Learners will identify themselves as belonging to groups which include and exclude others. They will experience, read, research and discuss examples of exclusion and discrimination. They will discover means of conflict resolution and practice methods of bridging the gap between themselves and others locally, nationally and internationally. The plight of refugees as they seek asylum will be used as a case study in human rights.

The learner will:

• identify and describe inclusive and exclusive membership requirements of various groups.
• define and correctly use vocabulary related to inclusion and exclusion.
• describe a historical example of exclusion.
• demonstrate similarities and differences among groups through the use of a Venn diagram.
• write a letter demonstrating another person’s point of view regarding membership in a group.
• use inclusionary techniques to communicate acceptance to someone outside the group.
• reflect on a theme of exclusion in literature and describe how it applies to the reader’s personal life.
• apply conflict resolution techniques revealed in literature to real life situations.
• recognize the importance of all voices being heard in the community.
• describe how the contributions of others in history were an act of philanthropy and contributed to the common good.
• analyze how citizens may become refugees in the absence of human rights.
• identify protections granted through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Learning will be assessed on participation in group activities, activity lists, discussion circles, completion of forms, a letter, written and oral reports, journal entries, the mapping project on refugees, short oral presentations of group work and posters.
  
  
• The final activity will be a reflection paper which has a scoring guide for assessing learning.

Teachers wishing to add a pen pal component to Lesson Four: Refugees and Children in Our World, need to visit the Web site for RESPECT International (www.respectrefugees.org) about two weeks before teaching the lesson to sign up for refugee letters for their students. There is also a handbook available for teachers to order that gives lots of information and a list of useful resources, many of which are free. See Bibliographical References for information.