Tolerance, Discrimination & Equal Rights
Tolerance, equal rights and discrimination awareness have become important offshoots from various human rights and anti-discrimination movements, sparking a global awareness of the importance of peaceful movements to promote equality and multiculturalism. Various peaceful movements incorporate many themes of civil disobedience, found in Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience,” Mahatma Ghandi’s concept of “Satyagraha,” Nelson Mandela’s “Freedom Charter” and anti-Apartheid protests, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and non-violent protests. In this project, students will learn about anti-discrimination activists and movements and explore how intolerance, discrimination and prejudice impacts their countries, local communities and schools. Working in project teams drawn from different countries, students will use humanities and basic principles spelled out by human rights documents to creatively and artistically express their views and the importance of dialogue, tolerance and cultural openness. Project ideas include collaborative screenplays, collaborative rap songs, music videos, original dance, community surveys, poetry, short stories and interdisciplinary research on important people in human rights, anti-discriminatory movements and areas of intolerance such as religion, race, immigration, gender, LGBTQIA+ equity.
• students will learn about anti-discrimination activists and movements • students will explore how intolerance, discrimination and prejudice impacts their countries, local communities and schools. • students will use humanities and basic principles spelled out by human rights documents to creatively and artistically express their views and the importance of dialogue, tolerance and cultural openness
1. Why tolerance matters Students introduce themselves by updating their profiles in TwinSpace or Padlet. When introducing themselves they should include; their country, where they are from, their racial, religious, cultural backgrounds and why cultural and societal openness and tolerance is important. They include one personal story about discrimination of any kind, based on skin colour, gender, religion, sexual orientation etc, either against them or something that they have witnessed. In TwinSpace, a best practice idea is to have the very first “Add a new post” serve as a Welcome Message that reads something like this: Welcome, Students, to our online project area. We’ll use this online classroom to read materials, complete learning activities, discuss ideas and assignments, and meet online at the same time as we work on our “Tolerance matters” project. Please start by going to the Discuss area and post your student introduction. Thanks! Next, each student will comment and reply to the introduction on three posts of his/her peers. Here are three steps for students to introduce themselves and say hello: Hello, Everyone! Example 1: Please post a short introduction in the X Forum. Example 2: Please post a ‘welcome back from the summer break’ message to everyone in the X Forum. Please remember to reply to at least three classmates to practice the Forum. Example 3: After reading this post, please go to the X Forum (see Forum at the top of your screen) and post your introduction. 2. Experience with Human Rights movement and introduction to the topic: Here are some example instructions for the students and ways to introduce them to the topic. Either select from the options below or use your own creative way: 1. Please post a short paragraph in English about yourself and your experience with any kind of human rights movement, peaceful protest or activities that promote multiculturalism and tolerance. 2. Please introduce yourself in five sentences. Include how you feel about a recent issue of intolerance and/or discrimination in your country and provide a link to a video or a resource about it. Tools: Twin Spaces, Padlet
Orientation to this project involves two phases: online, asynchronous materials and a synchronous, “kickoff” meeting to introduce everyone and go over the project and what to do. 1. Background videos for orientation: Important background information for the online, asynchronous phase is below. Post these in TwinSpace and have students watch them before the synchronous meeting. • “Thoreau and Civil Disobedience.” Youtube • “Ghandi: The Philosophy of Nonviolence” Youtube • “Nelson Mandela, Anti-Apartheid Activist and World Leader” Youtube • “‘I Have a Dream Speech’ by Martin Luther King, Jr.” Youtube • “What A Group Of College Students Learned From An Experiment On Privilege” Youtube • Add any other video of anti-discrimination, human rights and tolerance that is relevant to your country Learning Activity: Teachers open a thread discussion topic in TwinSpace for each video and post the following message: “After watching these videos, pick one that caught your attention and made you think. In the discussion thread of the video, describe why you picked this video and in 6-8 sentences, state why the video is important and how it helps with your knowledge of such issues. Synchronous discussion following the video. If possible, students can watch the videos together and in parallel online discussion groups address the following questions: • What is the main message in the video? • Who is the person portrayed in the video? What was he or the group fighting for? • How do you relate to the topic in the video? Is it relevant in your environment? How? Additional orientation activities to choose from: 1. Plan a Scavenger Hunt with 5-6 questions that students answer once they have access to the project. For example: known freedom fighters and human rights activists from the partner countries involved in the project. 2. Post the project types in TwinSpace in a Discussion topic called “My First Thoughts about the topic” and have them post their first thoughts about the topic of tolerance, human rights and anti-discrimination. This will help them brainstorm and think about ideas prior to the first online meeting. 3. Introduce these documents and have students read and discuss the following; what does this means for basic human rights today and are they all included?: Preamble” to the 1945 U.N. Charter (read until Chapter 1) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. Ask students which Article(s) of the Declaration seem to be violated today (in their countries or other parts of the world) and how. Tools: TwinSpace meeting or other teleconferencing tool, Google Stream page, Padlet, Twin Space Forum, Watchtogether tool.
1. European Charter of Fundamental Rights: Teachers play the following video in each class and after watching this, students will collaborate in international teams to complete a task. a. What is the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and why it is important?https://youtu.be/Fceik3nGkxM Questions to ask: • What is the point of the video? • What are the seven areas the European Charter of Fundamental Rights? • What are the issues within these seven areas that occur in your country? • Is discrimination against people with different skin colour, religion, ethnicities etc. an issue in your country? Are the rights in the Charter respected? 2. Collaborative international activity – learning in depth about Fundamental Human Rights: In international groups, students from different schools meet online and explore the seven European Union Fundamental Rights. Students form groups of four, with two students from each country or school. The maximum size of groups should be six students. Students should be allowed to choose the topic which they would like to work on. Students set up their Pages in TwinSpace and work on their topics. First, each group will watch the video of the chosen topic they decided to work from the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist Each group will produce a presentation about one of the fundamental rights. The presentation will include a general introduction to what are European Union Fundamental Rights, and student presentations’ on how this specific fundamental right affects their lives, providing some examples from their environment. The presentation can also be a video or a voice recording, etc. This will depend on the level of ICT skills and availability. 3. Learning about Human Rights and anti-discrimination activists: Following this, each group explores a topic and choses which European human rights activists they would like to research. Students should be encouraged to suggest human rights activists that inspire them, on a national and/or international level. Each group will write a collaborative text on the person they have researched including information on their background, their activities, the impact of their work on society and in general. Students will research and draft a collaborative text. All texts will be collected and edited in an online book which will be then disseminated to the schools and community. Suggested human rights activists in case students do not have their own suggestions: • Malala Yousafzai Born in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai comes from a family of human rights activists. At only 11, she began writing a blog. Over the next few years, she became well-known for her promotion of Education as a right. In 2012, the Taliban attempted to assassinate her. The attack made her world-famous. She went on to share the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at age 17, making her the youngest laureate. Malala is the co-founder of the Malala Fund and continues her human rights activism as she earns her degree from Oxford. • Greta Thunberg Arguably the most famous human rights activist right now, Greta Thunberg travels the world to draw attention to the climate crisis. Only 17 years old, she began her activism in 2018 by skipping school to stand outside the Swedish Parliament calling for action. Other students joined and the movement went global. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and won Amnesty International’s top human rights award. In focusing on climate change, Thunberg draws attention to the fact that the climate crisis is a human rights crisis. • Martin Luther King, Jr. January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968 was an American minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his religious beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. • Andrei Sakharov 21 May 1921 – 14 December 1989 was a Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel laureate, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights. He became renowned as the designer of the Soviet Union's RDS-37, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov later became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union, for which he faced state persecution; these efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms, is named in his honour. • Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist, who employed non-violent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and in turn inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Tools: Google docs for the collaborative text, Madmagz or any other e-book creation tool 4. Other possible activities: There are other activities within humanities and the arts which can be used to look at social issues. Please select one of the following collaborative project ideas to work on: a. Write a screenplay for an event to dramatize a central point about human rights issues b. Write a rap lyric to express how various anti-discrimination and human rights movements impact your country and your partner country and show how these localised issues are part of the larger global movement. Record the lyrics as a music video. c. Create original dance movements to promote tolerance and respect of fundamental rights. Record the dance. These can be separate dances by members of the group put together in one recording. Select appropriate music if you would like. d. Create a community or school survey for at least 50 people to record their attitudes towards the local or national human rights issues movement or another area that involves tolerance and equity. Prepare a presentation to disseminate their results. e. Think about how art can express the European Fundamental Charter of Human Rights or the person you have decided to research as a group. In your group, draw, paint, construct or design works of art such as paintings, posters, photographs, sculptures, tableaux or other art forms. Present these works using museum presentation formats found in . Emaze f. Write a short story in an eBook such as Book Creator dealing with a theme from the charter and the human rights activist you have selected as an international group. Plan the conflict, the setting, the characters, the plot together as a group and write the story using a collaborative wiki such as Wiki.js. Then, select a story from another team and work on solutions to solve the conflict. 5. Presentation of results Students will present the results of their work – research, online magazine, thoughts in an online-meeting and share it on TwinSpace. Tools: Emaze, Book Creator, Loom, Powtoon, Canva, Wiki.js, Twin Space Discussion, Wondershare Uniconverter Music Videos Wondershare Unconverted Music Videos
1. 3-2-1 Exit Card: Teachers will create a Google doc presentation for students to write their exit-card for the project. Each student will be asked to note down three things which they learnt about tolerance, anti-discrimination and human rights movement, two important details and one question they still have. Example tools: Google docs 2. Reflect and Call to Action Students will reflect on the project, what was the value for them being part of it, what changed in their perspective after participating in the project and what actions they think they will take to contribute to human rights movements or movements that protect fundamental rights in their country. Example tools: Padlet, Twin Space discussion topic 3. Students’ Peer Review for one of the Collaborative Outcomes Students rate each group member’s contributions to the group by writing one sentence describing the members’ contributions and a second explaining something they could have done better. This could alternatively be done with points: 3 for excellent contribution, 2 for good contribution, 1 for contributions could have been better, 0 for no contributions made. 4. Teachers’ Evaluation: Teachers write their evaluation for the project by going through a rubric created by the teacher. The evaluations will be shared on TwinSpace page titled: “Teachers’ Evaluation” or emailed to students individually. After the project presentation, teachers can discuss their evaluations. In cases where the project is part of a graded curricula section and to assess individual performance by comments, use an external gradebook such as ThinkWave, which allows teachers to keep track of students’ grades. Students can be invited to view their grades based on their e-mail. Please note that usually projects are not graded by points, but you might want to provide a comment and a constructive feedback to students. To learn more about external gradebooks, read this resource:“Top 13 Online Gradebooks to Make Teachers’ Lives Easier” . Tools: Rubic-Maker, Thinkwave
Documentation: All projects produced will be saved and shared on the eTwinning platform. A newsletter/blog could also be created by students and updated on a regular basis. Dissemination: Virtual “Humanities for the Human Rights Movement” Exhibition Students invite parents, peers and community to a Virtual Exhibition. In the synchronous 1-hour presentation via TwinSpace Meeting, the projects activities will be presented, and students can engage in an online discussion with their parents and community members. The Exhibition could also be done as an entire school event, showcasing the creative works created by project teams. The Exhibition could be recorded and posted to YouTube to continue to spread awareness for tolerance and human rights issues. It might be interesting to use the opportunity and create a call for action where students and parents can donate, participate and learn about human rights current issues (such as migration, Black Lives Matter, anti-discrimination issues and events going on in their local communities and how they can help in promoting them. Play on human rights activists’ lives Following the screenplay activity, students will present the film or play which they wrote together with their peers. The play can be filmed and later shared with the partner class. Tools: eTwinning online meeting tool, PPT, video making tool, Google docs for shared documents Additional Resources Here are some helpful resources for writing discussion questions. Use an aligned verb with Bloom’s Taxonomy levels of learning as pointed out by these examples: “Bloom’s Taxonomy Guide to Writing Questions”“Bloom’s Wheel”“126 Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs for Digital Learning” For tips and instructions for creating questions and moderating/facilitating discussions with learners, review these resources: “Strategies for Engaging Students in Online Discussions”“10 Tips for Effective Online Discussions”“Reasons Students Don’t Participate in Online Discussion & How to Remedy”“Moderation Tips for Online Discussions” “Asking Questions” Writing Online Lessons Writing clear instructions for the lesson is important. Remember, learners will need to know what to do and where. Think of “what, where, how” for each instruction you write for online lessons. Online lessons use the principle of alignment very tightly. This means you start with a learning objective. What do you want learners to be able to do after the lesson? Write it in measurable terms, which means something that can be observed. For example, “to understand” or “to learn about” aren’t measurable. It is more beneficial to use words such as “explain” or “to compare and contrast” or “to differentiate.” To learn more about which verbs to use for writing measurable learning activities, read EC Learn’s “How to Write Measurable Learning Objectives.” For more information about writing online lessons for remote learning, see “Moving Your Teaching Online: Riding the Rush to Remote!”
Additional information
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Age from:up to 3
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Age to:19
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Difficulty:Intermediate