In this lesson, students will address the concept of food as a human right. Students will:
Be able to distinguish between wants, needs and rights
Recognize food as an essential human right
Understand that food is essential not only for physical life, but for family, cultural, spiritual and national life as well.
Develop an understanding of the role food plays in the family, cultural, spiritual and national life of their partner students
Description
Students participate in a brief activity highlighting the difference between needs and wants. Emphasizing that rights are distinguished from needs because they are essential not only for survival, but for the ability of humans to live life with dignity, students will explore the role food plays in their family, cultural, spiritual and national traditions. Students will participate in a jigsaw activity. Students are first broken up into small groups to discuss one major topic (family, cultural, spiritual or national life). New groups are then formed, with at least one member of each original group represented within each new group. Students are then responsible for teaching each other the importance of food for living life with dignity within each of these spheres. Using essential questions as guides, these new student groups will either contribute to a wikispace “Food Heritage Museum” created for all students from each country participating in the lesson (recommended) or, alternatively, may create presentations highlighting the important role food plays in their family, cultural, spiritual and national lives.
Materials
Blackboard
>
* Computer with internet access
>
MS Word or PowerPoint
>
* Email access to participate in forums (not needed for every student, but at least one teacher, student, or administrator address is needed for each school group)
>
Guiding Questions handouts (see below)
Suggested Procedure
Opening:
Teachers divide the blackboard into three sections, labeled “wants,” “needs” and “rights.”
As a class, students give examples of things that are “wants” in life (a car, new clothes, etc). Students attempt to create a definition for “wants” (things that are desired, but not necessarily essential for survival).
As a class, students give examples of things that are needs (food, shelter, medical care, etc). Students attempt to create a definition for “needs” (things that are essential for survival)
Teacher initiates a discussion about the difference between needs and rights:
Is it enough to have our needs fulfilled, to have basic food and shelter?
Do we need more than just subsistence living?
What do you need in life, not only to survive, but to feel human, to live with dignity?
Teachers hand out or post on the board a quote from the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
PREAMBLE
Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world… The peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
6. Why would we highlight the words “dignity” and “worth of the human person?” Emphasis is put on these phrases because human rights protect those things that allow human beings to live life with dignity, not only to survive.
7. According to the UN, why are human rights important? Emphasis is put on the phrase “the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world” because the UN has resolved that human beings must be able to live life with dignity in order to avoid conflict – the absence of human rights is often the root of conflict.
8. Explain to students that sometimes our basic human needs, like food and shelter, can also be thought of as human rights as well.
9. Ask students what their lives would be like if they did not have enough food to eat:
a. How would you feel at school, would you be able to study?
b. What would mealtimes be like at home? How would they be different?
c. What would holidays be like, how would they be different?
10. Explain to students that food in particular is essential not only for physical survival, but it contributes to and plays a major role in our family life, cultural life, spiritual life and national life as well.
11. Explain to students that today we will be exploring how and why food is important in all of our lives, and why it contributes to our ability to live life with dignity. Jigsaw:
1. Divide students into four groups. One group is in charge of exploring the role food plays in family life, one group will explore its role in spiritual life, one group will explore cultural life, and one group will explore national life.
2. Hand out Guiding Questions to each group (see below)
3. Teachers facilitate small-group discussions, assist students in answering questions.
4. Teachers ensure that each student is equally responsible for the knowledge generated by the group. In the second part of the Jigsaw activity, each student will be responsible for explaining his or her first groups’ work to a new group.
5. When all students have answered their questions, teachers redivide the students, ensuring that there is at least one student from each category of exploration (family, cultural, spiritual and national life) in each new group.
6. Students each fold a blank piece of paper in quarters. Students label one section each as family, cultural, spiritual and national life.
7. Students read and explain to each other the importance of food in each of these aspects of life, taking notes on their papers.
8. Students pick one food for each category that they feel is important, and assign responsibilities for acquiring the recipes for each of these foods.
9. Together, students discuss why they think food is important for living life with dignity.
10. Together as a whole class, students contribute to a paragraph explaining the importance of food for living life with dignity. Wikispaces or Presentations:
RI-SOL has set up five new pages on its wikispace, created as Food Heritage Sites. There is one page each for Food in the USA, Food in Afghanistan, Food in Bangladesh, Food in Palestine, and Food in Tajikistan.
1. Students and teachers sign up to become members of the GCYP wikispace, by emailing Naama the following information:
Name
>
# School
Preferred username
Preferred password
2. Once established as members, students may edit each wikispace as desired. Each site has a basic template, with essential and guiding questions about the role food plays in each country included. All pages are linked to each other, and accessible from the main GCYP wiki.
3. Students are asked not to edit the template. They are welcome to edit each other’s comments and content to ensure accuracy, and to add new topics.
4. Students are asked, however, not to remove content merely because of disagreement. They may bring the content up for discussion on each wikispace’s discussion page, or they may simply add another perspective to the page.
5. Students are encouraged to add images and links in their wikispace.
6. Each Food Heritage Site becomes a collective project of all of the students from each country (US, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Palestine and Tajikistan). Students are free to view the wikispace Food page from their partner country, though they are asked to only edit the page for their own country.
Alternatively, teachers may ask their students to create PowerPoint presentations highlighting the role food plays in their family, cultural, spiritual and national lives, and trade these presentations with their partners as usual. As the wikispace increases both teacher and student technological capacity, however, we encourage you to try this new technique!
All groups should complete their wikispace contributions by Friday, January 19, 2007.
Teachers are asked to contact their partner teachers, Naama Haviv AND their RI-SOL country representative when students have completed their contributions. If completing presentations, teachers should email the presentations to their partners, AND the RI-SOL representative so they can be posted on the website. Presentations should be sent no later than Friday, January 19, 2007.
“The Right to Food” forum will be held Monday, Nov. 27 – Friday, Dec. 1
This is an opportunity for your students to ask questions about their partner schools’ findings and contributions. Please have your students go online to your partner country’s wikispace and view their partners’ contributions before participating in the forum.
You can find the forum through the online country website:
January 2007 Lesson Plan
The Right to Food
Grades 6-12
3-4 Class Periods
Objectives
In this lesson, students will address the concept of food as a human right. Students will:
Description
Students participate in a brief activity highlighting the difference between needs and wants. Emphasizing that rights are distinguished from needs because they are essential not only for survival, but for the ability of humans to live life with dignity, students will explore the role food plays in their family, cultural, spiritual and national traditions. Students will participate in a jigsaw activity. Students are first broken up into small groups to discuss one major topic (family, cultural, spiritual or national life). New groups are then formed, with at least one member of each original group represented within each new group. Students are then responsible for teaching each other the importance of food for living life with dignity within each of these spheres. Using essential questions as guides, these new student groups will either contribute to a wikispace “Food Heritage Museum” created for all students from each country participating in the lesson (recommended) or, alternatively, may create presentations highlighting the important role food plays in their family, cultural, spiritual and national lives.Materials
- Blackboard
>* Computer with internet access
>
- MS Word or PowerPoint
>* Email access to participate in forums (not needed for every student, but at least one teacher, student, or administrator address is needed for each school group)
>
Suggested Procedure
Opening:
Teachers divide the blackboard into three sections, labeled “wants,” “needs” and “rights.”
- As a class, students give examples of things that are “wants” in life (a car, new clothes, etc). Students attempt to create a definition for “wants” (things that are desired, but not necessarily essential for survival).
- As a class, students give examples of things that are needs (food, shelter, medical care, etc). Students attempt to create a definition for “needs” (things that are essential for survival)
- Teacher initiates a discussion about the difference between needs and rights:
- Is it enough to have our needs fulfilled, to have basic food and shelter?
- Do we need more than just subsistence living?
- What do you need in life, not only to survive, but to feel human, to live with dignity?
- Teachers hand out or post on the board a quote from the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
PREAMBLERecognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world… The peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
6. Why would we highlight the words “dignity” and “worth of the human person?” Emphasis is put on these phrases because human rights protect those things that allow human beings to live life with dignity, not only to survive.
7. According to the UN, why are human rights important? Emphasis is put on the phrase “the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world” because the UN has resolved that human beings must be able to live life with dignity in order to avoid conflict – the absence of human rights is often the root of conflict.
8. Explain to students that sometimes our basic human needs, like food and shelter, can also be thought of as human rights as well.
9. Ask students what their lives would be like if they did not have enough food to eat:
a. How would you feel at school, would you be able to study?
b. What would mealtimes be like at home? How would they be different?
c. What would holidays be like, how would they be different?
10. Explain to students that food in particular is essential not only for physical survival, but it contributes to and plays a major role in our family life, cultural life, spiritual life and national life as well.
11. Explain to students that today we will be exploring how and why food is important in all of our lives, and why it contributes to our ability to live life with dignity.
Jigsaw:
1. Divide students into four groups. One group is in charge of exploring the role food plays in family life, one group will explore its role in spiritual life, one group will explore cultural life, and one group will explore national life.
2. Hand out Guiding Questions to each group (see below)
3. Teachers facilitate small-group discussions, assist students in answering questions.
4. Teachers ensure that each student is equally responsible for the knowledge generated by the group. In the second part of the Jigsaw activity, each student will be responsible for explaining his or her first groups’ work to a new group.
5. When all students have answered their questions, teachers redivide the students, ensuring that there is at least one student from each category of exploration (family, cultural, spiritual and national life) in each new group.
6. Students each fold a blank piece of paper in quarters. Students label one section each as family, cultural, spiritual and national life.
7. Students read and explain to each other the importance of food in each of these aspects of life, taking notes on their papers.
8. Students pick one food for each category that they feel is important, and assign responsibilities for acquiring the recipes for each of these foods.
9. Together, students discuss why they think food is important for living life with dignity.
10. Together as a whole class, students contribute to a paragraph explaining the importance of food for living life with dignity.
Wikispaces or Presentations:
RI-SOL has set up five new pages on its wikispace, created as Food Heritage Sites. There is one page each for Food in the USA, Food in Afghanistan, Food in Bangladesh, Food in Palestine, and Food in Tajikistan.
1. Students and teachers sign up to become members of the GCYP wikispace, by emailing Naama the following information:
- Name
># School
- Preferred username
- Preferred password
2. Once established as members, students may edit each wikispace as desired. Each site has a basic template, with essential and guiding questions about the role food plays in each country included. All pages are linked to each other, and accessible from the main GCYP wiki.3. Students are asked not to edit the template. They are welcome to edit each other’s comments and content to ensure accuracy, and to add new topics.
4. Students are asked, however, not to remove content merely because of disagreement. They may bring the content up for discussion on each wikispace’s discussion page, or they may simply add another perspective to the page.
5. Students are encouraged to add images and links in their wikispace.
6. Each Food Heritage Site becomes a collective project of all of the students from each country (US, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Palestine and Tajikistan). Students are free to view the wikispace Food page from their partner country, though they are asked to only edit the page for their own country.
Alternatively, teachers may ask their students to create PowerPoint presentations highlighting the role food plays in their family, cultural, spiritual and national lives, and trade these presentations with their partners as usual. As the wikispace increases both teacher and student technological capacity, however, we encourage you to try this new technique!
All groups should complete their wikispace contributions by Friday, January 19, 2007.
Teachers are asked to contact their partner teachers, Naama Haviv AND their RI-SOL country representative when students have completed their contributions. If completing presentations, teachers should email the presentations to their partners, AND the RI-SOL representative so they can be posted on the website. Presentations should be sent no later than Friday, January 19, 2007.Please send your completed presentations to:
US teachers: NaamaTajikistan teachers: Gulshan
Bangladesh teachers: Nazrul and Eather
Palestine teachers: Davina
Afghanistan teachers: Mumtoz
“The Right to Food” forum will be held Monday, Nov. 27 – Friday, Dec. 1
This is an opportunity for your students to ask questions about their partner schools’ findings and contributions. Please have your students go online to your partner country’s wikispace and view their partners’ contributions before participating in the forum.
You can find the forum through the online country website:
Guiding Questions Handouts
Food in Family Life
Food in Cultural Life
Food in Spiritual Life
Food in National Life