Integrated Technology Lesson Plan
Title and Grade level: 9-12
Essential Question: Has the definition of torture changed as a result of current practices in the current war on terror? John Yoo, a key architect of post-9/11 Bush administration legal policy, authored a number of legal memos arguing for unlimited presidential powers to order torture of captive subjects.In a December 1, 2005 debate in Chicago with Notre Dame professor and international human rights scholar, Doug Cassel, Yoo argued that there is no law preventing the President from ordering torture, even to the extent of torture of a child of a suspect in custody.
Behavioral Objectives/Curriculum Standard: Examination of sources and development of an argument using a minimum of six sources to write an essay that defends,challenges,or qualifies the claim that post-9/11 has transformed U.S. policy on the use of torture as ordered by the president. This is an in-class practice of a synthesis question on the AP test and on SATII tests. Synthesis questions requires students to integrate a variety of sources into a coheren, well written essay. Cim Writing standards: EL.CM.WR 01, 02, 03, 04,05,06.
Timeline: Two to four class periods, depending on discussion and close reading of the texts.
Resources:
Source A: 1984, the book,
Source B: unitedstreaming video segment of the film 1984 in which Winston goes to room 101, http://www.unitedstreaming.com/search/assetDetail.cfm?guidAssetID=E3906A79-B42C-4D43-A126-599F5726C11E&tabStart=videoSegments
Source D: Excerpt from Frontline: The Torture Question: Is Torture everJustified? PBS website www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/justify/
Source E: Excerpt from Alfred MCoy’s book, A Question of Torture published in 2006 or excerpt from Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror by Steven H. Miles
Source F:”Torture’s Terrible Toll” Senator John McCain http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10019179/site/newsweek/
Source G: “The Case for Torture,” Michael Levin
http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/torture.html
Source H: “U.S. Doesn’t Condone Torture of Captive Terrorists, Rice Says”
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2005/intell-051206-rferl02.htm
Source I: “Commentary: Behind the Torture Memos”
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/01/05_johnyoo.shtml
Source J: Graphic torture cartoons.htm
Procedure: Students will read the ten documents and view the video clip. They will analyze the resources using the SOAPS technique(subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker/s) in pairs. In groups of three they will use Rabinowitz’s “Rules of Notice” to analyze the video clip and articles by attending to what should be noticed; what is significant; what is predictive; and what is the coherence of the work.Then individually they will develop a question, then change it into a sentence which will become the thesis of their essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies the essential question.
Directions: This prompt requires students to integrate a variety of sources into a coherent,well written essay. Students must refer to the sources to support their position; avoid mere paraphrase or summary. The argument must be central; the sources should support the argument made. Students should attribute in both direct and indirect citations.
Assessment or evaluation: Assessment will be threefold. First, the SOAPS analyses from student pairs will be shared and evaluated for correctness and completeness, the analyses of the videoclips using Rabinowitz’s Rules of Notice will beassessed for completeness of the analysis, and finally the questions and statements that become the thesis statements for the student essays and the essays themselves will be evaluated by using the essay rubric on the 9 point scale used by APCentral.