Teaching Democracy and Diversity:
A Summer Seminar for Caribbean Teachers
University of SouthFlorida
LESSON PLAN
By Jean Aram Avril
Topic:Remembering past atrocities in transitional democraticsocieties
Concept/ Main Idea of the Lesson:
This lesson is intended on one hand to help students understand the concepts of remembrance, past atrocities and “transitional democratic societies”.On the other hand, the students will discover how these concepts can be applied to some countries in Latin America like ChileandHaiti, who have experienced past atrocities and transitional democratic periods.In addition, students will learn how these transitional democratic governments have used a myriad of methods (memorials, museums, monuments, prosecutions, reparations, commemorations and films) to memorialize the victims of past atrocities (assassination, genocide, disappearances,and torture) in order to have theircitizens create a democratic present and future while they are fighting against the traumatic past they have experienced.
Intended Grade Level: 11th-12th
Instructional Objectives:
After teaching this lesson plan, students in 11th and 12thgrade will be able to:
-Define the conceptsremembrance , past atrocities and transitional democratic societies
-Understand and compare past atrocities and remembrance after post dictatorial period inChile, and Haiti.
-Understand thekey role ofmemory in transitional democratic societies.
Methods:
In order to reach the instructional objectives, the following procedures will be used:
- Ask students to visualize movies, hear songs and see pictures related to past atrocities in general and specifically in Chile and Haiti.
- Use concept maps to help the students define the conceptsremembrance,past atrocities and transitional democratic societies, and a Venn diagram to help them compare past atrocities in Chile and Haiti.
- Foster cooperative learning in order to foster peer to peer teaching through digital pictures and geographic maps in relation to the considered countries.
- Choose a thematic approachand differenttimelines of the dictatorships for Haiti and Chile.
Learning Activities Sequence:
Day 1
LessonI: The concepts remembrance,past atrocities, transitional democratic societies.
Length of the lesson: 2 hours.
Set Induction:
- As a hook the students will listen to a Michael Jackson song: Heal the World
- The teacher will ask the students to identify sequences of atrocities in the video and what the author suggests to heal the people affected by these atrocities in the world?
- The students will then share stories of atrocities against human beings they witnessed or heard. Help them to identify the actors, the victims, where the atrocities take place and actions taken to remember the victims and punish the perpetrators.
Learning Activities:
The class willgo to the computer lab to gather information to define remembrance, past atrocities, and transitional democratic societies in relation to Latin America specifically to Chile and Haiti. As for Chile and Haiti they will look for the time line of dictatorship, the leaders in charge at that time, type of atrocities, locations and target people. Finally, they will search how the two countries remember their past atrocities after the dictatorship period.
- Using their research information the students will be working in small groups.
Each group with a coordinator will be given three concept map sheets to define past atrocities, remembrance and transitional democratic societies.
- The teacher will hold a class discussion with the students about their work. He will acknowledge accurate definitions of the concepts andgive each student completedconcept maps that define the three concepts above.
Closure: Are atrocities and remembrance a global phenomenon? Why?
Evaluation:
To assess my instructional objectives the students will answer the following question:
If one of your friends or family members had suffered atrocities, what actions would you take to remember him or her?
Day 2
Past atrocities and remembrance in Chile and Haiti
Length of the lesson: 2 hours
Learning Activities Sequence:
Set Induction:
As a hook, the students will listen the Alan Jackson’s song to show the global characteristic of atrocities and remembrance.
Americans Striving to Help Other Americans
The teacher will ask the students to comment the song related to the twin tower’s crash in relation to the globalization of past atrocities.
Learning Activities:
- The students will be working in small groups. They will get a Latin America map handout to locate and label the geography of past atrocities in Latin America based on their previous research at the lab.
- The students will view a movie about atrocities and remembrance in Chile titled
War on Democracy: Chile
- The teacher will present a PowerPoint lecture about Chile and Haiti.
- Students will work in small groups with a blank Venn diagram to chart the contrasts andsimilarities in atrocities and remembrance between Chile and Haiti under Duvalier and Pinochet.
Closure:
The teacher will close with a discussion that willcompare the relative success of democracy in Chile in relationto a politics of memory of past atrocities, and the failing democratic situation in Haiti connected with a lack of memory regarding past atrocities.
Evaluation:
Have students answer the following questions:
- What are the major similarities between past atrocities and their remembrance between Haiti and Chile?
- Suppose you have to judge perpetrators of past atrocities and give justice to the victims in Haiti or Chile. What will be your decisions and why?
- Explain why remembrance can be considered as a healing process and may favor democracy in transitional democratic societies. Discuss the case of Haiti.
Unit evaluation:
Have students complete one of the following: an essay, a poem, a political cartoon, a song in relation to past atrocities and remembrance.
Materials and resources:
Students’ handouts:
- Blank concept maps on remembrance, past atrocities, and transitional democratic societies.
- Blank world map to label the geography of atrocity in Latin America
- A copy of the PowerPoint presentation about past atrocities and remembrance in Haiti and Chile will be given to each student
- A blankVenn diagram will be given to each student to chart similarities and contrasts between Haiti and Chile
References:
Anonymous. (N.d). Americans Striving to Help Other Americans. Accessed July 20, 2009 from
Anonymous.( n.d) Islam in Latin America and latino muslims. Accessed July 21, 2009, from
Barsalou, J. and Baxter, V. (2007). The Urge to Remember. The Role of Memorials in Social Reconstruction and Transitional justice. WashingtonD.C.
Bicford, L. (no date available) Memory , Memorials and Museums. Accessed July 22, 2009 from F:\Memory, Memorials and Museums - InternationalCenter for Transitional Justice.mht
Chin, P., (n.d) FortDimanche, centre de Torture. Accesed ,July 26, 2009 from
Dupuy,A.(1988, autumn). Conceptualizing the Duvalier Dictatorship. Latin AmericanPerspectives Accessed July 23, 2009, from
Jackson, Michael. (MJJ). (1991) Heal the World. Accessed July 22, 2009 from
Kenneth P, .S. (2006). Memory and Method in the Emerging of Historiography of Latin America’s Authoritarian Era. Latin American Politics & Society 48.3. University of Miami. pp. 185-198.
Linz, J.J. and Stepan, A. ( 1996). Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation. Southern Europe, South America, and Post – Communist Europe. Baltimore: JohnsHopkinsUniversity
Macarena, G. (Aug. 11, 2007). The Place of Villa Grimaldi in Chile’s Democracy. Citizenship, Memory, and Public Space, Paper presented at the American Sociological Association, TBA, and New York City. pp. 05-24.
Pilger, J. ( n.d) War on democracy: Chile. Accessed July 24, 2009 from
Simon, R. I, Rosemberg, S., and Eppert, C.(2000). Between Hope and Despair. Pedagogy and the Remembrance of Historical Trauma. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield publisher.
Stern, S.J. (2004). Remembering Pinochet’s Chile: On the Eve of London, 1998. Durham: Duke University.