Genocide in Rwanda, Day 4 - Class Recap

Fireworks to start the 2011 US Open, held in New York City, which is where the United Nations meets.

Dear class,

I hope that today was productive for you and your group! I certainly enjoyed reading over your speeches and trying to help everyone revise them. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 21: I can identify the critical components of imperialism.
Communication LT 2: I can use language and style that is appropriate to the content area.
Critical Thinking and Analysis LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Somali Udiida Ceb (Somalia, Don't Shame Yourself)" by Maryam Mursal. Selected because Somalia has a direct impact on why the United States was reluctant to do anything to stop the genocide in Rwanda. Listen to the song here.

AGENDA 12/10/14:
News Brief - John
Hutu Ten Commandments
Peer Review
Group Speech Work

Homework: Read the blog. Revised/edited Rwanda speech due. Bring one copy for me to grade, and your paragraph that your group decided to use for the speech, to work on. The Rwanda resources will help. Next news brief: Ben

News Brief: John had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: AlJazeera.com - Palestinian minister dies during protest. We found Israel and Palestine on our world map packets and talked about the ongoing conflict in the region.

Ben was selected to do the next news brief.

Hutu Ten Commandments: I talked about this right after the news, as yet another aspect in the lead up to the Rwandan genocide that students could write about for the speech:

The Hutu Ten Commandments (1990)

Again, it was not a surprise at all that a genocide occurred, with words like that being used, years in advance.

Peer Review: I passed out a review sheet and went over exactly what everyone should be looking at, as far as their papers being revised. Here it is - if you missed class, please complete it!

Google Drive - Rwanda Speech Peer Review Form

Basically, you need to be sure to talk about the United Nations definition of genocide and the role that imperialism (especially Belgium's classification of Hutus and Tutsis) had in starting the ongoing genocide. Here's the Imperialism PowerPoint again, if you wanted to look in more depth. Hint: you cannot say that Hutus are promoting imperialism against the Tutsis. That's not imperialism at all.

Google Drive - Imperialism PowerPoint

Group Speech Work Time: The rest of the class was devoted to working on the speech in groups. Next class, you will be refining and practicing your speeches. The groups are (some may have six, which means that the group will have four middle speakers on speech day):

1) Gavin, Bhavya, Patrick, Mary, Natalie, Skylar
2) Jillian, Alex D., Devon, Vlas, Nouri.
3) Haley, Brenden, Maddy, Zac T., John
4) Rui, Jovani, Jonathan, Andrew, Alice
5) Nick, Kento, Alex W., Austin, Zac V.
6) Sierra, Alyssa, Ben, Braydan, Jordan
7) Jacki, Blake, Tarence, Kelsey, Tyler

I used the Random.org Sequence Generator to make the groups. :-)

While everyone worked in groups, I tried as hard as I could to look at the papers that were turned in and immediately get them back with feedback. Here were the elements I most commonly saw as being needed for addition in the speeches:

1) Need to mention United Nations definition of genocide, made in 1948, after the Holocaust.
2) Need to connect classification of the Hutus and Tutsis to the legacy of Belgium’s imperialism.
3) Asking the United Nations for something SPECIFIC. Not just “do something.” Say “more troops” “more funding” “more awareness – declare this as what it is: genocide.”

Here are the directions, from last class:

The final assignment for the unit and before break is a speech before a mock United Nations, in class. You will be pretending that it is April 24, 1994 - the actual date that arguments were ongoing at the United Nations Security Council about how to respond to the conflict in Rwanda.

Here's the assignment:

Google Drive: Individual United Nations Rwanda Speech Assignment

As a reminder, this will eventually be a formal speech before break that you give as a part of a group, in front of the class, with myself and another teacher and/or administrator (like Dr. Franco) listening. You are going to need to persuade us to act and do something!

To prepare for this, I passed out a class set of copies of three things:

1) The United Nations definition of genocide, as agreed to by the world in 1949. This is helpful, because if you can persuade the United Nations that genocide is occurring in Rwanda, they HAVE to act (because that's what they agreed to).

2) The Eight Stages of Genocide. I read over the stages, but not all of the content describing them. There is a lot of information that might help you craft your speech! You can certainly talk about every stage of genocide, occurring in Rwanda, up to April 24, 1994. Here are some hints on how to do this.

3) A reading that goes over more of the history in Rwanda, what happened during the genocide, and the end. Remember, you can't talk about anything after April 24, 1994, but you can make predictions as to what will happen if the United Nations refuses to act! The reading is pages 5-10 here:

Google Drive: Rwandan Genocide Speech Preparation Materials

Another resource that might help could be your Cornell Notes, which was on this presentation:

Google Drive: Genocide in Rwanda: The Basics PowerPoint

Please make sure to bring a revised final copy of your speech, for me to grade, next class! Let me know if I can help!