Learners will design a large visual aid of the continent of Africa to aid younger children in learning about Africa for observance of African-American History Month.

Anticipatory Set:
Give a brief synopsis of Apartheid in Africa. Read the poem, "Betrayed," by Richard Frankland and discuss its meaning. Place a copy of the poem on the wall or board. Students will write about the feelings that the poem evoked in them. Tell them that they will be studying the continent of Africa and many of its countries and that they will produce a wall presentation reflecting their learning about Africa for younger learners to be part of the annual African-American History Month.

Teacher Note: The Web site for the article on Apartheid in Africa and the poem, "Betrayed" can be found in the Bibliographical References.

Class Session One:

• Read excerpts from the book, The Lost Boys of Natinga: A School For Southern Sudan's Young Refugee by Judy Walgren, which tells about the boys without borders who find peace and education at the school after being displaced by war and the philanthropic efforts at the school.
  
  
• Read excerpts from the book, Dream Freedom by Sonia Levitan, about youths sold into slavery and how an American fifth grade student mounted a campaign to save them. This also is about Sudan.
  
  
• Give each learner Attachment One: Our Readings, My Feelings, Our Challenges and have him or her react to each reading. Allow the learners to take the attachment home to finish and show their parents.
  

Class Session Two:

• Share learner responses to Attachment One: Our Readings, My Feelings, Our Challenges and compile a list of what the class would like to learn about Africa.
  
  
• Give each learner a current map of Africa. Familiarize them with key geographic themes as applicable to the continent in general. Identify key physical geographic places and locate nations to be studied. Ask learners to make generalizations about each nation. Discuss key political and economic themes identified in the geography text of your local school district.
  
  
• Discuss with them the nonprofit organizations that they may encounter with the study of their nations. Recall the readings from the day before. Discuss the basic needs for services that non-profits could give.
  

Class Sessions Three through Five

• Divide the class into groups of three to five learners and have them each select one of the following African nations to study: Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, Liberia, Sudan or Somalia. Each group will assign team member tasks and keep a journal of all activities. Each peer member will submit paperwork demonstratinge his or her knowledge in a presentation that will also serve as the assessment for this lesson.
  
  

Give each member Attachment Two: Personal Graphic Organizer to use as their personal graphic organizer for their research. This is to be completed each day.


Instructor's General Directions to Peer Groups:

Assign each team member a different aspect of the nation.

• Learner One will research the geography of their nation.
  
  
• Learner Two will research the history and diversity of the nation.
  
  
• Learner Three will research modern customs including arts and music.
  
  
• Learner Four will investigate government, i.e. tribal, local and national.
  
  
• Learner Five will investigate the development of philanthropy and stewardship, both domestic and international.

Provide opportunity for Internet research, schedule time in the school library/media center, and have adequate resources for research available in your classroom.

Class Session Six. (Add additional session if more time is needed.)

• Each group will present its information to the class. They may choose from one of the following projects for their presentations. Direct the class that all must contain connections to philanthropy.
  
  
  • Write and perform a skit depicting an aspect of life in their nation.
    
    
  • Present the cultural life of their nation, including playing music and inviting a speaker if available in the community. (Miriam Makeba is one artist whose music is available from Amazon.com.)
    
    
  • Summarize the history of philanthropic organizations in their nation and present it on a poster or storyboard.
    
    
  • Create a timeline of history and philanthropy of the nation studied.

Instructor's Note: Contact potential interested partners as recipients of the wall map your learners will create. Donation to an elementary school, preschool, community center program for young children or library are possible choices.

• After the presentations, begin the service project. Reassemble the learning groups. Divide the continent of Africa into contiguous geographic regions and have each peer group select one. Their task is to complete a geo/political map with key features, cultural diversity identifications and connections to the United States, past or present. The class must decide if they are going to use cloth or wood as a mounting surface. At the completion of each section, assist the class in joining the pieces together.

Teacher Note: This can be easily accomplished by making an overhead transparency of the continent of Africa, projecting it onto a large sheet of paper or large cloth (a bed sheet works well), tracing the outline map, and dividing or cuting it into the number of sections to match the number of peer groups. As the pieces are finished they can be reasembled to create a large display map. For permanancy, the pieces can be mounted on cloth or wood.

• When completed, present the class with choices of donation to an elementary school, preschool, community center program for young children or library. After they make their selection, plan with them the celebration. That celebratory event is when your class makes the official presentation of their wall hanging to the recipients. At that time also, each peer group should also repeat their classroom presentations with any additions or corrections they may have made.

• Artists for a New South Africa
  http://www.ansafrica.org/ 
• Desmond Tutu Peace Trust. http://www.tutu.org.
• History of Apartheid in South Africa, The.
  http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html 
• Lonely Planet: Travel in Africa.
  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/africa
• Levitan, Sonia. Dream Freedom. Silver Whistle, October 2000. ISBN: 0152024042
• Physical map of Kenya and a short history can be found at: http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/kenya.html
• Physical map of Cameroon and a short history can be found at: http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/cameroon.html
• Smith, Bradford, Sylvia Shue, Jennifer Lisa Vest, and Joseph Villared. Philanthropy in Communities of Color. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999.
• Walgren, Judy. The Lost Boys of Natinga: A School for Sudan's Young Refugees. Houghton Mifflin Co. (Juv), September 1998. ISBN: 0395705584 (Out of Print)
• Williams, Mary. Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Lee & Low Books, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-1584302322