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Lafayette high school
Specially designed world geography for ELLs (80min)
Sophomores/Juniors/Seniors
Spring 2015
Socratic Seminar of Hotel Rwanda
Context: The lesson comes in the third unit of the school year. Students have done an introductory unit
on world geography and a unit on Europe and are now beginning a unit on Africa. Hotel Rwanda is a 2hr
2min movie and will be shown as part of a 6-day unit on Africa. It will also serve as the text for a Socratic
seminar falling on day 4 of the unit. The purpose of showing Hotel Rwanda is to get students thinking
about the role that Europe still plays in Africa in the post-colonial era and the parts that developed
countries more general chose to play during regional conflicts. Furthermore, the film shows ethnic
genocide in a way that demonstrates for students that it is a modern issue and not an isolated event
contained in the Holocaust as some believe. The seminar portion will develop both of these ideas as well
as student skills of questioning and conducting civil discourse.
Justification of Instructional Model: The purpose of a Socratic seminar is to help students
develop their questioning expertise and lead toward a deeper understanding of the text. Furthermore,
students will explore issues of ethnic genocide as they are portrayed in the film Hotel Rwanda. The
content knowledge will be taught through the preparation days in the unit leaving the Socratic seminar to
develop skills essential to social studies and good citizenship like questioning and conducting civil
discourse. Student questioning is important because in the words of Larson of Keiper, “curious students
learn.” Peer pressure and instructional practices like lecture tend to eliminate student questioning in the
educational setting beyond elementary school, but methods such as the Socratic seminar bring it back in a
powerful way. In this seminar students will question the Western/US perspective of the film and the
values the filmmakers choose to portray through discourse and actions between characters in the film.
Socratic seminar discussion of Hotel Rwanda is a good fit because teens are spending a lot of time
watching and talking about both movies and television shows therefore being able to speak about the
issues presented in them is an important skill for them to develop. In this lesson students will be asked to
engage in higher-order thinking about the movie and make inferences about other applications or settings
for its themes. Questioning helps students realize that in order to evaluate and think critically they need to
go back and look at factual information and then make judgments rather then coming to an issue with a
closed mind. Developing these skill first in an oral debate will then help these English Language Learners
craft more purpose driven and complex structures in their writing as well.
Standards:
VA SOLs
• WG.10 students will analyze how the forces of conflict and cooperation affect the division and
control of the Earth’s surface by a) explaining and analyzing reasons for the creation of different
political divisions and b) analyzing ways cooperation among political jurisdictions is used to
solve problems and settle disputes.
NCSS Standards:
• Assist learners in developing the concept of regions as a means to interpret Earth’s complexity
• Challenge learners to examine how the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence
the division and control of Earth’s surface;
Learning Objectives:
• Students will be able to produce a one-sentence definition of genocide on a discussion entry ticket.
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•
Students will respectfully participate in a civil discussion of the film Hotel Rwanda and of
genocide (see rubric for qualitative rubric).
Assessment:
• Entry ticket- formative
o The entry ticket will show whether students have learned the most important content
information from the unit including how cultural characteristics of the region contributed
to the conflict in Rwanda. Feedback will be given electronically in response to student
posts on the discussion board and/or orally in class when the teacher references comments
or introduces questions from the discussion board.
• Discussion participation- summative
o The graded discussion will show the extent to which students have learned discussion
skills and norms needed to conduct civil discourse. Grading and feedback will be given on
the attached rubric.
• Written final word- formative
o Teacher may choose to comment on content of the free write in a margin note, but the
objective is simply to have students writing about and reflecting on their thoughts.
Overview of days leading up to seminar:
Pre-viewing day- Introduction to the region through brief lecture (20min) and student creation of
illustrated maps of the region and Rwanda fact sheet (40min) followed by introduction to movie plot and
key vocabulary (20min). Key vocabulary will be posted online for at home review.
Viewing day 1- Brief review of region information and vocabulary from the previous day while handing
out during viewing worksheets (10min). Play movie until 1hr and 16min. Free write about current
thoughts and feelings until bell rings to be handed in on exit (approx. 10min).
Viewing day 2- Brief review of movie thus far and predictions of what will happen in the second half (1015min). Show remaining 44min of movie and complete extension activity where in students work through
3 stations at 10 minute intervals to determine where the movie took creative liberties and what is
historically accurate. Homework: complete discussion entry ticket and review the grading rubric for
discussion.
Content and instructional strategies for seminar:
The text for this seminar is Hotel Rwanda, which the teacher has on DVD. It will be played through the
DVD player connected to the projection equipment in the classroom or through the teacher laptop if the
DVD player does not work in the days leading up to the seminar. For seminar day the classroom should
be rearranged from its normal pod set up such that the desks are in a circle facing inward with one pod of
6 desks left intact outside the circle at the rear of the room. The teacher should also have a chair outside
the circle within ear shot/easy monitoring distance of the pod in the back. Any student that did not
complete the entry ticket should be directed to the pod in the back to complete the numbers 1-4 of the
entry ticket on laptops and then answers number 5 in a 3-5 paragraph essay to be emailed to the teacher or
printed at the end of the period. The remainder of the students should select a desk in the circle. All
students will be asked to leave their backpacks at the front of the room, thus eliminating distractions.
They will only be permitted to take notes, during viewing worksheets, a pencil, and/or a fidget toy to their
seats (see accommodations). Cell phones are to be turned completely off for the entire block as a sign of
respect for the thoughts of others and the discussion.
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General Plan: (80 min)
Part 1: preparation (15 min)
Seminar procedures should be given orally as follows: The teacher should ask for a student
volunteer to serve as discussion moderator. The moderator will enforce the procedures and remind
students to stay on topic if they get off course. The moderator may also offer guiding questions if
discussion lapses. The teacher will introduce the procedures for the seminar while handing out character
sheets for the movie to help facilitate unencumbered discussion. Students will talk directly to one another
not to the teacher. Students will follow general classroom norms previously modeled of being respectful
to one another and treating others the way we would like to be treated ie. being silent when others are
speaking, using “I” statements, and attacking evidence not people. The teacher should then as students to
share initial thoughts and or questions based on the entry ticket with a shoulder buddy (5min). The teacher
should get students at the back pod working on the alternative assignment while students in the circle are
discussing in pairs. When the teacher is ready they should call for attention from outside the circle and
introduce the first “guiding question” then indicate that they are handing control over to the moderator.
The teacher should take notes on the discussion for testing purposes and, in reference to the rubric, fill out
a running record in order to assign a grade to each student for the discussion.
Part 2: seminar discussion (50 min) Follow procedures outlined above and begin with the first
questions. The moderator should be given an opportunity to introduce or ask for new questions following
discussion of the initial question, but if the discussion stalls the teacher may chose continue with other
questions bellow. Possible questions:
• Why do you think people chose to make this movie and what is the perspective of the writers,
director, and producers of the film?
• European colonial powers held sway over large populations with a small number of troops through
technological superiority and the strategy of "divide and rule". The Belgians pursued this strategy
in Rwanda and the English ruled through division in some of their colonies. What is "divide and
rule" and how was it used in Rwanda? Suggested Response: Divide and rule means to keep control
by setting one group of people against the other. For example, the British were able to rule India, a
country of many millions of people, with a relatively small force by exacerbating divisions
between Muslim and Hindu. The Belgians did the same on a smaller scale in Rwanda by
preferring Tutsi to Hutu. This bred the resentment that later helped fuel the genocide.
• What is necessary for a genocide? A genocide is the effort to exterminate an entire ethnic group,
culture or race by murder, sterilization, rape, relocation, etc. A genocide is never accidental. It is
always planned and requires a hierarchy of command to execute. (In the case of Rwanda, the
extremist Hutu government and its sympathizers probably began planning the 1994 genocide years
before it occurred.) It requires a ruthless government that can crush and silence opposition, rally
an efficient killing force, identify the target group, manipulate the media, and parry any thrusts of
intervention from the outside world. It requires people who are willing to kill and many good
people who stand by and do nothing. Differentiating genocide from large scale massacre and
murder infers that we do place a special value on maintaining the human cultural/ethnic equivalent
of biodiversity. Extinction, cultural or biological, is forever.
• Should the U.S. have taken the lead in getting the international community to intervene to stop the
Rwandan genocide? Suggested Response: Reasons supporting intervention: According to the
commander of UNAMIR, who was the senior international military official on the ground at the
time, five thousand well equipped and determined U.N. troops would have prevented the vast
majority of the murders. Thus, a very small international force would have had a large impact. Just
as Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King elevated the morality of the world community by
their actions, the leaders in power during the Rwandan genocide allowed the level of international
morality to deteriorate. Reasons that the international community should not have
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intervened: Military commanders on the ground are not always the best reporters. There was little
good intelligence from Rwanda. There were no strategic interests in Rwanda for the U.S. or the
international community. For example, Rwanda has no important natural resources. There was an
ongoing civil war and a possibility that international troops would get caught in the cross-fire.
There was no legitimate government to request intervention. Given the fact that the best and most
available troops would be from the developed countries and would be white, it could appear to be
a colonialist venture. Note that the consensus of opinion, now some 10 years later, is that the U.S.
should have intervened. The man who was President of the U.S. at the time, Bill Clinton, has
stated that allowing the Rwandan genocide to continue was a major policy failure. A few years
later, the U.S. led an intervention in the former Yugoslavia which stopped the genocide of
Muslims (ethnic Albanians). President Clinton, in justifying this intervention, cited the failures of
Rwanda and the desire of the U.S. not to make the same mistake twice.
Part 3: Post seminar de-brief (15 min)
• When there are fifteen minutes left in the class period the teacher should call attention to the time
and ask the class to try and reach a consensus about the text.
• When there are ten minutes left those who did not complete the entry ticket should briefly share
what they have been working on during the discussion. After their presentations these should
email their completed work the teacher or print it while the students who debated take out a sheet
of lined paper and write complete a “final words” response, which has two parts 1) a summary of
what was discussed and the consensus the class reached and 2) a reflection on how the discussion
went ie. how well the class followed norms and met expectations. Direct students to leave a blank
line separating these two parts.
• With 5 minutes left in class (use professional judgment to decide when students have had enough
time to write and when is too close to the bell for them to engage in sharing). Do a whip around
and ask volunteers to share one thought from either part of their final words free write.
Resources:
• Character reference sheets for all students
• A small laptop cart for students who did not complete the entry ticket.
• Rubric and running record for teacher
• Fidget toys
• Extra lined paper for students who wish to take notes and do not have any
Differentiation:
This class does not have any students with IEPs or 504s however, if I did have students that
needed more time on assessments I would give them my prepared discussion questions in advance so that
they could prepare responses. Additionally, since this class is designed for English Language Learners,
the character reference sheet should help alleviate some of the difficultly in forming statements and
referencing evidence because they will not have to remember all of these names.
Adaptations:
Although this class does not have any students medically identified as having ADHD I have
decided to include fidget toys as on adaptation for any student who desires one. They have been proven to
help students with ADHD control other more disruptive fidgeting and remain on task and including them
for all students enables a more universal design for learning. Fidget toys in my personal collection include
homemade stress balls, rubber band rings, and pipe cleaners. These items can be silently manipulated
helping students control hyperactivity and limit stress.
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Pre-reflection:
There is a lot going on in this unit and there are many opportunities to miss-step or fall behind. I
have planned for only two days of viewing, which is a tight schedule and could cause problems with the
debate day if we fall too far behind. However, I feel that getting through it quickly will create a better
experience and help with accurate memory during the debate. Fortunately only 45 minutes of the movie
are planned for viewing day two so I feel confident we can keep on track even if we don’t get all the way
to minute 76 on day one. On the seminar day my ideal scenario would be having another teacher, or better
a volunteer from the professional world like a lawyer, come in to model civil discourse for my students
with me. The alternative I currently have is showing a short video that analyzes televised presidential
debates over the years. I like this video because it shows a real-world function of debate and emphasizes
that character and respectful speech are just as important as content in a debate.
Another real concern is that students will not know where to carry the conversation on their own.
Therefore, I have asked students to come up with two questions on their own that they wish to explore
during the seminar. Additionally, the questions I have developed as “backups” reference the movie and
entry ticket enough that if I intervene they should be able to carry a couple turns based on the preparation
alone. However, my goal is to have more student-centered conversation and I intend to employ a long
wait time to accomplish this goal. A long teacher wait-time has been proven through research to increase
the length of student responses, the number of questions students ask, the number of students who
participate, and the confidence with which students speak in general. After I see how the lesson goes in
this format I intend to have a one-to-one debrief with the moderator and see how they felt it went. If they
feel overwhelmed or express difficulty finding a direction for the conversation I may provide some of my
questions to them on notecards in the future or build in more scaffolding for question development in
other areas of the class so that students in general are more prepared to take on the moderator role.
Post-teaching
This lesson is planned for Spring 2015.
Sources:
Hotel Rwanda: A True Story. MGM Home Entertainment, 2004. DVD.
Hotel Rwanda. N.p. Curriculum Project. Curriculum Project, 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
http://curriculumproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Hotel%20Rwanda.pdf.
"Lesson Plans Based on Movies & Film Clips!" Suggested Responses to Discussion Questions in
Learning Guide to "Hotel Rwanda" and "Sometimes in April" Teach with Movies, 13 June 2008. Web. 10
Nov. 2015. http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/hotel-rwanda-answers.html.
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Homework: complete discussion entry ticket on class website by midnight: (It is expected that students
will answer all questions, however, if question five and/or ONE of the questions preceding number 5 are
left blank the student may still participate).
1. What favors does Paul do at the beginning of the movie and why? Do his ideas about favors
change over time?
2. Why is it significant that Paul is ethnically Hutu and Tatiana is ethically Hutu?
3. Why does General Bizimungu finally agree to help Paul even though he refused for most of the
movie?
4. Write a one-sentence definition of genocide based on what you learned from the movie and in
class.
5. Can you think of any other examples of countries where ethnic or religious groups were treated
differently by colonial powers? If not research one. Give a 3-5 sentence summary.
6. Write two of your own questions you want to explore during our discussion of the film.
Other back-pocket questions for teacher use:
A. What does the bearded reporter say to Paul's belief that people around the world would act when they
see the footage of the murders? What do you think he means? Suggested Response: He said: "I think if
people see this footage, they'll say, 'Oh my God, that's horrible,' and then go on eating their dinners."
There are several reasons that might cause this reaction. Here are a few: people would regard the tragedy
as remote from their own lives; people are indifferent to the tragedies of others who are not like them;
people feel helpless to do anything; people are racist.
B. Some of the genocidaires may have thought that they were doing their patriotic duty and protecting
themselves by killing their neighbors. (This doesn't account for the atrocities.) The communists in Cuba
who persecute people for being counter-revolutionary believe that they are being patriotic. In the United
States there have been times when, in the interest of patriotism, the rights of citizens have been abused.
An example is the excesses of the McCarthyite era or when Japanese Americans were interned during the
Second World War. Should ethics limit patriotism? Suggested Response: Ethics are the limits of
patriotism. Any time a person is asked to do something unethical for the purpose of furthering the
interests of their country or their community, they must go through an independent analysis and decide on
their own if their actions are justified. See Principled Decision Making -- How to Get the Results We
Really Want, Maximize our Strength and Power and Be Proud of Our Actions.
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Characters in Hotel Rwanda
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Class Debate : Socratic Seminar Teacher Name: Lee Ann Zies Student Name: ________________________________________ 1 CATEGORY Respect for other students 4 All statements, body language, and responses were respectful and were in appropriate language. 3 Statements and responses were respectful and used appropriate language, but once or twice body language was not. 2 Most statements and responses were respectful and in appropriate language, but there was one sarcastic remark. Understanding of topic The student clearly understood the topic in-­‐depth and presented their information forcefully and convincingly. The student clearly understood the topic in-­‐depth and presented their information with ease. The student seemed to understand the main points of the topic and presented those with ease. The student did not show an adequate understanding of the topic. Information All information presented in the debate was clear, accurate and thorough. Most information presented in the debate was clear, accurate and thorough. Most information presented in the debate was clear and accurate, but was not usually thorough. Information had several inaccuracies OR was usually not clear. Rebuttal and/or direct response to others’ ideas All counter-­‐
arguments were accurate, relevant and strong. Most counter-­‐
arguments were accurate, relevant, and strong. Most counter-­‐
arguments were accurate and relevant, but several were weak. Counter-­‐arguments were not accurate and/or relevant Presentation style Student consistently used gestures, eye contact, tone of voice and a level of enthusiasm in a way that kept the attention of the audience. Student usually used gestures, eye contact, tone of voice and a level of enthusiasm in a way that kept the attention of the audience. Student sometimes used gestures, eye contact, tone of voice and a level of enthusiasm in a way that kept the attention of the audience. Student had a presentation style that did not keep the attention of the audience. Statements, responses and/or body language were consistently not respectful. Raw score x5 = Grade /100 Date Created: Nov 18, 2015 05:11 am (CST)