Quebec Competencies Chart - Hate or Debate?
Author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts
Level: Grades 8 – 10
Lesson Length: 2 – 3 hours
Subject Area: Hate and racism online
Lesson Link: http://mediasmarts.ca/lessonplan/hate-or-debate-lesson
Description: In this lesson, students learn about the difference between legitimate debate on a political issue and arguments that are based on hate. Through a science-fiction scenario they see how a controversial issue can be discussed rationally, and then learn how purveyors of "reasonable racism" use the trappings of legitimate debate to conceal their true message. Finally, students read newspaper editorials and letters to the editor to see whether a currently controversial debate is characterized by legitimate debate or by ideologies of hate.
Cross-curricular Competencies |
Broad Areas of Learning |
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This lesson satisfies the following Competencies from the Quebec Education Program:
English Language Arts
Uses language/talk to communicate and learn
Establishes a repertoire of resources for communicating and learning in specific contexts
- Investigates the affordances of spoken language as a mode of communication
- Examines some of the aesthetic qualities of spoken language
- Develops rhetorical strategies to achieve specific purposes
- Examines the affordances of genres
- Extends the range of strategies for collecting the data needed for use in specific genres
Participates in the social practices of the classroom and community in specific contexts
- Investigates the uses of spoken language in the school and community
- Plans and carries out independent units of study
- Conducts exploratory ethnographic research
- Organizes and maintains an integrated profile of work over the cycle
- Engages in a process of self-evaluation and reflection
- Confers with the teacher in regular and ongoing evaluation conferences
Interacts with peers and teacher in specific contexts
- Collaborates with peers to construct knowledge about how things are done
- Participates in collaborative action research groups using an inquiry process
- Applies procedural and meaningmaking strategies to achieve a purpose
- Contributes to team efforts as an interactive and critical listener
Reads and listens to written, spoken and media texts
Integrates reading profile, stance and strategies to make sense of a text in a specific context
- Reads for pleasure and to learn
- Draws on prior experience and the features of a genre to make sense of a text
- Adjusts reading strategies and stance to the context
- Develops research and organizational strategies for working with information
Talks about own response to a text within a classroom community
- Deepens own meaning(s) of a text in discussions with other readers
- Situates meanings within own experiences and the world of the text, in order to transform initial readings into more conscious interpretations
- Considers possible reasons for own responses and the responses of others to clarify and reshape the relationship between self as reader and the text
- Shares Integrated Profile in teacher-student conferences
Interprets the relationship(s) between reader, text and context in light of own response(s)
- Explains the impact of a text on self as reader by returning to its social functions, as well as the way meanings and messages are constructed
- Draws on own reading profile, including knowledge of textual structures and features, to locate textual details that support own interpretations
- Constructs interpretations that embody both own world and the world of the text
Produces texts for personal and social purposes
Extends repertoire of resources for producing texts
- Immerses self in texts to learn how they are constructed
- Investigates the codes and conventions of various genres
- Creates criteria for what makes text(s) effective
- Examines the affordances of different modes and genres to make production decisions
- Uses models of different texts to apply chosen features in own work
- Applies codes and conventions of written and media language
- Compares own style in relation to other writers/producers
- Develops standards for using language responsibly to represent people, events and ideas
Constructs a relationship between writer/producer, text and context
- Understands that all texts are constructed in specific contexts for specific audiences and purposes
- Researches as a writer/producer to become more informed, to create authentic contexts and to characterize an audience
- Assumes various roles in own productions
- Analyzes the elements of the context and shapes the text accordingly
- Examines the differences between producing texts for public and private spaces.
Adapts a process to produce texts in specific contexts
- Participates both individually and collaboratively in different recursive phases of the production process
- Confers regularly with peers and teacher throughout the production process
- Uses feedback strategies to improve own productions and support peers
- Reflects on own development as a writer/producer over time
- Monitors own learning
- Cultivates a variety of media and writerly practices
- Explores a variety of avenues for wider publication
Ethics and Religious Culture
Reflects on ethical questions
Analyzes a situation from an ethical point of view
- Describes a situation and puts it into context
- Formulates a related ethical question
- Compares points of view
- Explains tensions or conflicting values
- Compares the situation with similar situations
- Compares his/her analysis of the situation with that of his/her classmates
Examines a variety of cultural, moral, religious, scientific or social references
- Finds the main references present in different points of view
- Looks for the role and the meaning of these references
- Considers other references
- Compares the meaning of the main references in different contexts
Evaluates options or possible actions
- Suggests options or possible actions
- Studies the effects of these options or actions on oneself, others or the situation
- Chooses options or actions that foster community life
- Reflects on the factors that influenced these choices
Engages in dialogue
Organizes his/her thinking
- Identifies the subject of dialogue
- Makes connections between prior knowledge and new knowledge
- Distinguishes between what is essential and what is secondary in the different points of view expressed
- Takes stock of his/her reflections
Develops a substantiated point of view
- Uses his/her resources and looks for information about the subject of dialogue
- Develops further his/her understanding of different points of view
- Imagines various hypotheses
- Fleshes out a point of view
- Anticipates objections and necessary clarifications
- Validates his/her point of view
- Reflects on his/her process
Interacts with others
- Develops an awareness of his/her reaction to the subject of dialogue
- Looks for conditions that foster dialogue
- Expresses his/her point of view and pays attention to others' views
- Explains different points of view, using relevant and coherent arguments
- Asks for clarification
- Implements means to overcome obstacles to dialogue