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     Inner city school educators and pupils are often faced with violence or threats of violence in the classroom, at home and on the playground. In the Henry Horner Projects over Christmas 911 was called over 300 times for "shots fired." Both at home, on the playground, in the media, (witness our governments sanction and bombing of Serbia), and at school violence is often considered the solution, not the problem. Inner city children are also beset and handicapped in their quest for an education by bias, stereotypes, violence and oppression.

     As an educator I believe it is imperative that teachers acknowledge and commit to remediate the occurrence of violence, bias, stereotypes and oppression in our society while simultaneously substantially upgrading students critical thinking and reflection utilizing language arts as a medium. Elementary students of the inner city will find this curriculum relevant and impelling to work through.

    It is the intention of this educator to transform the inner city pupil from one who finds education irrelevant and "a waste of time", to one who actively seeks reading and education in general as a means to unlock and mitigate the restrictions and social conditions that otherwise will allow them to fail in their quests in life.
 
 

    Pupils will develop significantly greater interest and abilities in composition, reading and in reading a greater variety  of books.
    Pupils will display enhanced problem solving skills, recognize and investigate problems and propose solution supported by evidence, (ILS p. 2.)
    Pupils will express and interpret information and ideas.
    Pupils will ues appropriate media technology, vcr, overhead projector, computer, graphics, internet to access information, process ideas and communicate results.
     Pupils will infused with an understanding of  how education, reading and writing can mitigate restrictions and social conditions, enabling them to better meet their life's goals.
    Pupils will understand that reading is necessary in order to acquire  many and relevant types of knowledge.
    Pupils will increase their awareness of media, advertisers and politicians attempts to manipulate them.
    Pupils will be able to state why reading and composition is relevant to their lives.
    Pupils will be able to demonstrate an improved level of conflict resolution skills and an increased understanding of bias, stereotypes, oppression and propaganda and the effect it has on people.

    In order to achieve these ambitious goals I  have spent numerous hours seeking lesson plans relevant to today's inner city children, web sites and specific lesson plans are credited and links to their full and relevant sites are included. It is through a meld of numerous such lesson plans and sites that I have been  enabled to achieve this curriculum.
 
 

    Conflict: Unit One

   The first unit in this series of two deals with conflict, violence and and the development of non-violent means to solve problems. Unit one is designed for elementary grade students grades 5-8. Selection of three of the following possible units are recommended dependent on classroom milieu and time.
 

Unit Organizer

     It is the intention of this unit to concurrently  increase their awareness of the pervasivness of conflict in the students lives, increase the tools pupils have to remediate conflict and decrease violence in the classroom while significantly increasing the interest students have in reading, journalizing and specific types of composition. This is to be accomplished through a collaborative process with students forming rotating pods of 2-5 pupils and a 10-15  week curriculum.

Unit one:
    1. Unit is initiated by students defining what is violence and monitoring tv and the media for violence for one week utilizing the , (Television and Violence), lesson plan. Students will collect data and students will graphically represent the instances of violence, utilizing a graph, chart, or total numbers. Objective: Students will record, analyze, and interpret data on television violence.

Students will answer following questions.

Is there a consensus about the most violent types of programming on TV?
What does this tell you about our society?
What are your greatest concerns?
What would you like to see changed and why?
 
 

    1B. The  Conflict "Wall", Visual representation of conflict and its many shapes and forms.

Collaborative Activities: Pods of students, (as chosen by students for researching topic), will discuss and come to a decision on the definition of conflict, aspects of their topic which are conflict based and examples of conflict in our world. A computer will be utilized to generate questions in large type and in color, (conflict wall).
Students via small groups will focus on topic, using concensus-building activities.
Students will create a wall, a  collage of all the students' topics and their basis in conflict as well as of conflict in our lives. Students will utilize abstract shaped and colored papers to mount their conflicts on.
Students will collaborate and  research one controversial aspect of conflict from their list on the wall.
Students will compose and present a paper on their chosen controversial conflict which will also be mounted on the wall.

    1c. Conflict and resolution strategies workshop.

Technology Required: VCR, Video Camera, (possibly).

Community Involvement: Guest speakers
Gang Crime Officers, gang members, ex offenders and one criminal court judge.

Excerpts from the video film Violence in the schools may be utilized by the students to facilitate questioning of guest panel to discuss causes, solutions and proposals for decreasing violence.

Concepts developed: Awareness that an individuals' needs to be fully-functioning and that needs must be met in order to do so. Conflicts can be resolved in a non-violent manner.

Pupils' will increase their cache of conflict resolution skills.
Pupils' will interview guests, take notes, compose a paper on this subject and present that final paper  to peer group in another classroom or a community group.
 

    1d. Violent and Nonviolent Methods to Solve Problems.

Students will identify situations in which violent and non-violent methods can be used.

Activities and Strategies:
Students will write down all the examples of violence they have personally witnessed during the past week. solicit several responses to list on the board. Then have students work in small pods list ways to avoid these violent acts or ways to use nonviolent methods. The teacher can then list students' responses on the board and ask students to think about how the consequences of a nonviolent method would differ from the violent one. How would each approach affect the people involved?

Play a game in which everyone in the class forms a tight circle, (Teacher Talk 2(3),). One person will remain outside the circle and then try to get in the circle.
Note what method  is used to enter the circle. Discuss the feeling of the person left out, frustration, anger, etc. Now play again using nonviolent method to enter the circle, brainstorm as many non-violent methods as possible, bartering, bribing, changing the goal of entering the circle.
Students will read sections from the book, Holocaust Seen Through the Eyes of Young Persons in class.

Some interesting links, (Classroom Court), (Race),(Holocaust seen through the eyes of young persons), (The Holocaust on film).
 
 

    1e. Conflict

    Students are free to choose their own research topic. Final confirmation rests with the teacher. A list of some of the possible topics are presented to the students, (personal, parental, peer), risk taking, loyalty, ethics, values, tolerance.

    Students will develop conflict resolution strategies and identify types of conflict encountered.

    Format: concurrent development of a large group debate and research paper, (StarkNet). Bring up concept of a mediating tag-team for classroom conflict.

    Students can also utilize films, photographs, internet and role playing and or charts and graphs.
 

    Assessment:

Assess students' enthusiasm for books being read.

Prior to unit request pupils to write down what books and how many they read on the average month. Compare this figure to after unit figures.

Assess pupils level of discussion following readings.

Assess the quality of pupils' projects and collaborative efforts.

Assess pupils' improvement in reading level.

Assess pupils research papers.

Assess pupils trends of improvement, catch them doing something right!!!

Assess multiple choice and T & F tests, (Tests), bi-weekly.
 
 

    Unit 2

    Bias, Stereotyping, propaganda and oppression

    2a. Current Events: The art and history of the comics, (Net Lessons). Lure the students, get them reading. Utilize  the art, history and reading of comics to entice students to read more, increase comprehension levels, reflection  and critical thinking skills.

    Begin with a discussion of comics, the history of comics, visit comic web sites, (History of comic art from cave paintings to Spiderman).  Ask students what major events have been occurring in society and contribute to list on overhead projector or board. Direct students to look at all the pages of editorial cartoons on internet comic web sites. Request your students to find two examples of comics related to current events and bring them to the next days class. In pairs students will find and record of 3 of the events depicted.
    Pupils  may choose to  write a general description of the 3 cartoons for which they are not aware of the specific event surrounding the cartoons creation or write on the significance on one of the cartoons they choose in greater depth.
 
 

    2b.  Forming opinions: Students will be able to form and express in writing an opinion about current news events.
Investigate editorial cartoons as research for students expressing their own point of view through the creation of an editorial cartoon. Ask the students for their opinion about current news story. For example, current events that have transpired in Bosnia or Serbia. Record events on overhead or on the board. Students will use the cartoon as a springboard to write their own opinion or editorial cartoon. Selected students will present their cartoon and read their expressed opinion for making their choice, (Editorial cartoons conflict in the former yugoslavia).
 
 

    2c. Cartoons Go To War, (History Channel Classroom).

    Documentary records the role of animated films in training GIs and entertaining and educating the public during WW II. Interviews with animators and excerpts from the cartoons explore the ways animated films were used to mobilize patriotic feeling and dehumanize the enemy.
    this documentary suggests that cartoons played a role in shaping public attitudes. .

Assessment

Assess students comprehension 20 question T & F test.

Choose a recent movie or television show and write an essay in which you analyze the type of message it conveys.

Discuss what types of beliefs, behaviors, stereotypes, biases or forms of oppression it promotes.

How did cartoon films convey sometimes sophisticated messages? What made certain films successful?
 
 
 

    2c.  "They are not like us!": Teaching about Biases Against Others

    This exercise helps students understand that xenophobic attitudes have existed throughout United States history and that our culture has survived and been enriched by each new wave of immigrants. Student should be aware that these biases have been  expressed in each generation, especially when large numbers of immigrants have come to our country.

Students will be able to analyze and make inferences about the meaning of a speech.

Activity: Students read an updated excerpt from a speech written by a Famous American, (BenjaminFranklin), without identifying the author.

Questions to assist in discussion: What are the issues involved in the  speech?, What is fact and what is opinion?, Why is the speaker concerned?

Pupils comments will reveal their stereotypes.

Students are told that the speech is one by Benjamin Franklin in which they refers to early German immigrants, as opposed to Haitian, Cuban or other recent arrivals.

Write a reflective response paper on this speech.
 
 

    2d.  Propaganda Techniques

    The media has a enormous impact on Americans. Students need to become aware of the influence of the media. The purpose of this activity is to expose students to five different propaganda techniques. This activity will allow them to become commercial directors to make them more appealing to their audience.

    As a result of this activity, students will:
Identify the five propaganda techniques used in the media.
List 5-10 reasons why certain propaganda techniques are used in media.
Write their own advertisements or political endorsements using propaganda technique that will influence others.
Videotape their commercials for public speaking practice.
Write an essay describing how learning to recognize propaganda techniques can help students as citizens and or purchasers of products.

Resources/ Television commercials, old magazines, if possible article found in Level M- celebrations- houghton Mifflin Reading Series. pgs. 308-313.

Present the five propaganda techniques generally used in advertisements. Give definition and examples of each.
    a.  Bandwagon: persuading people to do something by letting them know others are doing it.
    b. Testimonial: using the words of a famous person to persuade you.
    c. Transfer: using the names or pictures of famous people, but not direct quotations.
    d. repetition: the product name is repeated at least 4 times.
    e.  emotional words: words that will make you feel strongly about someone or something, (Senator Joe McCarthy), (World War 1 Propaganda leaflets), (Witchcraft).

Pupils will be assigned to write down political speeches or advertisements they have seen or heard and discuss what type of propaganda technique was used. Pupils will choose one or two techniques and find pictures, advertisements that display their techniques.
Pupils will be assigned to design their own political speech or advertisement.

Assessment

        20 question fill in the blank, T & F and multiple choice test.

        Assess students projects.

        Assess students composition paper.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Illinois State Learning Standards for Late Elementary School Students
 

Problem solving

Students as a result of having completed these two units will significantly improve the pupils problem solving skills and increased their attention span and intensity of concentration. The pupils will be better able to read and listen, comprehend ideas and ask more relevant questions.

Technology

Pupils will have utilized several media and technology related equipment, (vcr, overhead projector, computer programs and utilized  the internet for in search of relevant information.

Communicating

Pupils will have been motivated to express and interpret information and ideas because they will have found the information in units one and two of tremendous relevance to their own lives in the inner city schools of Chicago. Utilizing this motivation and relevance will enhance the communication skills of all inner city students.

Collaboration

Working as a team member has been stressed throughout. Rotating pods, presentations in varied forums, collaboration on research projects, commercials and presentations all contribute to an individual pupils working as a productive member of a classroom.

Connections

These units graphically allow students to questions current beliefs, practices and policies enabling students to make connections and better choices, to develop new options and to explore those safer, non-violent, unbiased options. This unit also to breaks down barriers in the classroom, of race, sex, orientation and beliefs allowing students a unfettered education.
 

Reading strategies:

    This curriculum establishes purposes for reading in the students mind, students will have surveyed materials available on the internet, in the news media and in magazines on numerous occasions. Upon completion of this unit students will be able to ask questions, make predictions, connect and clarify and extend ideas.

Age appropriate material was utilized throughout the unit. A continuous check on a students vocabulary was made through the unit the utilization of fill in the black and multiple choice questions.

Broad range of reading material:

In these units Comic strip art, editorials, news magazine articles, advertisements, web sites,  speeches and television programs were utilized to create the greatest breath and width for this course possible and to enhance the relevance of the course to the pupils.

A student is constantly challenged to use the information in these units to form and refine questions and predictions and to present those opinions and facts through research papers, classroom presentation, artwork and wall collages.
 

       Goal 2

Pupils will understand and be able to identify characterization and the use of narration by having compared and contrasted innuendo, propaganda techniques, political speeches, editorial comments and the creation of their own advertisements.

Students will specifically be able to describe how literary elements, plot, setting, tone and conflict are used in literature.