Class size: 20 sts
Time: 45m
Level: Pre-Intermediate/Intermediate
General
objectives:
SWABT
·
write a composition/essay in class showing how
their individual meets/does not the 3 criteria of a hero;
Language
objective:
SWABT
·
write a few paragraph essay with an introduction,
a body of two or three
paragraphs
and a conclusion. Students will use specific, concrete examples from the life
of the individual to show how she or he meets/does not meet this criteria;
Civic
objective:
SWABT
·
write a persuasive essay about their particular
individual.
|
||||
Procedure:
|
Steps
|
Description:
|
Skills/work
type
|
Time:
|
Warmer:
|
Step
1:
|
Teacher
divides the group in pairs As and Bs, and gives out the slips of paper with
four questions on them. Sts have 3 minutes each to answer the questions in
pairs. Questions are connected to the topic ‘Heroes’. Each of the paper
contains 4 questions. First As ask a question to Bs. Bs start talking about
the first question. When Bs are done then As answer Bs question. Teacher
monitors the time. 30seconds for each question. Handout 1
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Speaking/pairs
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5m
|
Presentation:
|
Step1:
|
Teacher
elicits what the topic of the lesson is and writes the word. HERO up on the
wall. (sts sit in pairs as divided As and Bs) Students brainstorm the
characteristics of a hero. Teacher circles characteristics of a real hero on
the board and gives out the 3 criteria of a hero to the students. Handout 2
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Speaking/class
|
3m
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Practice:
|
Step
1:
|
Teacher
gives out the essay about Lincoln (Handout
3), students read the essay in pairs and discuss how Lincoln meets the
three criteria.
Students
circle the linking words in the essay and the main points of the paragraphs.
(if sts don’t know how to write an essay the handout is the best example).
Elicit
what sts have discussed/done.
|
Reading/pairs
|
7m
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Step
2:
|
Sts
in pairs pick a picture of a hero at random from the slips of paper teacher
provides and discuss what they know about the hero and answer the question if
they think he/she is a hero, why? Handout
4
|
Speaking/pairs
|
4m
|
|
Step
3:
|
Teacher
elicits what students have discussed and gives out the biographies about the
hero. Students compare their predictions. Handout 5
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Reading/pairs
|
4m
|
|
Production:
|
Step
1:
|
Students
work in pairs to write an essay about the hero, if they don’t think the
person in their picture is not a hero let them state why they think so.
|
Writing/pairs
|
15m
|
Step
2:
|
Compare
what others have written. Who is a real hero?
(if
you still have a few minutes left order the heroes according to Most influential
to least influential)
|
Speaking/class
|
7m
|
|
Prior
Preparation
|
Print
out, photocopy and cut out Handout 1, so that you have 10 Bs and 10 As. Print
out and photocopy Handout 2, so that you have 10 copy of it.
Print
out and photocopy Handout 3, so that you have 10 of it; Print out pictures
from Handout 4 (colored), you don’t need to photocopy it. Print out
biographies - Handout 5. (use colored paper in every stage if possible). Have
plain paper just in case. Have a piece of chalk or markers depending on the
type of board you have in the classroom.
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Handout 1
STUDENT
A’s QUSTIONS (Do not show these to Student B)
|
STUDENT
B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to Student A)
|
Handout 2
ELEMENTS OF HEROISM:
1.
Heroism
is not to give up when there are hardships; heroes should try to
go on even if facing challenges.
2.
Heroism
means having a moral quality. They
should be positive; they should do something for helping others, making a
change or improving the conditions of the society. Everyone can help out in
their families and communities, but only a few are celebrated as heroes.
3.
Heroism
is facing serious personal risk. Doing something that might be risky. This doesn’t mean that only those who work in
hazardous jobs, such as firemen, soldiers, or policemen, can become potential
heroes. The greatest value of heroes is
that they confront “dangerous conditions or dangerous enemies and overwhelming
challenges” without fear.
ELEMENTS OF HEROISM:
1.
Heroism
is not to give up when there are hardships; heroes should try to
go on even if facing challenges.
2.
Heroism
means having a moral quality. They
should be positive; they should do something for helping others, making a
change or improving the conditions of the society. Everyone can help out in
their families and communities, but only a few are celebrated as heroes.
3.
Heroism
is facing serious personal risk. Doing something that might be risky. This doesn’t mean that only those who work in
hazardous jobs, such as firemen, soldiers, or policemen, can become potential
heroes. The greatest value of heroes is
that they confront “dangerous conditions or dangerous enemies and overwhelming
challenges” without fear.
ELEMENTS OF HEROISM:
1.
Heroism
is not to give up when there are hardships; heroes should try to
go on even if facing challenges.
2.
Heroism
means having a moral quality. They
should be positive; they should do something for helping others, making a
change or improving the conditions of the society. Everyone can help out in
their families and communities, but only a few are celebrated as heroes.
3.
Heroism
is facing serious personal risk. Doing something that might be risky. This doesn’t mean that only those who work in
hazardous jobs, such as firemen, soldiers, or policemen, can become potential
heroes. The greatest value of heroes is
that they confront “dangerous conditions or dangerous enemies and overwhelming
challenges” without fear.
Handout 3
HEROIC
LINCOLN
A study of
history shows many examples of outstanding generals and political leaders who
showed great courage when they faced dangerous times. To be considered a hero, this person should
have the following: 1. persistence and
not giving up when faced with overwhelming challenges; 2. Possession of moral
courage 3. facing serious personal risk.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, can be
considered a heroic figure for the American public because he possessed these
three characteristics.
On the one hand, Lincoln
faces many challenges in his early life.
His mother died when he was 9 years old. Later his first girlfriend, to
whom he was engaged, died in 1836.
Lincoln was heart-broken and appeared to have a nervous breakdown. In 1843 he ran for Congress and lost in
addition to this in 1848, he ran for re-election and was defeated. Moreover, he
ran for the US Senate and lost in 1858. While looking at this record of
defeats, a person could say that Lincoln was a persistent individual and did
not give up despite facing these setbacks
On the other hand,
Lincoln possessed moral courage. He was born into a poor farming family who
lived in a wooden house and worked on the farm to help his parents. Although his mother died when he was young, she
instilled in him the love of reading books, especially the Bible. Bible and his
love of reading gave him moral courage in face of his defeats. However, after
he became President, he faced a civil war in America. Lincoln declared war in
1861, knowing in his heart that it might be a long war he showed moral courage
by working with Congress to pass the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to free
slaves and directed the Union soldiers in battle against the southern states.
Thirdly, Lincoln
faced personal risk, both physical and political. He chose members of his
cabinet who did not agree with his political views because he thought it wiser
to keep his enemies close where he could see them. His generals faced major
defeats at the beginning of the war. He risked being the first President to be
defeated in war. Not surprisingly, in August of 1863, there was an
assassination attempt on Lincoln by an unknown assailant. On April 14th,
1864, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth as part of a conspiracy to
revive the southern cause.
In conclusion, it
is possible to argue that Lincoln was a heroic figure because he faced possible
military defeat and yet he and his generals held the Union of the United States
together during a civil war. Early in
life he faced personal setbacks and political defeats and yet he thrived in
face of them. In spite of early
political failures Lincoln’s actions persisted in his belief that slavery had
to be stopped in the new states. His
defeats strengthen his belief that slavery must be stopped. Accordingly, he was
elected President by those states who supported this view.
1. Underline
the main idea of the paragraph and its supporting details.
2. Circle
all the linking words.
Handout 4
Handout 5
Ataturk Biography
Ataturk is seen as the father of the
modern Turkish Nation. His image is widely displayed in modern Turkey and he is
revered as person who was able to forge a new nation out of the crumbling
Ottoman Empire.
·
Ataturk was born in 1881 in the now Greek city
of Thessaloniki.
·
He was an able student, and from an early age
he become involved in the burgeoning movement for Turkish independence. He was
part of a movement critical of the old, stale, corrupt Ottoman regime.
·
In the First World War, he served with
distinction, holding off the Allied attack at Gallipoli. He later served with
distinction in Palestine. He was an able military leader, naturally gaining the
respect, admiration and devotion of his soldiers.
·
At the end of the First world war, a harsh
peace treaty was imposed on the defeated Turks.
·
In 1921, it looked as if Turkey
would be occupied by the Greeks. Ataturk persuaded the new national assembly to
fight the Greek invasion. He was given permission and successfully defeated the
Greeks.
·
A year later in 1922, at the Treaty
of Lausanne, Turkish independence was confirmed.
·
Ataturk was a believer and follower of the
renaissance ideals of modern Europe. He saw the new nation as an opportunity to
sweep away the old traditions of the Ottomans. In particular, he wanted to see
a separation between the state and religion. Laws were passed to encourage
secular dress and keep religion well out of politics. His decision to abolish
the caliphate was a key point in diminishing the power of Sunni Islam over the
new nation state. Ataturk was also dismissive of the demands of ethnic
minorities such as the Kurds.
·
Turkey gained a much more western outlook.
Moves to democracy were slow, Ataturk’s power was very great and Turkey was
effectively a one party state. His leadership was sometimes described as an
‘enlightened autocracy. But, his popularity was strong amongst the population
and his vision of a modern secular Turkey was implemented.
·
The modern state faced many challenges both at
home and abroad. In particular the great depression of 1929-31 lead to
widespread economic upheaval. However, from 1931 a mixture of state planning
and intervention helped the economy recover. Turkey was able to survive without
becoming either a Fascist or Communist dictatorship.
·
Ataturk died in 1938 from a cirrhosis of the
liver. He was a bright, intelligent and vivacious man. He had a profusion of
interests from chess to dancing, literature and music. His death was widely
mourned throughout Turkey. His image is still revered today, where it remains a
crime to insult the father of the nation.
·
Ataturk’s legacy remains important in modern
Turkey as modern Islamic parties seek to gain greater influence in the
political process. Even the decision for a woman to wear the traditional
Islamic headdress can be controversial.
·
The 14th Dalai Lama was born Lhamo
Döndrub, the 5th child of a large family in the farming village of Qinghai,
China. At the age of 2, he was picked out as the rebirth of the thirteenth
Dalai Lama and sent for formal monastic training to become a Buddhist monk and
eventually become the spiritual head of the Tibetan people.
·
He became both spiritual and political leader
to a country under invasion and occupation.
·
After several years of Chinese occupation, the
Dalai Lama escaped the country into India. He feared capture by the Chinese so
reluctantly decided to leave.
·
The Dalai Lama has followed a long campaign of
non-violent resistance to the Chinese occupation.
·
In 1987 he proposed a five point
peace plan about the future of Tibet and called Tibet to be made into a zone of
peace. He also secured United Nations resolutions to support the right for
Tibetan self-determination.
·
The Dalai Lama has met with many
representatives of different religions. The Dalai Lama has been keen to stress
the underlying unity of different religions; he has even said he is not keen to
convert people to Buddhism
·
“All major religious traditions carry
basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness … the
important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.” – As quoted in
Especially for Christians: Powerful Thought-provoking Words from the Past
(2005) by Mark Alton Rose, p. 19
·
“I am convinced that everyone can develop a
good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion.”
·
“I don’t want to convert people to Buddhism —
all major religions, when understood properly, have the same potential for
good.” – from Nobel prize acceptance speech 1989
·
He said Pope John Paul II was sympathetic to
his plight, even though he was reluctant to antagonise the Chinese because of
the plight of Catholics in China.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
·
Indian
nationalist leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma
Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, Kathiawar, India.
·
He
studied law in London, England, but in 1893 went to South Africa, where he
spent 20 years opposing discriminatory legislation against Indians. As a
pioneer of Satyagraha, or resistance through mass non-violent civil
disobedience, he became one of the major political and spiritual leaders of his
time. Satyagraha remains one of the most potent philosophies in freedom
struggles throughout the world today.
·
In
1914, Gandhi returned to India, where he supported the Home Rule movement, and
became leader of the Indian National Congress, advocating a policy of
non-violent non-co-operation to achieve independence. His goal was to help poor
farmers and laborers protest oppressive taxation and discrimination. He
struggled to alleviate poverty, liberate women and put an end to caste
discrimination, with the ultimate objective being self-rule for India.
·
Following
his civil disobedience campaign (1919-22), he was jailed for conspiracy
(1922-24).
·
In
1930, he led a landmark 320 km/200 mi march to the sea to collect salt in
symbolic defiance of the government monopoly.
·
On
his release from prison (1931), he attended the London Round Table Conference
on Indian constitutional reform.
·
In 1946, he negotiated with the Cabinet
Mission which recommended the new constitutional structure.
·
After
independence (1947), he tried to stop the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Bengal, a
policy which led to his assassination in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu
fanatic
·
Even after his death, Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and his
belief in simple living—making his own clothes, eating a vegetarian diet and
using fasts for self-purification as well as a means of protest—have been a
beacon of hope for oppressed and marginalized people throughout the world.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
·
Adolf Hitler has become infamous as
a personification of human evil. His name is inexorably linked to the Holocaust
and extermination of Jews and other ‘undesirables’.
·
He is also seen as the principle
cause of the Second World War in which over 70 million people died. Yet, in the
midst of the Great Depression, he captivated a nation with his mixture of
charm, xenophobia, and almost supernatural allure.
·
He was born in Austria in 1889 to relatively
humble beginnings. His early life gave few hints as to his future destiny. He
was a comparative failure and something of loner. He was twice rejected from
his application to study art and after struggling to survive in Vienna, in
1913, he moved to Munich.
·
In his early life he imbibed the
anti-semitic feelings which were common for the times, but displayed little
political interest. On the outbreak of the First World War he joined the German
army and got promoted to Corporal.
·
He survived the war and in 1918 – like
many other German officers – was bitterly disappointed with the perceived
‘betrayal’ of the German surrender and the harsh retribution meted out by the
Versailles Treaty.
·
In 1923, Hitler led his small Nazi party in an
attempted seizure of power – known as the Munich beer hall putsch.
·
Hitler also sought to regain territory lost in
the Treaty of Versailles
·
Until the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942,
Hitler’s war machine appeared unstoppable.
·
Almost until the end, Hitler retained a
fantasy of gaining a last minute victory through imaginary weapons and now
imaginary armies.
·
During the war, Hitler met with his other Nazi
henchman to agree on a plan for the ‘final solution’ of the Jewish problem.
This involved the systematic and complete elimination of the Jewish population.
·
Over 6 million Jewish people died in various
concentration and extermination camps. These camps also saw the deaths of
millions of other undesirables, from Russian prisoners of war to Communists,
homosexuals and Gypsies. It remains a crime of unprecedented scale and horror.
Indira Gandhi née: Nehru; (19
November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was the Prime Minister of the Republic of
India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from
1980 until her assassination in 1984, a total of fifteen years. She was India’s
first female Prime Minister.
·
In 1999, she was voted the greatest woman of
the past thousand years.
·
Born in the politically influential Nehru
dynasty, she grew up in an intensely political atmosphere. Despite the same
last name, she was of no relation to the statesman Mohandas Gandhi. Her
grandfather, Motilal Nehru, was a prominent Indian nationalist leader. and was
particularly influenced by her father.
·
In 1937, she passed the Oxford entrance exam
and studied at Somerville college, Oxford.
·
Between 1947 and 1965, she served in her
father (J.Nehru’s) government. Gandhi was chosen to be the new Prime Minister
of India.
·
In 1971, she led India to a decisive victory
in war with Pakistan; and in 1974, India completed their own nuclear bomb.
·
In the state of emergency, political
opponents were imprisoned, constitutional rights removed, and the press placed
under strict censorship. This gave her a reputation for being authoritarian,
willing to ignore democratic principles.
·
Her son Sanjay Gandhi was also increasingly
unpopular as he wielded substantial powers, such as slum clearance and enforced
sterilisation to deal with India’s growing population.
·
In 1977, against a backdrop of economic
difficulties and growing disillusionment, Indira Gandhi lost the election and
temporarily dropped out of politics.
·
However, she was returned to office in 1980.
But, in this period, she became increasingly involved in an escalating conflict
with Sikh separatists in Punjab.
·
She was later assassinated by her own Sikh
bodyguards in 1984 for her role in storming the sacred Golden Temple.
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
·
He
is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.
·
He was born Michael King, but his father changed his name in honor of the German reformer Martin Luther. A Baptist minister, King became a civil
rights activist early in his career.
·
He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus
Boycott and
helped found the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president.
·
On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize
for combating racial inequality through nonviolence.
·
In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize
the Selma to Montgomery marches
and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago
to work on segregated housing.
·
In 1968, King was planning a national
occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated
on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee.
·
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971,
and as a U.S. federal holiday
in 1986. Hundreds of streets
in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor. In addition, a county was rededicated in his honor.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, M.C., commonly known as Mother Teresa
(26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was a Roman Catholic Religious Sister and missionary who lived most of her life in
India.
·
Mother
Teresa founded the Missionaries of
Charity, a Roman
Catholic religious
congregation,
which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries.
They run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis;
·
In 2003, she was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta". A second miracle
credited to her intercession is required before she can be recognised as a
saint by the Catholic Church.
Mother Teresa said "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By
faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my
heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."
·
In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut,
Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering
a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas.
·
Accompanied by Red Cross
workers, she travelled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to
evacuate the young patients.
·
When Eastern Europe experienced
increased openness in the late 1980s, she expanded her efforts to Communist
countries that had previously rejected the Missionaries of Charity, embarking
on dozens of projects.
·
She was undeterred by criticism about
her firm stand against abortion and divorce stating, "No matter who says
what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work."
·
She visited the Soviet republic of Armenia
following the 1988 earthquake,[56]
and met with Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
PERSONAL BACKGROUND OF NELSON MANDELA
·
Born July 18, 1918 and died December 5,
2013
·
Born to the Thembu royal family. Attended Hare University and studied law at
University of Witwatersrand.
·
Married and divorced 2 times.
·
First wife: Evelyn Mtoke Mase married
1944 divorced 1957
·
Second wife: Winnie Mandela married 1958 divorced 1996
·
Third wife: Graca Machel married 1996 to 2013 [she outlived him]
·
In 1948, he became an member of the
African National Party [ANC]
·
Working as a lawyer, he was repeatedly
arrested for seditious activities to abolish Apartheid, or separation of the
black and white people in housing, education and transportation.
·
In 1961, he founded Umkhouto we Sizwe and led a sabotage campaign against the
apartheid government.
·
In 1962, he was convicted of conspiracy
to overthrow the government and sentenced to life imprisonment.
·
In 1990, he was released from jail after
an international campaign lobbied for his release.
·
In 1994 he joined in negotiations with
de Klerk, the President of South African, to abolish apartheid and hold
multiracial elections in 1994.
·
In 1995, he became South Africa’s first
black President.
·
In 1996, he revised the South African
constitution.
·
In 1997, he created the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses.
·
In 1993, he was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize.
Rosa Parks Biography
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (1913 –
2005) was an African American civil rights activist and seamstress whom the
U.S. Congress dubbed the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement”.
·
Parks is famous for her refusal on December 1,
1955 to obey bus driver James Blake’s demand to give her seat to a white man. She
was arrested.
·
Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee,
Alabama, on February 4, 1913. Her ancestors included both Irish-Scottish
lineage and also a great grandmother who was a slave. She attended local rural
schools and after the age of 11 the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery.
·
In 1932, she married Raymond Parks,
a barber from Montgomery.
·
After a day at work at Montgomery Fair
department store, Parks got on a bus at around 6 p.m., Thursday, December 1,
1955, in downtown Montgomery. She paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in the
first row of back seats reserved for blacks in the “colored” section, which was
near the middle of the bus and directly behind the ten seats reserved for white
passengers. Initially, she had not noticed that the bus driver was the same
man, James F. Blake, who had left her in the rain in 1943. As the bus traveled
along its regular route, all of the white-only seats in the bus filled up. The
bus reached the third stop in front of the Empire Theater, and several white
passengers boarded.
·
After the boycott, Rosa Parks became an icon
and leading spokesperson of the civil rights movement in US. Immediately after
the boycott, she lost her job in a department store. For many years she worked
as a seamstress.
·
In 1965, she was hired by African-American
U.S. Representative John Conyers. She worked as his secretary until her
retirement in 1988. Conyers remarked of Rosa Parks.
· She was selected to be one of the people to
meet Nelson Mandela on his release from prison in 1994.
- In 1996, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom from President Bill Clinton
- In 1997, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal –
the highest award of Congress.
- Rosa Parks resided in Detroit until she
died at the age of ninety-two on October 24,
2005.
Stalin
·
On December 18, 1879, in the Russian
peasant village of Gori, Georgia, Iosif
Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (later known as Joseph Stalin) was born. At age
7, he contracted smallpox, leaving his face scarred and his left arm slightly
deformed.
·
In 1888 his mother managed to enroll him in
church school in Gori.
·
In 1895 A year later, Joseph came in
contact with socialists who introduced him to the writings of Karl Marx and
Vladimir Lenin. Joseph joined the group in 1898.
·
Though he excelled in seminary
school, Joseph left in 1899.
·
In 1901, he joined the Social
Democratic Labor Party and worked full-time for the revolutionary movement.
·
In 1902, he was arrested for
coordinating a labor strike. It was during this time that Joseph adopted the
name "Stalin," meaning steel in Russian.
·
In 1922, Stalin was appointed to the
newly created office of general secretary of the Communist Party.
·
In 1924, Stalin set out to destroy
the old party leadership and take total control.
·
In 1939, Stalin made a seemingly
brilliant move, signing a nonaggression pact with Adolph Hitler and Nazi
Germany.
·
In June 1941, the Soviet Army was
completely unprepared and immediately suffered massive losses.
·
Between 1945 and 1948, he
established Communist regimes in many Eastern European countries, creating a
vast "buffer zone" between Western Europe and "Mother
Russia."
·
In 1948, Stalin ordered an economic
blockade on the German city of Berlin, in hopes of gaining full control of the
city.
·
Though his popularity from his
successes during World War II was strong, Stalin's health began to deteriorate
in the early 1950s. After an assassination plot was uncovered, he ordered the
head of the secret police to instigate a new purge of the Communist Party.
Before it could be executed, however, Stalin died on March 5, 1953. He left a
legacy of death and terror as he turned a backward Russia into a world
superpower.
·
Stalin was eventually denounced by
his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, in 1956. However, he has found a rekindled
popularity among many of Russia's young people.