. Huff
Objectives
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1. To improve the student’s understanding of the roles of stereotyping, misperception, and escalation in conflict and aggression.
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2. To improve the student’s understanding of the roles of leadership and group pressure as they contribute to conflict and aggression.
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3. To increase student’s understanding of terms related to the study of conflict, aggression and war.
Introducing the Lesson:
The films, “The Ox-Bow Incident”, “The Bedford Incident”, and “The Lord of the Flies” are each excellent for raising questions about the causes of human conflict and aggression. Though group discussions of these films the students will increase their awareness of the issues of stereotyping, perception, displacement, leadership and group issues. They will be better able to develop alternate avenues of behavior in dealing with conflict.
Vocabulary Development:
This will include defining exercises and sentence building for the following words.
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aggression
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conflict
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hostile
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stereotype
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perception
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leadership
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escalation
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pressure
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alternative
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innate
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displacement
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violence
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behavior
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awareness
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misperception
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Group Discussion Questions and Interest Building Questions
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1. What are the themes of each of these movies?
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How are they different? How are they the same?
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2. How are the issues of stereotyping, perception and escalation portrayed in each film?
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3. What are some of the problems faced by the characters in each film?
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4. What are some of the romantic elements used in each? What are some of the realistic elements used in each? How do these elements contribute to the overall dilemma faced by the characters in each film?
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5. How are conflict and aggression developed in each film?
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6. Considering the nature of the characters and the nature of conflict and aggression in each film, what are some possible alternatives available to the characters?
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7. How are leadership and group pressure depicted in each film?
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8. How is fear portrayed? How does fear contribute to aggression in: neighborhoods, cities, nations?
Writing Activities
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1. Compare and contrast “The Ox-Bow Incident”, “The Bedford Incident”, and “The Lord of the Flies”. Show what the important differences and similarities are. Describe what factors lead to conflict and aggression. Describe how conflict and aggression may have been avoided.
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2. In the film “The Lord of the Flies”, the premise of being stranded on a desert island is a very romantic one. What went wrong? Write a one or two page essay.