To inspire others to feel, to notice, to challenge, to take action.
NOVEMBER 2007 – THOUGHTS FROM ZANA BRISKI ("Born into Brothels") |
1.2 Personal & Collective Responsibility
ACTIVITY 1: Google+ Discussion Board~Respond to one of the Essential Questions:
You may want to include a link to a resource, blog, agency, etc. along with your response in order to satisfy our ongoing activity, "to support your learning and the learning of others."
- How can an individual or community take personal or collective responsibility in a society that is indifferent towards injustice?
- What steps can we take to turn our awareness about human rights abuses into sustainable and meaningful social action?
You may want to include a link to a resource, blog, agency, etc. along with your response in order to satisfy our ongoing activity, "to support your learning and the learning of others."
ACTIVITY 2: Building Empathy—Animal Ambassadors Project
Essential Questions:
Each of you will choose a different animal species for which you will be the Ambassador--please let me know which animal you will represent (through Google+). You will research the history of the relationship between humans and their species. Prepare a short oral report or multimedia presentation, indicating why your assigned species should be protected.
Qualities to be considered include quality of research, organization and presentation of material, demonstration of empathy with their species, and overall effectiveness of speech.
Possible multimedia tools:
Pre-recorded presentations can be created with audio recording functions that are available within slide presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint.
This can also be accomplished with online screen capture tools:
Essential Questions:
- Do you think advocating for animals is an important part of social justice? Why or why not?
- Can we draw any parallels between the attitudes we hold toward certain animals and the attitudes held toward groups of people?
Each of you will choose a different animal species for which you will be the Ambassador--please let me know which animal you will represent (through Google+). You will research the history of the relationship between humans and their species. Prepare a short oral report or multimedia presentation, indicating why your assigned species should be protected.
Qualities to be considered include quality of research, organization and presentation of material, demonstration of empathy with their species, and overall effectiveness of speech.
Possible multimedia tools:
Pre-recorded presentations can be created with audio recording functions that are available within slide presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint.
This can also be accomplished with online screen capture tools:
- Screencast-o-matic: recording videos that simultaneously capture your voices and anything on your computer screen (including a slide presentation)
- Podbean: Free podcasting site
- Powtoon: Animated video with voice-over
- Voicethread
- record a Google+ Hangout
- Explain Anything
- iMovie
Behind every great fortune there is a crime
Honoré de Balzac
ACTIVITY 3: Beyond the Scapegoat
(Short Story Reading) Essential Questions:
SCAPEGOAT: The concept of the scapegoat is nothing new. In case you haven't hear the term before, a scapegoat refers to someone who takes the blame for a problem or situation. The term actually dates back to the Bible, where a goat was sent out into the wilderness after a priest had symbolically put the sins of the people on the goat. In some cases, a scapegoat can refer to a group of people. In Social Studies, you learned about Hitler in World War II, he united the Germans using a common foe. He chose Jewish people as the scapegoat to blame for all of the problems of Germany at the time, and used that common foe to create his regime. We see scapegoats in stories dating back to ancient Greek mythology. For example, any time the villages were being threatened, whether by imagined foes like the gods of the whether or by mythical beasts, the villages would sacrifice a young girl to appease the monster. |
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born in 1929 in Berkeley, and lives in Portland, Oregon. As of 2013, she has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many honors and awards including Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud. Her most recent publications are Finding My Elegy (New and Selected Poems, 1960-2010) and The Unreal and the Real (Selected Short Stories), 2012. Audio version of the story, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas #1 The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas #2 http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Biography-70Word.html |
A) Critical analysis of the story, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"
In paragraph form and with reference to the story, provide your thoughts on the questions below.
1. Why does the narrator seem to doubt that we will believe in and accept the description of "the festival, the city, the joy"?
2. What role does the tormented child play in the story? What does he symbolize?
3. How does this story deal with suffering imposed on some people in order for the majority to do well? What role does compassion play in this scenario?
4. In "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" what is meant in the following quote?
"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain."
5. What is Le Guin trying to express to her readers about Omelas in the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas?" Do modern societies, in the interest of maximizing the happiness of the majority, contain the same kinds of trade-offs that we see in Omelas ? What is the implied criticism of modern society?
In paragraph form and with reference to the story, provide your thoughts on the questions below.
1. Why does the narrator seem to doubt that we will believe in and accept the description of "the festival, the city, the joy"?
2. What role does the tormented child play in the story? What does he symbolize?
3. How does this story deal with suffering imposed on some people in order for the majority to do well? What role does compassion play in this scenario?
4. In "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" what is meant in the following quote?
"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain."
5. What is Le Guin trying to express to her readers about Omelas in the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas?" Do modern societies, in the interest of maximizing the happiness of the majority, contain the same kinds of trade-offs that we see in Omelas ? What is the implied criticism of modern society?
GIVENS: CREATIVE ASSIGNMENT
|
"While Le Guin’s story ends with some hope that a few have a soul and mind strong enough to walk away from happiness built on the oppression of the innocent, I feel compelled to long for a different ending, one where a few, a few rise up against the monstrosity of oppression and inequity, to speak and act against, not merely acquiesce or walk away" (Thomas, P.L., n.d.)
B) CREATIVE ASSIGNMENT: Le Guin questions the very nature of modern society by provides a paradigm in which to evaluate it. In her short story, she questions how a nation that is predicated on fairness and equality be sustainable if it comes at the cost of another's happiness? The ending of this short story shows that a few individuals feel so morally appalled that they walk away without helping the child or changing the system. As a society, are we able to move beyond scapegoating individuals or groups of individuals? How can this story be changed for the benefit of all in society? How would you change the ending of this story? For this creative response, I want you to create an alternate ending, story sequel or creative spin-off from this story. Please address one of the essential questions (in your own way) in your response to the assignment. Options:
Look to the "Givens: Creative Assignment" for creative response criteria
|
http://richardxthripp.thripp.com