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LESSON PLAN (Grades 11-12) - RWANDAN GENOCIDE IN CONTEXT  

This activity is designed to give students background information about Rwanda prior to reading Tharcisse Seminega’s memoir, No Greater Love: How My Family Survived the Genocide in Rwanda.

OBJECTIVES

By completing this activity, students will be able to:

  • Compare and contrast Rwanda with their own country of residence.

  • Demonstrate a basic understanding of the physical geography of Rwanda.

  • Demonstrate a basic understanding of the events that led up to the Rwandan Genocide.

  • Articulate the idea that the issues leading up to the genocide were complex and multi-faceted.

RATIONALE

Understanding the culture and history of Rwanda before the genocide will help students to see the complex nature of how the past shaped relationships between members of Rwandan society and how this contributed to the explosive events of 1994.

TIME EXPECTATIONS

This activity may last one to two 1-hour class periods, depending on the needs of your students and the level of response you would like to see.

LESSON

Here are some suggestions for working through this activity.

Option 1. Have students work through the entire activity individually, and at their own pace. Students should share their answers in pairs, small groups, or as a whole class to help address any misconceptions, as needed.

Option 2. Have students work through the activity in a combination of teacher-directed and student-directed arrangements. One possible suggestion:

Do Section 1 individually. After students have recorded their answers to the reflection questions, have students share their answers in pairs, small groups, or as a whole class. Visuals (T-Charts, Venn Diagrams) could be created, comparing the facts of two chosen countries.

Next, work through Section 2. Show the "A very short history of Rwanda" video to the whole class. Watch it straight through to get the overall idea. Then have students spend 10 minutes working through the video, pausing as necessary to get answers recorded.

It would be beneficial to provide copies of the transcript of the video to help students with this process. The copy of the transcript will also support students who need a little extra help.

For Section 3, the video could be watched as an entire class. Then, the students can either write their own answers or discuss them with a partner and record their shared answers. Another option is to answer the questions together, as a whole class.

DEBRIEF:

Given the deep and complex nature of the topic, some debrief time is essential. Make sure to debrief by discussing some of the students’ answers and thoughts. Consider asking them some of the following viewpoint questions after the activity:

  • What issues or concerns do you see as important?

  • What issues exist that you may not have been aware of before completing this activity?

  • What surprised you?

  • What new or slightly altered perspective do you have about any of these issues?

Students may feel more confused or conflicted after having completed the activity than before. This can be a sign of critical thinking when students begin to see the grey areas, the complicated problems that don’t have easy solutions. This is evidence that they can see an issue from more than a single perspective, and they are willing to consider many factors that they may have not been aware of before.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS

English Language Arts Standards » Speaking & Listening » Grade 11-12

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1.D
Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

English Language Arts Standards » History/Social Studies » Grade 11-12

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.3
Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Answer Key available. Please e-mail sandra@alst.org