Lessons for Grades 11-12
Lesson Five: Making A Difference
Overview
Students respond to a topic that will cause them to reflect upon individual and
collective responsibility for preventing war crimes and crimes against humanity from occurring.
Teaching/Learning Strategies
Students express their personal views on individual and collective responsibility for preventing war crimes and
crimes against humanity from occurring.
1. Students use the various handouts in this resource as well as their own research to prepare a mock justice tribunal hearing.
- Prompt a class discussion using questions such as the following:
- What should the international community do about crimes against humanity?
- What actions should individuals, nations, or the international community take to compensate the victims and survivors of atrocities?
- How can crimes against humanity be prevented in the future (e.g., do we need more laws, more education, more enforcement)?
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- To evaluate student's work, consider awarding marks to students who deliver points for the prosecution or defence and additional marks for the quality of their points. Each tribunal member could be given marks for keeping a point-form record of the arguments and counter arguments.
2. Students write an essay to express their views on preventing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- Have students write an in-class essay or personal position paper on one of the following topics. Have students select appropriate handouts from other lessons to provide background for their essays. Possible topics include:
- What should Canada as part of the international community do about crimes against humanity? How can crimes against humanity be prevented?
- Tragically, crimes against humanity continued through to the end of the 20th century (e.g., Cambodia , Rwanda, and Yugoslavia). While each has its own historic conditions, what do they have in common? What should the international community do about crimes against humanity? How can crimes against humanity be prevented? |
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- Before they begin, work with students to develop criteria to evaluate their essays, for example:
- clearly defines the issue
- explains opposing points of view and supports them with examples
- draws articulate, logical conclusions
- develops and defends a plausible resolution
- includes focused and relevant evidence, examples, and arguments
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Unit Self-Assessment
Goals for the unit are stated in the introduction. The goals encourage critical thinking on issues related to the
content of the unit, with the overall outcome of promoting understan din g of the requirements of a socially responsible
citizen. You might want to have t he students complete a self- assessment such as the Handout 5.1 (Unit Self Assessment)
to identify the extent to which themselves as socially responsible citizens. Encourage them to use work produced during the unit to as part of the evidence to support their ratings.
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