Unit 3 Overview

Unit Three - Societies in Conflict

Key Understandings:

• Great literature provides timeless insights into key themes and events in life. 
• Different text forms, such as essay, short story, poetry, etc, have different structures. Understanding a text's structure helps a reader to better understand its meaning.
• Effective readers analyze and apply different strategies and skills to understand, make predictions and draw conclusions about texts.
• What we read affects how we interpret the events and people that surround us.
• Culture is both a unifying and divisive force.
• Global societies are diverse creating various perspectives, contributions and challenges.
• Speaking effectively is an essential part of communication.
• Different genres have different structures and conventions.
• Writing is an effective tool for presenting social justice and injustices.

Essential Questions:

How do different text structures influence the author's message or intent?
How do texts differ and how should readers approach different types of texts? 
What does a writer gain by telling a story?
How does literature reflect and affect our lives? 
How does literature reflect culture and the cultural differences that lead to conflict?
What are the responsibilities of the individual in regard to issues of social justice?
How are prejudice and bias created? How do we overcome them? 
When should an individual take a stand against what he/she believes to be an injustice? What are the most effective ways to do this?

"No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive."
                 Mahatma Gandhi (Indian philosopher, 1869-1948)

Unit Three - Societies in Conflict

 RESOURCES

Understanding Stereotypes
Race-The Power of an Illusion
Human Diversity Quiz
Persuasive Essay Map
Persuasive Writing

How to Write a Speech
Five Paragraph Essay

Unit Three - Societies in Conflict

INTRODUCTION

Throughout this unit, students will construct, examine and extend the meaning of literary, informative and technical texts through listening, reading, writing and viewing. 
From this, students will come to understand that conflict is a normal part of human interaction. It is even necessary to a certain degree so as to harvest better understandings. In a world that is increasingly interconnected, many nations and communities are divided by race, religion, ethnicities and socio-economics. People and nations often have differing values and opposing goals resulting in disagreement, tensions, segregations, exclusion and sometimes violence. When conflict does surface, it is often in response to misunderstandings and societies' difficulties in dealing with differences. Whatever the origin of the conflict, it is the manner of handling the differences that either provoke or diminish a situation. 

Watch the following Symbiance presentation, to discover how easily cultural misunderstandings can occur. 

Then, consider to what extent this presentation might represent all cultural conflict? 
Keep these concepts in mind as you begin Unit Three, Societies in Conflict.