Issues of Social Justice

Pre-Instructional Unit

DRAFT

Instructional Goal:

Given opportunities in the social environments of school, the community, church, etc, students will approach, welcome and meaningfully interact with peers of diverse groups.

Subordinate Objectives: .

learner will challenge 'popular' beliefs that typically inhibit interactions (intellectual/problem-solving) -
students will state and describe the historical experience/context in which stereotypes have evolved over time (verbal skill);
students can state and describe changes in information and/or experience that challenge the myths/stereotypes (verbal skill);
students can state and describe the present practice/status in our communities (verbal skill); and
learner will describe common characteristics and values they share with diverse groups (intellectual/problem-solving) -
students will state and describe those features of commonality shared by the student and members of diverse groups (verbal skill); and
student will generate ideas and implement new practices that influence social justice and change in the local community through leadership and advocacy (intellectual/problem-solving) –
students will state, describe and practice an inclusive approach to members of marginalized groups, both as a single representation of diversity and as a collective experience (verbal skill).

Pre-Instructional Unit

Outcomes .

At the conclusion of the unit, students will be able to:

demonstrate an understanding of the implications of the political constructs that guarantee the rights and freedoms of all people in our community;
use a set of negotiated standards to measure justice and injustice across dimensions of diversity;

Rational guiding development .

need to ensure that all students are on the same level of understanding;

students need to explorevarious political constructs and legal positions and understand their implications;
create personal definitions;
need to ensure students have a personal investment in the definition developed of justice/injustice across diverse groups;

create nonlinguistic/visual reference materials for use through the balance of coursework;

Introduction .

The emphasis of this unit is to explore and summarize a variety of political documents and to create resources that will be used for the balance of the semester as ‘standards’to be referenced when considering a legal position on diversity across issues. Some documents that are specific to diverse groups (eg. Americans with Disabilities Act) will be covered within their content areas. The goal in this unit is not to develop expertise with regards to any one or all of the legal constructs, but to understand them in a larger context – both the context in which they were originally developed and the context in which they exist today.

Time commitment .

Materials required .

Knowledge/Motivation .

Large group discussion

present the following questions for consideration and discussion -
How do we know when there are marginalized groups in this country?
How do we know when people of color are discriminated against?
How do we know when women don’t get a fair shake economically?
How do we know when people of varying ability aren’t being given opportunities to succeed?

applying the concept of proportional distribution -
if 12% of the American population is black, 12% of the American population is of Hispanic descent and 51% of the American population is women, then a proportional percentage of the population should be represented in all demographic categories;
we know that specific groups are marginalized and not given equal opportunity because these diverse groups are not represented proportionally when we measure other indicators of opportunity and equity – for example if 66% of Americans own their own home, then 66% of blacks should own their own home (fact 8%); if 9% of American families live below the poverty level established by the government, then 9% of blacks should live below the poverty level (fact 27%);
other areas of disproportionate distribution include, and are certainly not limited to –
criminal justice;
domestic violence;
graduation;
college attendance;
employment/unemployment;
upper income

Reference for statistical data

multi-media/video presentation- compilation of scenes depicting violations of civil right and injustice – (because of the dynamic nature of Internet, specific resources for use cannot be identified. However, PBS and Discovery both provide a large variety of resources from which to draw)
racial - KKK; Japanese from WWII; race riots;
suggestion: scenes from Remember the Titans;
religious - Jewish interment/Auschwitz;
sexual – Gay/Bi/Transgender;
ability – cognitive, physical, developmental;
suggestion: initial scenes from Radio;
gender – right to vote; right to equal treatment – work/pay;
bra burning
suggestion: scenes from Mary Poppins where characters are campaigning for women’s rights
agism –
economic diversity – poverty; homelessness;

Student feedback and reflection on what the scenes mean:
what did you see? Which scenes depict injustice? Which ones were okay? Why?
why do these events happen?
what information were players working with at the time?
what events or information lead to the marginalization of this group?
do events like these still happen?

Transition

hypothesize what are the reasons why?
Historical;
cultural;
legal;
moral;
religious

Guided Instruction .

Small group activities

ideally, groups of 2 or 3;
identify roles for each group member that leads to each students strengths or needs for development;
opportunity for differentiation of instruction;
refer to unit on Collaborative Team Work

each group chooses a legal document;
Constitution;
Bill of Rights;
First Amendment;
Americans with Disabilities Rights Act;
NEED OTHERS

research on legal documents, such as the following, in general terms:
content;
intention at the time of creation – what need or issue was the creation of the document intended to address;
current interpretation;
affect/power of the document today;
nature of implementation today;

Product

create some visual display (laminated poster) of information that can be used for the balance of the course as a standard to hold up for comparison/ reference/ litmus test;
each group is responsible to make a presentation to the class and teach their cohorts what they have learned:
length – how long presentation should be;
time commitment – statement of time frame within which presentation should be completed;
to teach classmates about their political document;
to provide forum for entire class to engage in questions, answers, observations and other relevant discussion;

time for positive feedback(Recognition and Reinforcement of Effort)for each group and individual’s contribution to the class and the resources created that will be used for the balance of the course.

Assessment

Transition

Large group activity

reflection:
on the reality of implementation?
what is happening in our communities today?
why? why not?
evidence?

Independent Learning .

Independent work

create/write a definition of ‘social justice’;

Large group activity

each student will make an argument for/defendcomponents they have included in their definition;

class will negotiate a common definition that will be used in addition to the other political ‘standards’ created by the small groups;

Product

Create a visual representation of the common definition to be used with other displays (either as a group or assign this to specific student(s) based on successful completion of prior visual product - Recognition and Reinforcement of Effort);

Assessment

Transition

An American President – Movie with Michael Douglas,1995; scene 30 - Getting Serious/“Democracy is not easy” (first half of the scene about democracy not being easy and having to want it);
reflection on what the group has created and the standards for use (Recognition and Reinforcement of Effort of the group(s));
missing pieces? things to add?
reflect on what’s happening in the real world;
identify some of the areas of injustice and reflect on why this injustice exists in the student’s community;

Suggestions for Differentiation of Instruction .Instructional Strategies Employed: .

Summarizing;
Note Taking;
Recognition and Reinforcement of Effort;
Homefun and Practice;
Nonlinguistic Representation;
Cooperative Learning;
Objectives and Feedback;
Generating and Testing Hypothesis;
Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers;
Process;
Details;
Organizing Ideas (Generalization and Principles);
Skills.

Pennsylvania Academic Standards: .

need to include reference to all related Standards being addressed in this unit

McPhersonPre-Instructional Unit – DRAFT - Issues of Social Justice1 of 7