While classroom participation is only one of the partnership
activities, it's a prominent one and requires careful preparation.
This section provides team members with suggestions for effectively
preparing their classroom activities. Although planning can take
place anywhere, meeting at the school site will give you a feel for
the classroom, students and context. While meeting with your team
partners it is important to consider:
WHO ARE THE STUDENTS?
What is the class size, their ages, grade level and maturity? What do
they know about the law and what are their interests, life
experiences and issues? Your presentation should be related to what
students know and to questions that interest them.
HOW WILL MY SESSION FIT IN?
How will it relate to the course as a whole and to the specific unit
the class is now studying? What will the students be doing before,
during and after my session? A course outline and a copy of relevant
materials used in related topics/studies in class may be useful.
WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO COVER DURING MY
VISIT?
What are the specific goals of the class? Consider what you can do
best in the time available; a meaningful exchange on a topic is
better than trying to superficially cover too much.
WHAT WILL THE STUDENTS BE TOLD ABOUT MY
VISIT?
By carefully preparing the students, your partners can maximize the
use of their contact time with the class. Students that are prepared
and anticipate your visit will get a lot more out of the lesson.
EVALUATION: CAN WE DISCUSS THE SESSION AFTER
CLASS?
Immediate feedback and discussion on the lesson taught is very
useful, and unfortunately, there is often little time after class to
debrief. It is important to take the time to discuss whether the
goals were achieved, what worked and how the class might be improved.
You should encourage feedback from your partners and share your
reactions with them as well. To facilitate this discussion, you and
the team should agree on a follow-up meeting or phone call, or
possibly a one-page form identifying: (1) strengths; (2) problems;
and (3) suggestions for improvement.
HOW WILL YOU FOLLOW UP ON THE CLASSROOM
VISIT?
It is important to discuss and plan a follow-up to the team partners'
visit. By including follow up sessions or activities, the impact and
potential of the session is retained rather than lost. Important
questions to consider are: How do your partners plan to build on your
visit and how can you help? What other resource people or field trips
can be utilized in the lesson plan? What is the next step for the
students? How will the social action part of the plan be monitored?
These activities will add realism and depth.
If you could change any one thing about the world, what would it
be?
Give an ideal example of an ideal human rights objective that you
would like to see accomplished in the world.
Give an example of an ideal objective that you would like to see
accomplished in the community in which you live.
Give an example of an ideal objective that you would like to see
accomplished through the teaching of human rights in the
classroom.
What strengths do you have personally in the area of human
rights?
(e.g. what have you: participated in, read about, given some thought
to...)
After sharing your ideas try to come up with one main outcome that
you can work on during a brainstorming session together. This does
not have to be the project you will work on, but it will help you
practice developing a plan that may give you ideas about how you
could plan for other projects.
You will need to talk together to decide how the curriculum that the
students are already working on meets with your own strengths and
interests in the area of human rights. Or, maybe today's planning
will heavily shape the way you approach the year ahead. Be
idealistic, think about what you really want to accomplish and then
we will have the opportunity together to think about how we might
engage students in the process of addressing that goal.
Choose the one area of interest you would like to focus on:
Think of three connected issues:
Think of ways that each of those issues could be addressed in the
classroom:
Think of all of the resources you could use for this
project:
Think of any problems you might encounter in solving this
problem:
Offer possible solutions for solving these problems:
Write a mission statement and fill in the questions below to the best
of your ability. A mission statement should be both memorable and
applicable. You may want to write it in the form of a student
objective -- what the students will be able to do
after they learn about human rights. Or, you may want to make it
personally directive -- what you will
do to convey human rights to the students.
We will need the following materials/resources to complete this
project in its most ideal form:
This plan meets the following UDHR objectives:
The timeline for this project is:
FALL
WINTER
SPRING
The tasks appropriate for each of us to oversee are:
Community Representative Lawyer Teacher
1.
2.
3.
Lay out your current absolutely "cannot be changed or amended"
scheduling needs with the other team members on the chart below.
Discuss the classroom hours and term schedule. Find a few common
times when there is the possibility that with appropriate notice you
would all be available to interact with the students. Find at least
one common time, not necessarily during work hours, when it would be
easiest to reach one another by phone.
Fill in the school schedule down the left hand side and then chart
your availability times against it. Remember this is not an everyday
commitment. You need to find a time when you can all agree that at
least five times in the year ahead you will get together in the
classroom and share your enthusiasm for human rights action with
students.
school hours
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Other times when you are most likely reached by phone:
NAME TIME
Teacher
Lawyer
Community Representative
To increase the efficiency with which the Partners Program office
staff can contact all participants, please elect one team member to
be the main contact person. This person will be responsible for
relaying messages to the other team members.
Team Communication Link:
Optional Format For Planning Possible Curriculum Topics....
Three connected human rights issues....
Ways to be addressed in the classroom.....
Resources available... and Action! ideas
Possible Problems...
Solutions to problems....
