Jane H. Platt
Lesson Plan One—Introducing the Unit
Objectives
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1. Through an exercise the students will experience prejudice.
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2. The students will reflect on personal experiences of prejudice and share them with the class.
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3. The students will develop a definition of prejudice and be given a brief overview of the oral history project.
Materials
Red and blue stickers, lollipops or other small candles, chalk board, chalk, flip chart, marker, pencils and paper.
Procedure
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1. Introduce the exercise (10-15 minutes)
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“We’re going to do something a little different today. For this lesson you will each wear a sticker. You will find out later what the stickers are for.” Teacher puts a blue or red sticker on each child’s clothing. Children are chosen at random, not blue for boys or all blacks etc. The teacher wears a blue sticker. The teacher “discriminates” for the rest of the exercise. The “blue” children are called by name (not sticker color) for the “best seats here in the front.” Children are called to the chalkboard to do difficult math examples. The “blue” children are praised, the “reds” criticized. Teacher gives lollipops (or other small candies) to “blues” only. The exercise is stopped, but the stickers are left until after the discussion so everyone knows who was “blue” and who was “red.”
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2. Discussion
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A. Who can tell what the stickers were for?
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B. How did I treat people in the class? (Elicit the fact that the “blues” were favored. They got best seats, praise, candy.)
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C. Why did I pick only “blue” people? (Teacher was a “blue.”)
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D. How did the “blues” feel? (Favored, rewarded, special, superior) Did the “blues” feel bad in any way? (Some may respond that they felt uncomfortable to be teacher’s pet, or get things their friends didn’t.)
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E. How did the “reds” feel? (Disappointed, sad, angry, jealous, shocked, etc.)
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F. Did you realize it was an exercise, or did you think I had really gone ill on you? If you knew it was an exercise, did you still feel bad?
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3. Sharing experiences
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Okay. Everyone go back to your regular seats. Here are lollipops for the ‘reds.’ You can remove the stickers now. I’d like everyone to take a paper and write about a time when someone treated you differently because you belonged to a certain group. It could be bad—someone’s mom wouldn’t let you play with them; or good—you got a privilege because you were in the honor society. You have about 10 minutes.When time is up get each child’s report and list them on the flip chart under headings: Age, Race, Sex etc.
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4. Summing up
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What we have experienced today with the “blues” and “reds” and at other times in our lives is called prejudice or discrimination. It happens when someone treats you as a member of a group rather than as an individual. It can be in your favor or against you. When I gave out candy to the “blues,” I was acting prejudiced in
favor
of the “blues” and
against
the “reds.”
This marking period, we are going to study prejudice. We will interview people about their experiences, exchange information with a class in North Carolina, and do reading and other activities. We will talk about the differences between the Northeastern and Southern regions of the United States. We’ll look at the reasons that people act prejudiced toward certain groups of people.
Homework
Make a list of at least 10 things people are allowed or not allowed to do based on their age. For example 10 year-olds aren’t allowed to drive cars. This week try to bring in newspaper or magazine articles showing this.
Lesson Plan Two—Regional Characteristics
Objectives
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1. The students will work successfully in cooperative groups.
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2. The students will compare their impressions of the Northeastern and Southern regions with those of the North Carolina students.
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3. The students will learn a method of checking impressions against facts where possible.
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4. The students will use good communication skills working in their groups and with students in another state.
Preparation
Prior to this lesson the students in Connecticut and North Carolina have made lists of 10 characteristics of both regions and have exchanged the lists. They have defined regions by listing which states are included in each region. The premise is that the characteristics listed are impressions, with no right or wrong answers. The responses are used as a basis for refining and extending knowledge of the region. The teacher has selected five groups, each mixed in ability.
Introduction
“Today we are going to work in five groups. I will give each group a characteristic of the two regions. Your task is to make a chart with four headings and a place to write your conclusions. The headings are: Northeast Thinks, South Thinks, Agree, and What are the facts? Ask and answer questions on the characteristic to clarify what information is needed to draw conclusions.”
Material
Sheets with characteristics from both regions,
large sheets of paper, markers, and reference materials.
Procedure
In groups students set up chart and develop questions to arrive at conclusions.
Example 1—Characteristic: Climate
Northeast
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South Thinks
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Agree
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What Are Facts?
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Thinks
South
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South
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Yes
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Temperature
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hot & dry
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is hot & dry
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& Rainfall data
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NEast is
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NEast is cold
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No
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Temp & Rainfall
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variable
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& wet
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data
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Questions How hot is the South? Is it hot all the time?
What kinds of weather does the Northeast have? How often does it rain?
Conclusions These questions can be answered fairly scientifically with measurements recorded in reference materials.
Example 2: Friendliness
Northeast
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South Thinks
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Agree
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What are facts?
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Thinks
South known
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Southerners are
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Yes
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Observations,
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for
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friendlier
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Yes
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stories,
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hospitality
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opinions
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Question
How do we define friendliness? What does a person do to show he/she is friendly? Can you measure how friendly a person is? Are there some people in each region who are friendly and some who are not?
Conclusion
It is possible to make lists of traits of a friendly person. It is hard to measure exactly how friendly a person is, much less the people of a region. Results could be called impressions or opinions rather than facts.
Summing up
Groups report and discuss results. Results are combined on a large chart. A typed or handwritten smaller version is prepared to mail to the other class. Some characteristics can be measured and reported scientifically, others are matters of opinion. Later the next set of five characteristics is handled the same way. In addition, students are asked “What is funny about people in the other region?” (Their clothes, speech, mannerisms, rural, city slicker and so forth). Rather than analyzing these, they are shared and children can react to them informally.
Lesson Plan Three—Practice Interview
Preparation
The class has developed a list of questions to ask. They have discussed techniques for interviewing.
Material
Lists of questions, “biography”/role sheets, observer’s checklist, pencils, and paper
Introduction
“We will be going out to do our interviews soon. To get ready, we’re going to do some practice interviews in class. What is your purpose when you interview someone? (To get information). What kind of information do we want for this project? (Answers to questions on the list we developed). Do you think you might have problems in getting that information? (List problems on a flip chart. Ex. Person may be shy, doesn’t want to talk, person gets off subject.)”
“Today we’re working in groups of three and we’ll see what problems we may have. One person will be the interviewer, one the subject, and one an observer. After about 15 minutes we’ll get back together and share what we have learned.”
Practice Interviews
Groups go to their areas. The interviewer gets a list of questions, the subject a biography which has a list of points that would be brought out in an ideal interview, and a role to play (shy, repetitive, rambling). The observer has a list of what to look for and a pencil and paper to record observations.
Sharing
Each observer is asked, “Did the interviewer ask the questions he/she was supposed to ask? Did the subject answer in a satisfactory way? What was the subject’s role in your group? How did the interviewer handle the problem? Was he/she able to get past the problem? Did he/she make the shy person comfortable? Get the rambler back on the subject? etc.” Time is allowed for interviewers and subjects to give their reactions to the exercise.
Summing Up
Use the flip chart to review problems and ways of dealing with them. Add any problems and solutions that came up during the sharing. “Most people will be very cooperative when you interview them. By looking at possible problems ahead of time, you will be ready to do a good job.”
“Tomorrow Mr. _____ (one of the teachers) will visit our class and several of you can practice asking him questions.”