The highest result of education is tolerance. (Helen Keller)

A WebQuest for 9th-12th Grade (Social science and English lesson)

Designed by

Janos Blasszauer
bjohnny@chello.hu

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion


Introduction

Just imagine that you are a member of a debate group at your school and the group is preparing for a debate tournament which is organised by the ESU.

Prior to the contest you are notified that the debate will be on “Tolerance and Prejudice”.

You get some compulsory readings; fables/stories and other materials from the teacher of ethics, so that you can preapare properly for this great event.

You will work with a partner. You and your partner form a"debate team". Your task is to carry on a discussion, debate on Helen Keller’s statement. Sometimes you will have to be for the issue (the affirmative) and sometimes you will have to be against the issue (negative). You will deliver speeches in a format that is unique to debate. The speeches are called constructives and rebuttals. Each person on each team will speak twice. There are affirmative constructives and negative constructives. There are affirmative rebuttals and negative rebuttals.

 


The Task

In order to accomplish your task well you must do some research and get as familiar with the topic as possible. The tasks are the following:

 


The Process

  1. First you'll be assigned to a team of 4 students.
  2. You will have to read some stories and fables and have to get yourself familiar with the notion of tolerance by visiting the sites which have already been collected for you.
  3. After having developed proper background information on the topic you will be invited to get started for the debate.
  4. You have to think about Helen Keller’s statement and take in pairs an opposite stance and to represent the affirmative and negative sides.
  5. As an alternative you can pick a story and think as if you were one of the characters and try to defend your view (for instance you could be either the peacelike mongoose or the average mongoose) Once you've picked a story and role to play you should start crafting your speech and discuss with your partner how to be as convincing as possible.
  6. When delivering your speech or presentation you could make use of flowchart, summary tables, concept maps, Powerpoint or any other multimedia devices.

Resources

The Peacelike Mongoose http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept/hotpot/mong.html

Stories http://www.oocities.org/bjohnnyus/resources.html

Aesop’s fables http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/sugmoral1.html

Tolerance.org http://www.units4teachers.com/features/013.htm

Lessons in tolerance http://www.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~tolerant/

101 tools for tolerance

http://www.splcenter.org/cgi-bin/goframe.pl?dirname=/centerinfo&pagename=101tools-index.html

European Commission Against racism and Intolerance http://www.ecri.coe.int/

SBS television(Racism is racism) http://www.sbs.com.au/australianeye/

Peace Corps material http://www.peacecorps.gov/publications/field_download.cfm

Manifeste 2000 http://www3.unesco.org/manifesto2000/default.asp?part=IND/BRA/032/JFN

A Human Right’s Approach to Sept. 11 http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/sikkink.htm

How to make your school a prejudice free zone http://www.adl.org/prejudice/prejudice_school.html

Prejudice and Discrimination http://www.adl.org/what_to_tell/whattotell_intro.asp

A season for non-violance http://www.agnt.org/snv02.htm

Encarta World English Dictionary http://www.dictionary.msn.com/

Quotes on tolerance

http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_tolerance.html

Guide documents (on the Web that cover specific skills needed for this lesson):

Learn to debate and coach http://debate.uvm.edu/udl/udlinstruc.html

Powerpoint http://www.fno.org/sept00/powerpoints.html

Virtual Presentation Asistant http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/cwis/units/coms2/vpa/vpa.htm

PowerPoint in the Classroom http://www.actden.com/pp/

Inspiration the visual thinking software http://www.inspiration.com/

English Speaking Union (ESU) http://www.esu.org/


Evaluation

The final evaluation of your work will be based on the notes you make during the research process, and the performance you give at the debate session.


Conclusion

So is an elephant smooth, rough, soft, or hard? Well, when you're blindfolded and only *looking* at one part, it's easy to come up with an answer that may not be completely right. It's the same for understanding a topic as broad or complex as Tolerance: when you only know part of the picture, you only know part of the picture. Now you all know a lot more. By completing this project you might have gained proper insight into the notion of tolerance, prejudice and racism. Nice work. You should be proud of yourselves!


Last updated on 5 January, 2003