U.N Charter of Rights and Freedoms by Scott Legge

The History of Human Rights

scott_legge — 2014-09-17 23:25:26 UTC

Step 1: In groups, students come up with a list of rights and freedoms that they feel should apply to every person in the world.

scott_legge — 2014-09-17 23:29:01 UTC

Step 2: Using the information generated in Step 1, students will look at the official UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights document. Highlight the rights and freedoms they already have and which rights and freedoms were new to them.

julia_mawer — 2014-09-17 23:36:49 UTC

Extended Learning: If students are done early, they may wish to look up John Humphrey. He was a Canadian man from NB who drafted the first copy of the Human Rights Charter. Students are to then research other Canadians who have greatly helped improve Human Rights around the world.

scott_legge — 2014-09-17 23:41:16 UTC

Canadian Museum for Human Rights

scott_legge — 2014-09-17 23:42:29 UTC

Warm-up Activity: As a class, discuss the rights and freedoms we have at home, at school, and elsewhere. What freedoms are the most important to you? Students are to then document their thoughts in a journal.

julia_mawer — 2014-09-17 23:53:15 UTC

Step 3: Each student selects one of the rights listed in the declaration (no duplicates). Using the resources available, perform some research and present an example or story that illustrates this right being violated.

alamey — 2014-09-18 00:15:05 UTC

Step 4: Groups discuss and come up with their solution to one of the problems presented in Step 3. This can be in the form of a presentation, video, a skit/song, poster, newspaper article, etc...

alamey — 2014-09-18 00:46:01 UTC

Resource #1: Students are given access to multimedia equipment and software to facilitate research and project creation. Most classrooms do not have a full set of computers, so they will need the freedom to access the lab when needed. Links will be provided that will help guide their learning if they choose to use them, such as the link to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

alamey — 2014-09-18 22:28:02 UTC

Resource #2: Students are encouraged to speak with public figures within the community. This can be informally or through interviews, questionnaires, or another format of the student's choosing. Students can arrange meetings during class time, but must have established the trust factor to leave the school without teacher supervision.

alamey — 2014-09-18 22:34:11 UTC

alamey — 2014-09-18 22:49:37 UTC

Resource #3: Students will have access to a variety of appropriate books in the classroom but also have the freedom to look in the school Library or public library as well as hitting the archives of the school/local/provincial or national newspaper. Similar to the link provided below.

scott_legge — 2014-09-18 23:15:40 UTC

alamey — 2014-09-18 23:19:07 UTC

Resource #4: The students will be given a list of movies, documentaries, short films, or even songs that will give them further opportunities for learning, investigating and sharing with others.

scott_legge — 2014-09-18 23:20:46 UTC

Resource #4 continued

scott_legge — 2014-09-18 23:24:32 UTC

Iqbal Masih: Sold to carpet makers by his family at the age of 5 for the equivalent of 12 American Dollars to pay off their dept. He escaped and gained his freedom when he was 10. He was later shot by the carpet afia, because he was making the world aware of child labour in Pakistan.

Teachers Role: The teacher will set the project up, going over expectations, parameters and norms. They will walk the students through the task and resources provided. Once students have reached Step 3 of the project the teacher becomes a guide and sounding board for the students. At this point the teacher would set up interviews with individuals or groups periodically through the week to offer timely feedback and advice.

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 00:03:19 UTC

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 00:10:30 UTC

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 00:18:44 UTC

Step 5: Review your journal entry from the beginning of the project. Are your thoughts still the same on human rights? Document the impact of this project. How did you feel about the violation of human rights? What gives you hope for change in the world?

julia_mawer — 2014-09-19 00:27:53 UTC

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 00:50:29 UTC

Michel Chikwanine

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 00:53:39 UTC

Ishmael Beah

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 00:55:35 UTC

Russian law against the LGBTQ community

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 00:59:54 UTC

What would you do: Muslim Rights

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 01:05:21 UTC

Ruby Bridges - Civil Rights

scott_legge — 2014-09-19 15:38:54 UTC

SESSION 9: Free-Aire CLE scaffolding suggestions for students with moderate to mild exceptionalities.

alamey — 2014-10-29 20:03:50 UTC

General Scaffolding:

Use bigger font, and less writing per page would be a benefit.

Debrief after each video, put them in groups and give them 30 secs to tell their partner everything they learned from the video. This would perhaps reinforce learning.

Add hints and/or "look for" items for some of the resources (especially the videos), which would help students focus on the key issues.

Some of the activities could be tackled in a peer teaching or pair-sharing format to make students more comfortable.

Specific Scaffolding:

Accessing Prior Knowledge and Warm-Up Activities:

Prior Knowledge:
Q/A or Entrance Slip to find out who knows what about rights and freedoms. Answers read to the class will provide an inclusive environment in which everyone will begin with the same basic knowledge. If completed the day before starting the CLE, teachers could plan for groups. (10 minutes)

A pre-lesson survey to find out students' learning preferences and styles might be helpful, as well.

Warm-Up Activities:
Modeling via mock discussion with teacher and students (prepared in advance) highlighting some cognitive and metacognitive skills to enhance discussion. End
with a cooperative writing activity that shows how to bring points of the discussion into journal writing. Another option for the journal writing the teacher could give SEP students a sheet with prompts to help guide their writing, or offering them an option to make a video journal (15 minutes)

During discussion, provide post its! and have group members write 2-5 rights and freedoms that are discussed.

Cognitive skills:
In advance, provide 5 discussion tips to help scaffold discussion - then model.

Metacognitive skills:
Questions to ask oneself - from the Miller article.

1. Have I understood the prompt? (Marking prompt strategies - break it down into pieces)

2. Do I have the whole picture?

3. After writing - reread prompt and ask Did I cover everything I was asked to?

Step 1: Everyone uses their individual lists to compile one big one (either in groups or to a large class list).

Step 2: A. scaffold potentially challenging words like exploitation, hinders, and obliged by working with an on-line dictionary and adding in the easier language.

B. Provide real-world contexts for each of the rights, examples from the group would enhance personal connections.

For example: 4. "You have a right to special care and protection and to good food, housing and medical services." Examples of special care and protection, examples of good food, safe housing, and specific types of medical services could be added. Mini-groups from the larger group might be better for this scaffolding (pair off).

Step 3: Allow the SEP students to duplicate a freedom if they really want it even though someone else had selected it also.

Provide examples/sample work for Activities 3, 4, and 5 that students can use as a guide.

Obviously the time for completing these activities will be altered by adding these scaffolds; however, they benefit the whole class not just those with exceptionalities.