Eradicating Differences

Summary

The lesson was designed to have students use research and collaboration to connect themes and ideas from literature, history, and their present day experiences in order to apply this knowledge to their community and lives. Prior to the beginning of this unit, students read Lois Lowry’s The Giver as a class. At the beginning of the unit, students chose one of five novels to read independently through literature circles – The Book Thief, The Time Machine, A Long Walk to Water, The Ear, the Eye, and The Arm, and Nelson Mandela: No Easy Walk to Freedom. Students placed themselves into literature circle groups where there was one representative for each independent novel. The students were given an individual research project based on their placement in Civics or World History. The research project asked the students to assemble information to show connections between the two pieces of literature read, history, and their present day experiences. The students shared this with their literature circle groups. The students had to attempt to make contact with a lawmaker (local, state, or federal) or a person or organization advocating for an oppressed group of people in order to widen their research perspective. The literature circle groups had to synthesize the information the group had read and assembled through their independent projects and reading to find an application for this knowledge in their community and/or lives. Once complete, the students had to reflect on their group collaboration, role as researcher and critical thinker, and their creativity throughout this process. The goal was to have students extend information beyond the classroom and find a real life application for knowledge gained through this unit of study.