Arab-Israeli Conflict Part I

Transcription

1 Grade Level: 8 th Date: April 25, 2011 LESSON PLAN AND RESOURCES Arab-Israeli Conflict Part I Objectives: SWBAT explain why Jews, Christians, and Muslims all want to possess the city of Jerusalem. Standard: NYS 8 th Grade Curriculum point 10.3.B Materials: Israel note packet and WWII SMART Board presentation (slides 76-82) Introduction: Students will write the homework assignment in their agendas. Teaching Strategies and Accommodations: Test review I will hand back the tests and go over questions that students had trouble on. A lot of students missed questions 1, 8, 23, and 35 so I definitely want to go over those, in addition to any other questions the students want to discuss. Review Activity: Keyword Matching student volunteers will match the vocabulary terms on the right side of slide 75 with the correct definitions on the left side. Afterward, Amy and I will ask them a follow-up question (ex. What organization did the United Nations replace? The Nuremberg trials happened in the same city as what?) This activity has two purposes, to assess the students knowledge and to reactivate their thinking after the two-week break. Socratic Lecture notes and illustrations will be displayed on the board. o Key Ideas: The UN created the state of Israel to give the Jews a homeland and prevent another Holocaust from happening. Giving the Jews land in the Middle East was problematic because there were other people, the Palestinians, living there. Both the Jews and the Palestinians have historic and cultural ties to the land they now compete for. Jews desire Jerusalem because it was the capitol of their ancient kingdom and their home before the Romans drove them out. (Key site: the Western (Wailing) Wall) Christians desire Jerusalem because it was where Christ ministered and died. (Key site: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher) Muslims desire Jerusalem because it was the site where Muhammad ascended into Heaven and returned. (Key site: the Dome of the Rock)

2 o Key Questions Why did the UN create the state of Israel? Why did they place it in Palestine? (Review) Why was the creation of the state of Israel problematic? (Review) Who were the Romans? Who was Muhammad? What holiday did Christians just celebrate (on April 24) commemorating Christ s resurrection? Conclusion: Explain the homework assignment Homework: Finish the Israel note packet (the remaining pages are like a DBQ) Assessment: Students responses during the lecture and activity. Reflection: Amy and I co-taught this lesson, but we spent very little time up front together. Instead, we tag-teamed because it was a better fit for both of our teaching styles than back-andforth dialogue. This lesson could have led to students asking about our personal religious beliefs, but Amy steered them away from that topic. She also avoided talking about religious traditions as much as possible, only mentioning the major ones like Christ s resurrection. I was inclined to take a slightly different approach. I still wouldn t have expressed my own beliefs in front of the class, but I think I might have briefly answered some of the questions she deflected (ex. what do the Amish believe? ) because it was apparent that the students were curious. I also may have summarized all the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions about Jerusalem in a brief narrative, because I think those traditions are interesting. ( King David took over Jerusalem by ordering his men to climb up the water tunnels, like the itsy bitsy spider ) However, that is just a difference of preference. I think either approach would be appropriate and effective. I made a big factual error 3 rd period. I confused Muhammad s story with Elijah s, and told the students that Muslims believe Muhammad never returned when he ascended to Heaven. That is not accurate.

3 Grade Level: 8 th Date: April 26, 2011 Arab-Israeli Conflict Part II Objectives: SWBAT describe the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. SWBAT explain and evaluate the arguments of the Arabs and Israelis in a class debate. Standard: NYS 8 th Grade Curriculum point 10.3.B Materials: Israel note packet and WWII SMART Board presentation (slides 83-86) Introduction: Students will take out their Israel note packets to be checked. Teaching Strategies and Accommodations: Go over the Israel note packet. o Key Ideas: 1. Originally, the UN intended for there to be two states in Palestine, but the Israelis took over most of the land following wars with the surrounding Arab states in 1948 and The Arab-Israeli conflict has been going on continuously for 63 years. o Key Questions: 1. Look at the map on slide 83. What area of land (orange, purple, green, or striped) did the UN give to Israel in 1948? What area did Israel take over after the 1948 war? The 1967 war? 2. Based on the timeline on slide 84, describe the relationship between the Arabs and the Israelis? (Students came up with adjectives like violent, hateful, conflicted, and bad.) 3. Why do you think the timeline ends in 2000? (Was it because the conflict ended then, or because that was simply the date the timeline was printed?) Primary Source Analysis o Fawaz Turki have a student volunteer read the source then ask the class: 1. What was Turki s main point? 2. What does Turki call the Israelis at the end? ( latter day colonial overlords perhaps something Patriots might have said about the British before the American Revolution) o Abraham Tamir again have a student volunteer read the source then ask the: 1. Who does Tamir blame for the violence? (The Arab States) What does he say Israel is not trying to do? (Conquer territory The students had trouble coming up with this one, so I clarified the question by underlining

4 the part where Tamir says Israel s national security has been designed to defend its existence, integrity and security, and not for expansionist territorial aspirations and asking them what does this part mean? ) 2. Do you sympathize more with Turki s point of view, or Tamir s? Why (Just take one or two answers for this one, save the debate for the end.) o Gaza: Israeli forces strike after attack on bus. 1. What is the date on this article? Why is that important? (April 7, 2011, and it shows that violence like this is an issue right now. This surprised a few students, who didn t notice the recent date the first time they read the story) 2. Why did the Palestinians fire an anti-tank missile at an Israeli bus? 3. How did the Israelis respond? What was the goal of that response according to the Israeli Prime Minister? (To deter future attacks) 4. Who started all this? (Great question I got an excellent variety of answers. Some students quoted the bottom line both sides say the other started it, some blamed the Palestinians for shooting first, some blamed the Israelis for provoking the Palestinians by killing three Hamas members, some said who knows, a couple blamed Britain and the UN for creating Israel in the first place, and one even blamed the Romans for kicking the Jews out of Jerusalem 2000 years ago.) Class Debate based on the two extended response questions that the students did for homework (page 12 of the Israel packet.) o First divided the students based on their answers to the first question ( As a person do you agree with or feel more sympathetic to the Israelis or the Palestinians? Palestinian supporters to one side of the room, Israeli supporters to the other.) Give people on each side an opportunity to explain their thoughts without interruption from the other, then open the discussion up to more back and forth debate. o Second, divided the students based on their answers to the second question ( Do you think that the United States should support Israel, support the Arab nations, stay neutral, or act as police regarding the conflict? ) Again, give people in each group a chance to explain their thoughts, then open the discussion up to responsive comments. o *Really encourage the students to think about and articulate why they feel the way they do. If possible, encourage them to consider how their family background, religious beliefs, and (American) culture have influenced their opinions. Conclusion: Remind the students that this is a real and very controversial issue that they are likely to encounter again outside our classroom.

5 Homework: None Assessment: Students responses during the lecture and debate. (We could also have collected the students note packets but they expressed their ideas so well in the debate that we decided we didn t need to.) Reflection: Since I know I ll be curious later, here s how the voting broke down for each class: Question 1 Class Israel Palestine 1 st rd th th 12 5 I think it is interesting how two classes supported Palestine and two supported Israel. For the 1 st and 4 th period class, Amy and I explicitly used the nearly split to illustrate why the issue is so controversial in society, and to show why it is difficult for the US to take action one way or the other. Question 2 Class Support Israel Support Arabs Stay Neutral Act as Police 1 st rd th th This material is not emphasized in the standards, but Amy and I decided to use it as enrichment because A. It s interesting B. It s relevant and applicable to current events and the student s lives C. It s an easy and important issue to encourage the students to think critically about D. We had two free days and little else to do (we finished teaching new material about WWII, but it didn t make sense to move on to the Cold War before the students had finished their research papers. Again Amy and I co-taught this one, similar to the way we taught Monday s lesson.

6 NAME STUDENTS NOTE PACKET 1. Why is Jerusalem, Israel holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims? Judaism Christianity Islam (Muslims) 2. Why is the Western Wall in holy to Jews? 3. Why is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher holy to Christians? 4. Why is the Dome of the Rock holy to Muslims?

7 5. Why did the United Nations give land to the Jews in Palestine in 1947? 6. What happened to the Palestinians living in the land Israelis took over?

8 7. From 1947 to 2000, what is the relationship between Israel and Palestine? 8. Do you support Turki or Tamir? Why?

9 Gaza: Palestine? Israeli forces strike after attack on bus Taken from: BBC News April 7, An anti-tank missile fired from the Palestinian territory hit a bus in southern Israel. The bus had been dropping off schoolchildren and was carrying only one passenger when it was hit. The boy on the bus was critically injured and the driver was also wounded. The bus attackers used an anti-tank missile. The military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement said it carried out the bus attack. It said this was a response to the killing of three Hamas members in Israeli strikes earlier this week. Reports say 45 mortars were fired from Gaza into Israel. In return, the Israeli tanks, helicopters and planes struck Gaza. Following the bus attack, an Israeli plane bombed a compound in northern Gaza belonging to Hamas. Helicopters also machine-gunned a target in Gaza. Four people were killed and some 35 injured in the Israeli strikes. Hamas leaders are believed to have gone into hiding in expectation of further Israeli strikes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take any action necessary to deter attacks from Gaza. In one week in March, at least 10 Palestinians - including several civilians and children - were killed by Israeli attacks. In the same period, militants in Gaza fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel. Despite recent calls for calm, neither side seems to be able to stop firing, our correspondent says. Both say the other started it. 9. Why did Palestinian s send a missile into an Israeli bus? 10. How did the Israeli Prime Minister justify/defend Israel s actions? 11. Who started it?

10 YOU DECIDE 12. As a person do you agree with or feel more sympathetic to the Israelis or the Palestinians? Give reasons supporting your answer. 13. Do you think that the United States should support Israel, support the Arab nations, stay neutral, or act as police regarding the conflict? Give reasons supporting your answer.

11 SMART BOARD PRESENTATION

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