Power+Inquiry+Unit

**Curricular Topic or Text: Power Structures**  People get and maintain power by playing on other people’s fears, scapegoating, and finding people who were powerless/outcasts and giving them a taste of power. I want them to see the power structure at our own school and the role they play in it (as a perpetrator, victim or bystander). I also want them to understand how mob mentality works and what people are willing to do to be accepted into a group. All of this is prep work for our Holocaust study so I want them to see what happens at schools is a microcosm of Nazi Germany. || **Procedural Knowledge: ** 1. Read and analyze non-fiction texts to find main ideas and draw conclusions. 2. Make connections between the texts and their own lives/school/community. (make inferences) 3. Conduct research – a. how to find reliable sources b. how to use databases c. how to paraphrase d. how to cite their sources e. MLA parenthetical citations  4. How to work in a group on a project a. how to manage their time and meet deadlines b. how to best share what they have learned c. how to create a visual project that supports the research they did 5. How to effectively give an oral presentation a. annunciation b. eye contact c. nervous habits kept to a minimum d. good pacing 6. Understand the definition of stereotyping, scapegoating, power, mob mentality || =__ Week 1 __= 1. Use a QAR think-aloud strategy with excerpts from //Queen Bees and Wanna Bees// and from the book, //Odd Girl Speaks Out// to help the students analyze each group’s social structure. 2. Watch movie clips from //Mean Girls// and //Odd Girl Out// to practice identification of power structure and agendas and answer the questions: a.  How do people get and maintain power? b. How are targets selected? c. What are people willing to do to gain acceptance? 3. “Spying” on the social groups **//(students have one week to complete the //** groups (including his/her own group) a. at least three “telling statements” from each group b. characteristics of each group (physical appearance, activities, talents, etc.) c.  analysis of social structure of each group   **__ Week 2 __** 1. Journal: What were some overall observations you made during the spying assignments? What differences did you notice between the boy and girl groups? What surprised you the most when analyzing your own group? 2. Students get into groups to compare results of spying activity a. The kids cannot be in a group with someone who is already in their social group b. The class briefly brainstorms the groups and each group selects one group to create a picture map showing the characteristics that make up the group, what the group values and norms are, and to visually represent the power structure. c. Class sharing of picture maps 3. Trigger letter from bullied student 4. Hotseat with the student, the bully and Dr. Phil. 5. District video on bullying and harassment and journal response 5. Explanation of inquiry research project to give them some time to begin thinking about topics they would be interested in researching 6. We will watch the YouTube clips on “Bullied to Death” about suicides caused by bullying, “The Megan Meier Story” from Anderson Cooper segment and the video “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam. Between each clip we will pause and the students will respond in their journals with the “Open Mind” technique. || 1. I will go through Peter Rabinowitz’s “Rules of Notice” focusing in on characterization and ruptures. 2. I will then introduce the novel, and model a free response think-aloud focused on characterization and ruptures for the first section of //The Wave.// For the second part of the class, I will continue to model free response think-alouds but the students will assist me. The following day, the students will complete free response think-alouds in small groups and I will rotate around to assist them. 3. Beginning on Tuesday night, each night for homework the students will be independently reading and writing free responses think alouds focused on characterization and ruptures for the rest of the book. (Monday – chapters 1-2, Tuesday – chapters 3 - 7, Wednesday – chapters 8-13, Thursday – chapters 14-17) 4. Vote With Your Feet - To get the students thinking about mob mentality, I will read the following scenario: There has been a lot of bullying in your school ranging from name calling and gossiping to physical fights. Every day at a particular lunch table, a student at a neighboring table is constantly harassed. Three students throw food at the student at the neighboring student, several other students give up food off their plates to provide the “ammunition” and the rest of the kids at the table whisper and laugh at the bullied student. Though this occurs every day and all of the kids at nearby tables know about the bullying, no one has ever done anything to stop it. You are the principal and must intervene. Who is responsible for the bullying? Stand by the statement you agree most with: a. All of the students at the table are responsible. b. The three ring leaders are responsible. c. The ring leaders and the ammunition providers are all responsible. d. The ring leaders, the ammunition providers, the other kids at that table and all students at nearby tables are responsible. The students will then discuss why they feel the way they do with their group and write their reasons on the anchor charts. Each group will then get a chance to share their answers. 5. they wouldn’t have normally done if they had not been dared to or pressured to do by others or, if they are uncomfortable with that, they will write about a time someone they know did something completely out of character to be accepted. 6. They will then journal about a time they got into trouble for something someone else initiated and answer the question, should someone be punished if they just go along with something someone else starts? 7. The students will share their responses in small groups and will especially share their opinions about whether they should get in trouble for something someone else “forces” or “pressures” them to do. 8. The students will watch the YouTube clips called “Milgram Atrocities” – which shows the famous Milgram Experiment (shows mob psychology and blind following of someone perceived to be an authority). 1. In small groups, the students will create a picture map of the issues addressed in //The Wave.// The groups will then share their picture maps with the rest of the class. =__ Week 5 __= 1. Library research and putting presentations together in groups.
 * // Inquiry Unit for Angela Harvey //**
 * **Essential Question: ** What is power? How do we get and maintain it? What are you willing to do to be accepted?  ||
 * ** Conceptual Knowledge: **
 * (What do you want the students to know?) **
 * (What you want the students to do) **
 * ** Frontloading Activities: **
 * 1) Opinionaire of school environment
 * 2) Individual answers
 * 3) The students will compare answers with small group discussion of findings. The groups will write their answers on anchor charts and will share their answers.
 * 4) Socratic Seminar with results ||
 * **Scaffold of Activities: ** For exploring and practicing concepts - leading to capacity to complete culminating project - demonstration of developed understandings ||
 * ** Activities: **
 * // assignment) //**  – students will be given a template for this daily journals analyze four
 * ==__ Week 3 __==
 * Goals/Objectives: ** Using the literature and the class assignments, the students will examine the school power structure and their place in it to see how most people will give up their freedoms to be a part of a group. I want them to first see the roles that they personally play in the power structure of their schools or community (especially since many of them participate as bystanders in hurtful situations such as bullying and harassment). I also want them to start thinking about the importance of taking responsibility for one’s actions instead of trying to use the “she made me do it” excuse, as was so often used during the Nuremberg Trials and other crimes against humanity.
 * Resources: ** Strasser, Todd. //The Wave.// New York: Laurel Leaf Library, 1981.
 * Assessments: **
 * 2. ** We will then have a Socratic Seminar to discuss the issue of mob mentality and the role of the bystander.
 * 3. ** I will also use the students’ journal responses about the topic of giving in to peer pressure, the group report out and their reading responses to check for understanding and critical thought. ||
 * =__ Week 4 __=
 * 1) We will be focusing on characterization as we watch //Freedom Writers// and the students will complete an “open mind” think-aloud technique to identify major themes, important characters, and issues of power, acceptance and mob mentality.
 * 2) To teach indirect characterization, we will periodically stop the movie to do a Hotseat Interview with inner voices.
 * 3) After watching the movie, the students will use their “open mind” papers to write a letter from the perspective of one of the main characters.

__ Week 6-7 __
|| Use a QAR think-aloud strategy with excerpts from //Queen Bees and Wanna Bees// and from the book, //Odd Girl Speaks Out// to help the students analyze each group’s social structure. || Trigger letter from bullied student. Hotseat with the student, the bully and Dr. Phil. || We will watch the YouTube clips on “Bullied to Death” about suicides caused by bullying, “The Megan Meier Story” from Anderson Cooper segment and the video “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam. Between each clip we will pause and the students will respond in their journals with the “Open Mind” technique. || The students will choose one of the essential questions ( What is power? How do we get and maintain it? What are you willing to do to be accepted?) and will research it using at least three sources. They will put a presentation together including a summarization of the information they found and how it ties into their essential question(s), some type of visual (PowerPoint or other multi-media presentation, posters, display for a “gallery walk” of artifacts, magazine, or a movie). They must also include a correctly formatted work cited page. The requirements are as follows:
 * 1) Put presentations together and give presentations to class.
 * ** Think-Aloud: **
 * ** Dramatization: **
 * ** Visualization: **
 * ** Culminating Project: **
 * 1) Before starting their research, each group must write up a project proposal, including the essential question(s) they would like to focus on, how they plan on conducting their research, and the type of project they would like to do for their visual.
 * 2) Each student is responsible for compiling their own research notes (must paraphrase information), including notes on any surveys or interviews.
 * 3) As they work on the project, each student is responsible for writing a process journal detailing successes, frustrations, redirections, surprises, etc.
 * 4) The works cited and in-text citation must be done in MLA format.
 * 5) Group must create an interactive handout for the rest of the class to use during the presentation.  ||