Afghanistan

Outline of Lesson Plan: ** SUBJECT: ** Social Studies ** CLASS: ** 7th Grade, 70 mins ** LOCATION: ** Afghanistan (South Asia) ** OBJECTIVE: ** 8.02 Describe the role of key groups such as Mongols, Arabs, and Bantu and evaluate their impact on historical and contemporary societies of Africa, Asia, and Australia. ** GOALS: ** As a result of today’s class SWBAT:  - Locate and identify Afghanistan’s geography  - Identify key ethnic groups in Afghanistan  - Reflect on relevant religions/traditions/beliefs  - Analyze the impact each ethnic group has on society  - Develop collaborative oral presentation skills ** MATERIALS: **  - Prezi slideshow  - 1:1 computers (at least one to each group)  - Personal notebooks/paper, pen  - Poster boards, power-point, markers etc. ** PROCEDURE: **  1. Warm- Up (5 mins)  - Have students write the ethnic/religious groups they know of in Afghanistan  - Prezi presentation will be given by the teacher (geography, ethnic groups)  - Have students ask/answer questions about geography, ethnic groups, etc. (War?)

 2. Class Discussion (5 mins)  - Discuss with the class what they recorded as known ethnic/religious groups of Afghanistan and possible reasons why they only know of those.  - Discuss the ethnic makeup of Afghanistan, citing the four primary groups: Pashtuns, Hazaras, Uzbeks and Tajiks. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 93pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 93.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - Break the group up into four groups. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 57pt; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 57.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> 3. Small Groups (20 mins) <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 93pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 93.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - In groups, students should address who the groups are, where in Afghanistan each is found, what their history is, traditions or beliefs unique to their ethnicity, and what role they play in the contemporary society. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 93pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 93.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - Have the students work collaboratively to prepare a 5 minute “creative” presentation on their assigned groups. They are encouraged to research more than just the guidelines above. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 57pt; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 57.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> 4. Presentations (20 mins) <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 93pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 93.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - Each group will present on their ethnic group for 5 minutes. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 57pt; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 57.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> 5. Reflect (20 mins) <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 93pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 93.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - As a class, we will reflect on the presentations given, the similarities or differences, and each way they impact society. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 93pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 93.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - I will ask the students to inquire each ethnicities belief and write down ideas they have that demonstrate what they know about Afghanistan’s politics and how and why these groups might affect the society. Evaluate students based on: - Thoroughness: did they address the important issues?
 * EVALUATION:**

<span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo7; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - Organization: Was the presentation clear, coherent and easy to follow? <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo7; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - The use and discussion of research materials: Did they use a wide variety of sources and cite them in the presentation? <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo7; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - Participation: How well did they participate in the class discussions?

<span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> **Narrative Lesson:** <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> From what I understand my school never touched on Southern Asia; therefore, when I approached 8th grade and the unfortunate events of 9/11, I was taken aback. Being only 30 minutes from NYC, the terrorist attacks hit home. Such a catastrophe aided in my creation of biased views and opinions of places around the world, such as, Afghanistan. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Our students will be coming from different lifestyles, cultures, families, and classes; therefore, to relieve prejudice view points from being exploited in classrooms we must liberate them. I thought starting with a controversial place, like the country, Afghanistan, we, as teachers, would be able to provide our students with useful knowledge and back round information to support and refute opinions. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Afghanistan culture is often overlooked. I, personally, associate Afghanistan with terrorist activities and have forgotten all together that it is a country too and may have more to it than trying to decrease the USA’s power. I would like to start this class off by asking the students to write down views, ideas, religions etc. that they know of and give some reference as to why they believe or know this. Participating in an activity like this will, hopefully, open the eyes to the students. Most students do not know much about Afghanistan so I anticipate this to be a way of intriguing them. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Looking at the general geography of Afghanistan and than looking deeper at the different ethnic groups established there, I could aid in my students inquiry and research of the traditions and beliefs of the groups. Because we had a quick moment to jot down ideas or views we had on Afghanistan and stir up questions, the map might service as motive to question the war on terrorism or even the different ethnic groups. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Breaking the four ethnic groups up into small student assemblies will allow enough time for all to be researched. I hope the students will find the guideline questions to be helpful in their inquiry, but I will encourage their own questions to be researched. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> To end this lesson, I thought it would make the most sense to reflect on the day. Seriously, take a few minutes to think what we knew, didn’t know, and learned, changed etc. The actual social and political societies may surprise a lot of students. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 10.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> I really hope my students take away more than just facts about different ethnic groups and the political life of Afghanistan. I would love for this to be an eye opening experience to stop prejudices.