Title: Nelson Mandela as Hero to South Africans & the World

Rebecca Fitle
3 weeks Grades 9-11
Stage 1 Desired Results
ELA & SS CONTENT STANDARDS
CC_SS Standard:
10.10c Students will examine the policy of apartheid in South Africa and the growth of the anti-apartheid
movements, exploring Nelson Mandelas role in these movements and in the post-apartheid period.
CC_ELA_R Standard:
6. Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the
United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
CC_ELA_L Standard:
1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 1112 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and
expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CC_ELA_W Standard:
2b. Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions,
concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audiences knowledge of the
topic.
11. Create interpretive and responsive texts to demonstrate knowledge and a sophisticated understanding of
the connections between life and the literary work.
d. Create poetry, stories, plays, and other literary forms (e.g. videos, art work).

LPD STANDARDS--NYS TESOL STANDARDS (2006)

E
Standard 1: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for information and understanding.
1.1 Read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, interpret, and analyze information related to academic
content areas from various sources.
1.2 Read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, and interpret information related to academic content areas
from various sources.
1.4 Present information clearly in a variety of oral and written forms for different audiences and purposes
related to all academic content areas.
1.5 Formulate, ask, and respond to various questions forms to obtain, clarify, and extend information and
meaning.
1.6 Make and support inferences about information and ideas with reference to features in oral and written
text.
1.9 Convey and organize information, using facts, details, illustrative examples, and a variety of patterns and
structures.
1.12 Convey information and ideas through spoken and written language, using conventions and features of
American English appropriate to audience and purpose.
1.13 Engage in collaborative activities through a variety of student groupings to read, gather, share, discuss,
interpret, organize, analyze, synthesize, and present information.
Standard 2: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for literary response, enjoyment, and
expression.
2.5 Make predictions, inferences, and deductions, and discuss the meaning of literary works with some
attention to meaning beyond the literal level, to understand and interpret text presented orally and in written
form.
2.6 Read aloud with confidence, accuracy, fluency, and expression to demonstrate understanding and to
convey an interpretation of meaning.
2.8 Create stories, poems, sketches, songs, and plays, including those that reflect traditional and popular
American culture, using typical features of a given genre; create an effective voice, using a variety of writing
styles appropriate to different audiences, purposes,and settings.
2.9 Engage in collaborative activities through a variety of student groupings to create and respond to literature.
Such groupings include small groups, cooperative learning groups, literature circles, and process writing
groups.
Standard 3: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for critical analysis and evaluation.
3.1 Form and express responses to a variety of literary, informational, and persuasive material through
reading, listening, viewing, discussing, and writing; use details and evidence as support.
3.3 Recognize and communicate personal and multiple points of view within and among groups, in discussing,
interpreting, and evaluating information, make inferences about a writers or speakers point of view.
3.6 Speak and write, using the conventions and features of American English, to effectively influence an
audience (e.g., to persuade, negotiate, argue).
Standard 4: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for classroom and social interaction.
4.4 Listen attentively and take turns speaking when engaged in pair, group, or full-class discussions on
personal, social, and academic topics.
4.5 Explain actions, choices, and decisions in social and academic situations.
4.7 Follow oral and written directions to participate in classroom activities, and provide directions to peers in
selected interactions.
4.9 Use appropriate vocabulary, expressions, language, routines, and interaction styles for various audiences
and formal and informal social or school situations, noticing how intention is communicated in different ways
through language in various contexts. Such expressions and routines include asking permis-
sion, making and responding to requests, greeting, making promises, thanking, and apologizing. Such situ-
ations include chatting with friends, participating in group discussions, greeting a principal or other adult,
making purchases, interviewing for a job, and applying to college.
Standard 5: Students will demonstrate cross-cultural knowledge and understanding.
5.3 Interpret and demonstrate knowledge of nonverbal and oral communication features, and understand the
contexts in which they are used appropriately. Such features include gestures, body language, volume, stress,
and intonation.
Understandings: Essential Questions:

That freedom and oppression are often the inverse of one What does it mean to be opressed?
another. What does it mean to be free?
Throughout history people have constructed systems that Can everyone be free at the same time?
oppress other people. Why do some people talk differently from
Oppression can be changed through both individual and others?
collective efforts. How does context impact speech?
Language and movement have profound expressive
capabilities.

Students will know Students will be able to

that institutionalized racism has existed throughout the ...listen, talk, write and speak about apartheid in
world and has been challenged through a variety of means, South Africa and make inferences about the
including the efforts of Nelson Mandela in South Africa historical context of a fictional story of the 1994
(Content). presidential elections in South Africa (Content).

...that language use is dependent on the context of the ...use english pragmatically when speaking and
person speaking and how to cite evidence to support a cite evidence to support a claim in writing
claim (Language). (Language).
Stage 2 Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks: Other Evidence:
Students will complete several written activities that will Throughout the unit the instructor will conduct
be collected by the instructor, who will provide feedback informal assessments of both individual and
throughout the unit. These written tasks will scaffold the groups of students.
two major assessments of the unit, a scene that the students
will write and a final paragraph about why Nelson The instructor will also engage students in
Mandela is a hero. group discussions and share outs that will
indicate their progress in developing English
In terms of language development, students will be language proficiency.
required to develop pragmatic knowledge of english
through the script writing activity and to further develop
their control and usage of the past tense in the final
paragraph writing activity.

Stage 3 Learning Plan

Learning Activities:

1. Stations to develop knowledge of South Africas people, geography & and natural resources and
review vocabulary to describe people and culture from prior units.
2. Students will match descriptions of historic events with pictures to build their own timeline of South
African History and review the construction and use of the past tense in historical writing. Students
will also practice the conventions of pronouncing years in English.
3. Class will engage in a choral reading of Boothroyd, J. (2007) Nelson Mandela: A Life of Persistence,
practice taking notes and continue to work on developing grammatical knowledge of past tense verbs.
4. Students will work in groups to produce written descriptions of authentic photographs from the
apartheid period in South Africa how the policy impacted everyday life while developing their
descriptive vocabulary.
5. In this lesson students will practice following instructions by building a simulation of Nelson
Mandelas prison cell. They will think about injustices in that they have experienced in their own
lives.
6. The teacher will lead students in a dictation adapted from a fictionalized account of the 1994 election
in South Africa, The Day Gogo Went to Vote by Elinor Batezat Sisulu (Author) and Sharon Wilson
(illustrator). Students will be asked to identify verbs in the past tense and make inferences about the
historical context of the story.
7. Students will be placed in groups and read a script inspired by the events from The Day Gogo Went to
Vote. After reading the script with expression and a demonstration of comprehension, students will
further study the pragmatics of everyday English by sorting a series of sentences and saying which
sentence each character would say and why.
8. Students will be placed into heterogeneous groupings and given an illustration from The Day Gogo
Went to Vote that will serve as the inspiration for their own script. On this day students will produce
a written description of their picture and a character list that indicates the character that each students
will play.
9. This day is devoted to character development and language pragmatics. Students will be asked to
choose sentences or phrases that their character would say from a character development handout.
10. On this day students will work in groups to actually put a script together with the assistance of the
character development handout. They will essentially be ordering the phrases on the character
development handout.
11. On this day students will learn about the relationship between the movement of the body and a
 characters lines in acting by watching a video clip from the movie Winnie, starring Jennifer Hudson.
Students describe the actors movements in the scene and then to write down how they will move
while reading their lines.
12. Students will practice acting out their scenes. Teacher will make a video and provide feedback that
students will review as homework.
13. Students will perform their scenes and continue to think about the question: How did Nelson Mandela
change the lives of South Africans.
14. Students will write a paragraph explaining why Nelson Mandela was a hero using evidence that they
have gathered throughout the unit.
15. Students will revise their paragraph about Nelson Mandela as a hero in order to practice some of the
conventions of citing evidence in an argumentative essay.