LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE-Why Geography

Teacher arranged Incident Lesson 5

Overview: This is the "plot" episode. The teacher creates a situation while the students are absent from the classroom. The students discover the situation, react, and then are challenged to solve the problem. The teacher chooses the situation according to his/her goals for the unit. A natural disaster or a social dilemma is obvious choices. A flood, earthquake drought or pestilence (animal or tourist) is very great probabilities for this area of the world. A change in the make up of the family (birth, death, and migration) would seriously effect the lives of a Sherpa family due to the degree of cooperation necessary in this land.

Teaching Level

K-12 regular and ESL, vary criteria and resource materials for your group

Connection to Oregon Content Standards

Social Studies
Science

Connection to National Geography Standards

Standards 12 forces of cooperation/conflict among people influence division and control of earth's surface

Materials

Maps if necessary to understand the natural disaster
Books, posters, video, slides
Tour guide books
Nepali stories about family dilemmas
documentary and fiction movies

Objectives

Students are expected to solve a problem in a group
Acquire knowledge of the culture, so the solution is somewhat real
Identify physical features, cause and effect
Make generalizations

Procedure

Possible Scenario I-A change in the make up of the family (birth, death, migration) would seriously effect the lives of a Sherpa family due to the degree of cooperation necessary in this land.

Students arrive in classroom one morning to find all of the village people in and around one house. The father is ill. He realizes he has to slow down and turnover responsibility for family lands to his offspring now or risk letting others decide after he is gone.

Discuss the situation. List possible responses. The teacher chooses from among the possibilities, the ones he/she wants the students to concentrate on. Make sure to include: splitting the property, land, possessions, animals, house; giving it to only one child, dividing land to one animals to another, sending youngest to a monastery; daughter getting married moving away.

Students are given the task of Role Playing their solutions to this problem and led to develop criteria through questioning, such as the following:

The problem has to be clearly stated
The solution must be clearly stated
The process of decision must be shown
Characters must be able to be recognized by audience by sight
Everyone in the group must be included
Presentation of "Play" is 5-10 minutes.

Possible Scenario II A natural disaster choice: A flood, earthquake, drought or pestilence (animal or tourist) is very great probabilities for this area of the world.

Students arrive in classroom one morning to "tourists" camping in tents in a fallow field. One Sherpa having been approached late the night before for permission to pitch the tents for 3 days, provide fresh food, water and possibly guide them to the nearby peak at the end of their stay.

Discuss the situation. List possible responses. The teacher chooses from among the possibilities, the ones he/she wants the students to concentrate on. Make sure to include these possibilities: this family gets all the profits and takes all the responsibility for providing food; the village shares the responsibility and profits; villagers distribute the profits and responsibility according to their ability to provide food, guiding, land for tents, animals for pack; the tourists are ignored; and the tourists are asked to leave.

For either scenario—

Students are given about 15 minutes to decide which course to take and start developing the story. Check on groups to answer questions, resist settling disputes. Groups are them given class time this day and one more, before the day of presentations. Students will need time to work on costumes, props and practice lines at home.

Concluding the Lesson: Students present their Plays.

Discuss solutions. Identify differences. Analyze how the different solutions will affect future life in the village. Infer. Synthesize.

Extending the Lesson

Invite a local Sherpa family to the presentations. Ask guests to clarify any misunderstandings.
Students could prepare debate statements based on the reality of each solution from what the students know about Sherpa life. State the solution and why it fits with some fact of Sherpa life or why it doesn’t fit with facts we know or can find out.

These statements could be read aloud by the groups. Or the teacher could review each statement and give each team an opportunity to spend time writing a rebuttal statement. Then organize a debate of statement-rebuttal readings.

Assessing Students Learning--Evaluate each Play for covering the criteria.