Competing Human Rights Project

Project Design Template

Project Title: Competing Human Rights

Author: Jacquelyn Neel, Kristen Nortillo

PART I: DRIVING QUESTION

“What should civil rights activists do when the allowance of personal freedom for some, restricts the personal freedom of others?”

This driving question warrants in-depth study by giving students the opportunity to research public opinion on the question while providing a question with more than one possible answer. This question provides students with a look into the human rights issue of who gets rights and who doesn’t, how do people get “rights”, and if rights aren’t freely given, are they really rights at all or rather privileges? These issues affect students because they all want to keep and fight for rights for themselves and in analyzing this question students are to contemplate how civil rights affect not only themselves but others around them.

Day 1 Opening Lecture & Grabber:

Debating human rights- universal or relative to culture?

The students will enter the classroom and the teacher will have a short lecture over the history of civil rights in America, how they’ve impacted society, and how they are impacting today’s culture and students. There will be a short discussion with students answering leading questions to ultimately bring the class to the grabber.

Grabber  

http://www.developmenteducation.ie/blog/2014/02/debating-human-rights-universal-or-relative-to-culture

This grabber is an article that talks about the civil rights of some versus the lack of rights for others. This grabber directly correlates to our driving question because it shows how some people lack civil rights while others seem to live with more rights, which will get the students to discuss this topic. The grabber shows the unfair gap between those who have rights and those who don’t which helps the students get a better perspective of the actual question given an example. Given the article, the students will separate into 3 groups, 3 different roles to play; civil rights activist, person displaying personal freedom, person whose personal freedom is restricted. Have the groups present their situations and how their role thinks about the situation. Then have the groups decide which group has a more accurate and law abiding result of this situation. This will give the students a good preface to the project they are to create since they have already looked at the driving question in a scenario situation. The driving question will then be presented and the students will break into groups and read the grabber article presented and discuss.

Day 2 Collaboration & Planning

On the second day of our inquiry project, the students will come back together in the groups they made on day 1 and review the article. They have to then come up with a thesis, or, answer to the driving question that was presented to them in groups. They then have the rest of the day to explore media options for their presentation. The teachers will provide the materials such as Ipads or the computer labs or microphones for recording that the students may want to use. Once the students have decided on a media project format and have a working thesis, they are to show the teacher their answer to the driving question and the teacher will provide feedback on whether they should revise and make their response more in depth or whether it is okay and ready to be made into a project. Once signed by the teacher, the students may start work on their media in their groups. They are to use quotes from the grabber article to back up their answer to their driving question.

Day 3 Media Projects

On the third day of the project the students will gather into their groups and start working on their media projects based on their work from the previous day and the feedback provided from the teacher. Working in these groups will help students form collaborative skills and give them a deep understanding of the topic as they work and discuss with one another. The media project is designed to implement technology into the inquiry project template; increasing students’ understanding of useful technology and enhancing their learning experience. The technology also helps to advance the students’ understanding of the question and topic because the students are asked to formulate a project from their own conceptions and ideas of the lesson. They are to prove their understanding of the topic through any form of media they chose, but it must be effective in getting their point across. The teacher will also provide the rubric they will be graded on when they present their final media project. This rubric will allow the students to know what to expect in what they will be graded upon.

Day 4 Presentation to Class

On the fourth day the students will present their media project, with their individual groups, to the class. The groups presenting should keep the audience engaged by asking questions, and possibly including music or videos. The teacher will be be grading the group while they are presenting based upon the rubric given on the third day. The class presentation day is designed for students to work on their public speaking and show their individual take on the issues given. This activity allows the team members to verbalize their view more clearly, in which their media project may not be able to clearly state within their project. Group presentations allow the students to show their individual help within the physical project; the teacher should be aware of any students not speaking much, or unequal efforts into talking while presenting, this would indicate lack of help within their group.

Reflection: Reflection Paper due One week after Presentation

A reflection paper will be due one week after the last project has been presented. This paper should be about their individual views on all of the projects shown in class. They should write in details about each group’s presentation, arguing in favor of their own individual opinion. For example: the students should have a strong opinion on the issue and be able to give reason to their opinion. Examples from the presentations should be used in order to further their argument. This paper should be persuasive for the reader to favor their opinion, using liable cited  

Objectives Directly Taught or Learned Through Discovery:

Our project will have students taking a direct look at our grabber and analyzing how it relates to our driving question. The objectives taught through this method will include collaboration, close analysis skills, and usage of technology to answer the driving question. Students ultimate goal is to be able to analyze the question and article provided, and show their understanding and comprehension of the question through collaboration with students in groups to create a multimedia project answering the driving question. The students’ learning targets include

1. How to use media to present their arguments clearly and effectively

2. Not just answer the driving question, but be able to back it up well with facts and evidence as well as personal opinion.

3. Increase collaboration skills as students work together to create their media projects.

Students will be able to exemplify their learning through their projects they create based on our driving question. Students are to create a reflection paper of the process of their project identifying things they did well and things they could improve on. Their projects will show their knowledge of the subject based on their research. They will create a project where they are to use some sort of media to answer the driving question. Their answers to the question have to be direct and well argued through the usage of media. They can make videos, write songs, create a voice over, digitally create a picture, or anything else the would like to suggest as long as it shows critical thinking.

Rubric

Effectiveness in answering the driving question:

10- Student clearly answers the driving question in their own words with own personal examples that give excellent reasoning while incorporating facts and evidence from outside sources

8- Student answers the driving question in their own words with personal examples but lacks outside support

5- Student somewhat answers the question but does not supply proficient examples or evidence

3- Student answers the question without any reasoning at all

1- Student does not answer the question at all

Effectiveness in Using Multimedia and technology to create their project

5- Student effectively uses movie, audio, or picture software to answer the driving question creatively and efficiently

3- Student uses movie, audio, or picture software to answer the driving question but lacks creativity and details

1- Student creates a multimedia project but it does not answer the driving question effectively

0- Student does not create a media project at all

Student collaboration

5- Student worked well with others to accomplish their goals and were effective in communicating with others

3- Students worked fairly well with others, had trouble being efficient with their in class time

1- Student could not get along with group members and did not use time wisely

0- Student did not participate with the group or contribute to the project

Student reflection paper

5- Student accurately and honestly evaluates their work and describes their strengths and weaknesses eloquently and describes what they’ve learned and what skills they’ve acquired from the project

3- Student assesses their work with some depth, but could use more reasoning. Student does describe skills they’ve acquired from the project

1- Student assesses their work completely inaccurately and does not describe what they’ve learned from the project

0- Student does not do the reflection paper at all

Reflections:

Map the Project:

Students will need to be inquisitive, analytical, and understanding of different opinions. Students will begin by reading the article, in which they will be reading laws and difficult situations. The students are only required to know the basic laws of the Constitution. This project isn’t to test their knowledge, but instead to challenge them to analyze and discuss a law based issue. The students will be allowed to use any internet sources to help their opinions.

Activities:

Resources needed:

School-based Individuals:

Technology based Materials:

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/book/export/html/6575

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/03/vaccine-psychology-personal-freedom/388123/

PART III: CULMINATING ACTIVITY

Culminating performances:

Manage the Process:

To ensure targeted learning the students must be analytical and able to think outside the box. Students should know basic laws of the constitution, human vs natural laws, and anything else that may push their thesis further in depth. The physical environment of the classroom should be similar to small group discussions. The groups should spread out in which they are able to hear and be able to focus on their group without distractions from other group noises. Within their groups students should be respectful, patient, listening to everyone, and be able to stay on topic. The classroom should be filled with conversation, not quiet, but students shouldn’t be getting angry within their group. If a student becomes angry, the teacher should then speak to the student and discuss the issue. The groups should have different types of learners; this will ensure that one group isn’t more advanced than the next.

Project Evaluation:

Students are to submit a reflection paper, a week after presentations, that will evaluate and analyze all projects presented. This will allow the student to think analytically and not opinion based, which will ensure a general sense of knowledge about the article to be shown to the teacher. As well as the obvious reflection paper, evaluation will occur once the student group’s create their thesis about the article, in which the teacher will approve. Once approved, the teacher then should follow up with questions on how they will portray their thesis, to see if the group fully understands what they want to focus on in their project.