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LESSON PLAN (Grades 11-12) – STOP HATE SPEECH POSTER

This lesson is designed to allow students to express themselves creatively while learning about the connection between hate speech and genocide. Students will consider how each individual is responsible for confronting hate speech.

OBJECTIVES

By completing this assignment students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate visually a connection between hate speech and genocide.

  • Consider audience and purpose (for creating the poster) in designing a visual message.

  • Express their views with the use of mixed media.

  • Create an appropriate composition that illustrates the dangers of hate speech.

RATIONALE

By completing this lesson, students will find themselves more aware of hate speech and its effects. The UN’s website page on hate speech states the following:

“Hate speech is in itself an attack on tolerance, inclusion, diversity and the very essence of our human rights and principles. More broadly, it undermines social cohesion, erodes shared values, and can lay the foundation for violence, setting back the cause of peace, stability, sustainable development and the fulfillment of human rights for all” (un.org).

TIME EXPECTATIONS

Students will need a full 1-hour class period to design the poster. The above peer-review suggestion can be used as “CAP”- Classroom Activity Prep (a gentler way to refer to “homework.”) They will need another 1-2 one-hour class sessions to create the poster.

LESSON

(See Stop Hate Speech Poster Activity Prompt below)

The following is a step-by-step process. Adapt and/or modify as needed, depending on your own students.

Lesson Day One (1 hour class period)

  1. Hand out the Stop Hate Speech Poster - Thinking Sheet. Give students a few quiet moments to jot down their ideas in any of the boxes on the sheet, without discussion. Students are encouraged to leave room for more ideas that will be generated throughout the discussion.

  2. Share out ideas that have been generated so far. (You may begin by having students share with an elbow-partner first, before sharing with class.)

  3. Click on the following link (or copy and paste into URL): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnbcQT-b8ak

    This will take you to a short (2:23) video clip, entitled “Interview with Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide on Stopping Hate Speech.” Watch the video clip.

  4. Go back and add any new ideas/information onto the Thinking Sheet.

  5. Next, click on following link: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/. Then click on the heading “The UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech” (under Key Documents). In this article it states:

    “In response to current alarming trends of growing xenophobia, racism and intolerance, violent misogyny, anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred around the world, on 18 June (2019), Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech. The strategy recognizes that over the past 75 years, hate speech has been a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide, from Rwanda to Bosnia to Cambodia. As noted by the Secretary-General at the launch” (un.org):

    “Hate speech is in itself an attack on tolerance, inclusion, diversity and the very essence of our human rights and principles. More broadly, it undermines social cohesion, erodes shared values, and can lay the foundation for violence, setting back the cause of peace, stability, sustainable development and the fulfillment of human rights for all” (un.org).

    In listing the 13 Commitments for action, number two states, “Tackling hate speech is the responsibility of all…starting with individual women and men” (un.org).

  6. Go back and add any new ideas/information onto the Thinking Sheet.

  7. Click on the following link (or copy and paste into URL):  https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/teen-voices-hate-speech-online

  8. Go back and add any new ideas/information onto the Thinking Sheet. (There is a Digital Citizenship lesson and a video discussion activity on the CommonSense.org website with the video. If you have time and feel your students can benefit, you may choose to do those activities as well.)

  9. Look at the attached Sample Posters or find more poster ideas on Pinterest to share. Go back and add any new ideas/information onto the Thinking Sheet.

  10. Hand out the Stop Hate Speech Poster Activity Prompt. Review the assignment and the rubric.

Lesson Days Two and Three

Students work on their designs and create their poster. As students design their posters, have them refer back to their Thinking Sheet as well as consider the following questions:

  1. How would you define hate speech?

  2. What do you know about hate speech?

  3. Can you think of any examples of hate speech that you have witnessed?

  4. What do your peers at school need to know to better understand the effects of hate speech?

  5. Who is responsible for stopping hate speech?

  6. What can we each do to have an impact?

  7. If you were to witness hate speech, what might you do? If it is beyond your ability to intercede and speak up safely, who might you go to?

  8. How might you visually demonstrate hate speech and the dangers of hate speech?

  9. How might you visually demonstrate a connection between hate speech and genocide?

You may plan a peer-review for the posters as students plan their designs. One suggestion is that as students design their Stop Hate Speech Posters, you can have them post their plans for their designs around the room (or online). Students can move around to stations (or online posts) and give feedback by posting post-it notes with comments on the posters or the design plans. This is a great way to peer review the posters while they are in the process of being created. Students can decide what feedback to use to improve their final designs.

After the class has created the posters, find places on campus to display them. Discuss the response that students get from their peers.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS

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

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.

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

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.2
Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.3
Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.

English Language Arts Standards » Writing » Grade 11-12

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.