Unit Introduction Lesson Plan (Days 1 and 2)

Class/Subject: Current World Issues for Juniors and Seniors Student Objectives/Student Outcomes: Following this lesson, our students will be able to: define what human rights are and list several examples create a collage based upon one article of the UDHR, assemble images and text, and present the article to the class evaluate if we, as a global society, have achieved the goals from the UDHR Content Standards: Common Core CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5 Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.2 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. Materials/Resources/Technology: copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights chalkboard/whiteboard of sorts to write predictions construction paper for the activity computers and print materials (magazines and newspapers) for collages glue, scissors, and markers Teachers Goals: Following this lesson, students will be able to understand the concept of human rights, what they entail, and what they look like in different places around the world. Each student will be assigned a particular article of the UDHR, and they will seek to understand this article and convey its meaning through making a collage of images and words that relate. Then, the students will share their ideas with the class in a brief presentation to help teach their peers about their specific article. After each student has presented, the class will have a better idea about the different human rights included in the UDHR, which will prepare them for a discussion of if our global society has reached the goals listed in the UDHR. Time
Day 1: 5 minutes

Start of Class: We will write the words human rights on the board, without providing any context or background knowledge. We will ask the students to list off anything that they can think of that could be related to human rights, whether it is a definition, examples of what human rights are, or something else.

Day 1: 10 minutes

Introduction of Lesson: After we have recorded predictions on the board, we will proceed to read the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights using the DR-TA method. We will address unfamiliar vocabulary, and adjust our predictions on the board. Lesson Instruction: Following the DR-TA reading of the preamble text, the students should have a good idea about what the UDHR is all about. We will provide context for the goals and origins of the document. Then, we will introduce the collage activity and assign an article of the document to each student. We will take them to the computer lab and give them the remainder of the class period (about 25 minutes) to work on the collage, understand their article, and select and print images. We will walk around to monitor students, keep them on task and answer questions. Whatever the students do not finish will be homework for the next day. Assessments/Checks for Understanding: We will begin the second day of the unit with student presentations of each article of the UDHR. Each student will have about one minute to share their interpretation of their article and explain one image, theme, or example present in their collage. The collages will be collected and displayed on a bulletin board in the classroom to showcase student work and refer back to throughout the unit. Closure/Wrap-Up/Review: In perhaps the most important part of this two-day lesson, we will evaluate the progress of our global society in achieving the goals set by the UDHR by engaging our students in a discussion on the topic. Sample questions include: Now that we have spend more time on the subject and they have listened to all the presentations, lets define human rights once again. How about liberty? Equality? How did your definition of human rights change upon reading the document? What are things our global society is doing well in regards to the UDHR? Where can we improve? Whose responsibility is it to ensure that people have these rights? Is it anyones responsibility? Is it acceptable or can it be justified to give one group a certain right while denying other groups that right? Why or why not, and if a student falls somewhere in between yes and no, they should give examples of when it is or is not acceptable. Have we as a global society achieved the goals and principles espoused in the UDHR? Self-Assessment: Following the lesson, we will be able to assess our students understanding both from looking over their collages with the images and text they selected, but also with the effectiveness of the discussion, and how well students seem to be understanding the concepts of human rights, liberty, and equality as a whole before moving on to the rest of our unit.

Day 1: 35 minutes

Day 2: 30- 35 minutes

Day 2: 15 -20 minutes