Implementation of ‘The World We Want’ (SOI-RO-557)

Author: SIMA  MARIANA, PROFESOARĂ

Organization/School: COLEGIUL NAȚIONAL ”NICHITA STĂNESCU” PLOIEȘTI, PRAHOVA, ROMÂNIA

I chose to implement the scenario “The world we want”, by Sonia Mendes, because it is suitable for the theme of respecting human rights in contemporary society and offers many opportunities for developing students’ skills in learning activities. In this way, students were actively involved in practicing digital skills and the activities favored the development of critical thinking. They also worked in groups for online research, including the Europeana collections, and prepared for a role-playing debate, thus also developing communication skills. With the support of a secretary and a student in charge of timing, the moderator coordinated the activity and challenged each team by asking questions. After practicing the roles in the debate, the students involved analyzed and evaluated the activity. The activity was carried out in the 10th grade of high school, with 27 students, 17 of whom were girls, aged between 16-17 years.
We are all equal, but … “some are more equal than others”! In this activity, the participants are put in a position to see what it’s like to be someone else in a society, through role play. The themes addressed are social inequity and ethnicity – as sources of discrimination, empathy and its limits. The purpose of the activity is to form critical thinking and interrelationship skills in connection with the problem of discrimination in the school environment, in middle school and high school students. It aims to promote equal rights, diversity and non-discrimination for middle school and high school students, throughout the activity carried out, to forms civic values and attitudes in the spirit of respecting/promoting human rights, throughout life, to form critical thinking and interrelation skills in connection with the problem of discrimination in the school environment, in middle school and high school students. It was applied to 7th grade secondary school and 10th grade high school students, in the History class regarding the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” The students involved are between 13 and 17 years old.
It was applied to 7th grade secondary school (13 years – 25 students) and 10th grade high school student. In the second part of the activity, they were invited to draw card with different roles and to answer some questions, from the perspective of the received role. Later, identifying with certain situation from a given list, they took a ”step forward” or stayed put. The culminating moment was the disclosure of the received role and the observation of the positioning in relation to the other participants. It was interesting that for some middle school students, the man with the most freedom an right was the homeless, and for the high school students – the son of the politician from the ruling party!

The scenario was adapted to be applied to History classes
Pre-debate activities Class activity
After a few lessons introducing the SDGs for 2030, students discuss the theme “The World We
Want” and each student writes an essay expressing their opinion about the world they want.

Students listen to Allan Watts’ video/audio: “What’s Wrong with Our Culture?” and discuss the main
ideas in small groups, which they then present to the whole class.

Group activity
Teacher-student negotiation regarding group members and topics.
Students analyze the guidelines
Students complete a work plan
Subjects/Roles
Activist in the #BlackLivesMatter movement
Activist in the #MeToo movement
Activist in the LGBTQIA+ movement
Human rights monitoring activist
Representative of UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees)
MEP (Member of the European Parliament)
Guidelines: https://www.emaze.com/@AOTOWCFQW/the-world-we-want
Students engage in online research of material related to the topic assigned to each group on
suggested platforms and websites (remotely or at school).
In groups, students discuss the results of their research and organize the information to participate
in a class discussion in teams. Each team chooses a spokesperson to represent.
Debate activities The debate moderators present the topics discussed and ask the teams to prepare
their arguments and interventions of two minutes each.
Each team’s spokesperson plays the assigned role and presents the team’s arguments on the matter
to subjects.
Students debate each other in a role play. 90′
The interaction is predicted which is managed by the moderators of the debate and the re-
sponsible with time (also students).
A panel of evaluators observes, notes, interacts and scores the interventions.
Suggested topics for discussion:
Moderators’ suggestions
There should be a world law that prohibits anyone from being different by creating a human being
usual?
We should support a cause and help if we don’t know vulnerable people and if have they never
helped us?
If there could be only one movement to champion a single cause, what cause would it be? And
why?

At the end of the lessons, the students obtained a portfolio that includes historically and culturally
representative resources related to ethnic, social discrimination and situations related to the
violation of rights, an original story from the role-playing perspective; a comparative and critical view
of yesterday’s and today’s society. They showed empathy towards the situations created and
openness towards the acceptance of diversity and towards the elimination of discrimination of any
kind.

As a result of the implementation of the activity, I could observe the students’ involvement in
the activity of compiling the portfolio of information necessary for the debate and that the group
activity worked. I offered suggestions to the moderators, who, even if they had participated in
debates before, needed guidance for this role. The debate was lively and the students expressed
their desire to use it as an activity for other topics as well.

Link to the learning scenario implemented: The World We Want

Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.

CC BY 4.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Finnish Heritage Agency.