Course Description
This class includes a thorough analysis of genocides in the twentieth and twenty first centuries, and examines how to spread global awareness by actively protecting human rights. This course is designed to research and analyze a wide range of political, social and cultural issues necessary to understand the perpretration of genocide and recognize the need for action and prevention. Utilizing various forms of literature, writing, visual media, discussion and reflection, and include interactive and experiential learning, students develop awareness through a process of self inquiry, and experience empathy as they become active members of the community.
This class includes a thorough analysis of genocides in the twentieth and twenty first centuries, and examines how to spread global awareness by actively protecting human rights. This course is designed to research and analyze a wide range of political, social and cultural issues necessary to understand the perpretration of genocide and recognize the need for action and prevention. Utilizing various forms of literature, writing, visual media, discussion and reflection, and include interactive and experiential learning, students develop awareness through a process of self inquiry, and experience empathy as they become active members of the community.
Course Objectives
Today, rather than serving as a catalyst for effective action to halt atrocities, the debate surrounding the declaration of genocide has served as a tool for delaying or avoiding action. The preference for terms such as "acts of genocide" and "killings of mass scale" were used in Rwanda and more recently in Darfur/Sudan, to avoid taking meaningful action and saving countless lives.
Students will be activley involved in:
1.) Examining the differences between the terms genocide, democide, ethnocide, and forms of mass violence.
2.) Examining the social issues that ignited international coexistence and interdependence.
3.) Becoming more knowledgeable concerning the interaction of sociological, cultural, and/or political roots of evil, human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide.
4.) Becoming familiar with industrialization, scientific advancement, population growth and economic failure, and their significance in societal interaction.
5.) Examining the roles of propaganda as an accessory to genocide.
6.) Examining the nature of evil vs. power and corruption.
7.) Examining the history of persecution against the Jewish culture, and the manipulation of this persecution.
8.) Becoming familiar with the perpetration of genocide and mass violence in Nazi Germany, (and other modern societies including Rwanda, Darfur, Cambodia, Bosnia, Iraq, Tibet, and more).
9.) Examining how technology and mass media function in society, and learn how to use it to protect society, not control or brainwash it.
10.) Examining the question of what can be done to prevent human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide.
11.) Being able to take the above information and apply it to a current or historical instance of human cruelty, mass violence, or genocide of their choice.
12.) Engaging in service and virtual learning opportunities by protecting human rights violations at local and national levels.
Today, rather than serving as a catalyst for effective action to halt atrocities, the debate surrounding the declaration of genocide has served as a tool for delaying or avoiding action. The preference for terms such as "acts of genocide" and "killings of mass scale" were used in Rwanda and more recently in Darfur/Sudan, to avoid taking meaningful action and saving countless lives.
Students will be activley involved in:
1.) Examining the differences between the terms genocide, democide, ethnocide, and forms of mass violence.
2.) Examining the social issues that ignited international coexistence and interdependence.
3.) Becoming more knowledgeable concerning the interaction of sociological, cultural, and/or political roots of evil, human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide.
4.) Becoming familiar with industrialization, scientific advancement, population growth and economic failure, and their significance in societal interaction.
5.) Examining the roles of propaganda as an accessory to genocide.
6.) Examining the nature of evil vs. power and corruption.
7.) Examining the history of persecution against the Jewish culture, and the manipulation of this persecution.
8.) Becoming familiar with the perpetration of genocide and mass violence in Nazi Germany, (and other modern societies including Rwanda, Darfur, Cambodia, Bosnia, Iraq, Tibet, and more).
9.) Examining how technology and mass media function in society, and learn how to use it to protect society, not control or brainwash it.
10.) Examining the question of what can be done to prevent human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide.
11.) Being able to take the above information and apply it to a current or historical instance of human cruelty, mass violence, or genocide of their choice.
12.) Engaging in service and virtual learning opportunities by protecting human rights violations at local and national levels.
Course Schedule
Unit One: The Holocaust
Unit Two: Modern Genocide (Genocide in Our Time)
a.) A Detailed Analysis of Rwanda and Darfur
b.) Student Researched Genocides
Unit Three: Raising Awareness and Getting Involved
Unit Two: Modern Genocide (Genocide in Our Time)
a.) A Detailed Analysis of Rwanda and Darfur
b.) Student Researched Genocides
Unit Three: Raising Awareness and Getting Involved
Reading
In addition to artiles, diaries, poetry, excerpts, news portals and graphic media, students will read novels independently, and collectively, and learn to use their peers as tools of reference.
Students will select novels and texts containing subject matter related to the topics they are interested in, form literature ciricles, and use their classmates to help identify purpose in what they are learning. There are several novels available that expose students to what I am hoping to acheive with them. The variety of texts will target a large range of learners, and students can make choices according to their interests and abilities.
Unit One: The Holocaust
Class Novel:
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
Literature Circles:
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
We Are Witnesses by Jacob Boas
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Thanks to My Mother by Schoschana Rabinovici
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany by Hans J. Massaquoi
Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
Silent Screams of a Survivor byMitch Garwolinski and Bob Hoffman
Night by Elie Wiesel
In addition to artiles, diaries, poetry, excerpts, news portals and graphic media, students will read novels independently, and collectively, and learn to use their peers as tools of reference.
Students will select novels and texts containing subject matter related to the topics they are interested in, form literature ciricles, and use their classmates to help identify purpose in what they are learning. There are several novels available that expose students to what I am hoping to acheive with them. The variety of texts will target a large range of learners, and students can make choices according to their interests and abilities.
Unit One: The Holocaust
Class Novel:
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
Literature Circles:
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
We Are Witnesses by Jacob Boas
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Thanks to My Mother by Schoschana Rabinovici
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany by Hans J. Massaquoi
Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
Silent Screams of a Survivor byMitch Garwolinski and Bob Hoffman
Night by Elie Wiesel
Units Two and Three: Modern Genocides
Class Novels:
Genocide in Darfur (Genocide in Modern Times) by Janey Levy
Deogratias, A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen
Literature Circles:
Genocide: The Systematic Killing of a People (Issues in Focus Today) by Linda Jacobs Altman
Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide by Nawuth Keat
Half Spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of the Cambodian Genocide by Icy Smith
Darfur African Genocide by John Xavier
Genocide and the Bosnian War (Genocide in Modern Times) by Jacqueline Ching
Genocide (Groundwork Guides) by Jane Springer
I Learned a New Word Today ... Genocide by Elizabeth Hankins
Genocide (Face the Facts) by Sean Sheehan
(Click to view Literature Circle Assignment)
Class Novels:
Genocide in Darfur (Genocide in Modern Times) by Janey Levy
Deogratias, A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen
Literature Circles:
Genocide: The Systematic Killing of a People (Issues in Focus Today) by Linda Jacobs Altman
Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide by Nawuth Keat
Half Spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of the Cambodian Genocide by Icy Smith
Darfur African Genocide by John Xavier
Genocide and the Bosnian War (Genocide in Modern Times) by Jacqueline Ching
Genocide (Groundwork Guides) by Jane Springer
I Learned a New Word Today ... Genocide by Elizabeth Hankins
Genocide (Face the Facts) by Sean Sheehan
(Click to view Literature Circle Assignment)
Writing
Students will create up to three formal essays, as well as explore several other forms of writing, that will enable them to respond and relate to literature by validating research and applying personal experiences. These will be spread out over the course of the trimester, and further requirements will be given.
Unit One: The Holocaust
Cause and Effect Formal Writing: Students will examine the mass forms of genocide, and be able to determine its causes, and the effects of it on the perpetrators, victims, cultures, bystanders, and international relations.
Unit Two: Modern Genocide
Compare and Contrast Formal Writing: Students will explore the internet, research two current social issues from the twentieth or twenty-first centuries, produce a comparative analysis of the two, and teach this reseach to their classmates.
Unit Three: Raising Awareness and Getting Involved
Reflective Formal Writing: At the end of the course, students will reflect on their experiences with group problem solving, service learning, virtual volunteering and becoming an active member of the community.
(Click here to view Writing Assignments)
Speaking: Research and Presentation
Unit One: The Holocaust
Cultural Victims (Informative): Students will read and analyze articles relating to specific cultures (Jewish, Homosexuals, Gypsies, Physically and Mentally Handicapped, Sonderkommando, Polish, Russian, Blacks, Twins) targeted by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Students will also conduct extensive research about each civilization. They will then deliver necessary information, as well as interesting and key facts about each culture to their classmates.
Unit Two: Modern Genocide
Social Issues (Informative/Persuasive): Students will conduct extensive research on two current social issues occurring internationally, and one local issue. Students will organize and deliver graphic details, highlighting the necessary information for each.
Unit Three: Spreading Awareness and Getting Involved
Group Problem-Solving Experience (Demonstrative/Informative): Students, with their Problem-Solving Groups, will collaborate throughout the duration of the unit to identify and solve issues related to human rights at the school, district, or community wide level. Groups will identify an issue, develop a proposal, seek approval, and present their results and positive experiences with their classmates.
(Click here to view Research and Presentation Assignments)
