Lesson Plans

Ending Apartheid
One Step for Mankind One Giant Leap for Women

Prep for Teachers

Before teaching this lesson, make certain that all of your Web sites are bookmarked on all of the computers in your classroom, and that all of the necessary links are still valid and running. Make sure that each lab station has all of the necessary components already in place for the start of the lesson. Place all handouts and pencils needed for this lesson on each of the students' desks before class begins.

CUE the videotape to the visual cue of the Johannesburg skyline right after the map highlighting Lesotho and Johannesburg.

When using media, provide students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing a video segment, Web site, or other multimedia presentations.

Step 1:

Explain to your students that many of the things that they take for granted in their lives have come at some cost to others. Many of the roles that women play in today's society have only come about because one woman was strong enough, brave enough, smart enough, or willing enough to make a personal sacrifice for what she believed in. Despite what we see on a daily basis, there are still regions in the world where women are still trying to achieve the same status and position in their societies that many in the United States take for granted. Some cultures, religions, and governments believe that women cannot and should not have the same rights and freedoms as their sisters in other countries or the men in their own. With that in mind, they are going to take a look at some famous women in history and see just what they know.

Step 2:

Before the "Famous Faces" game begins, break the class up into groups of three. Distribute one stack of “Famous Faces” pictures and one stack of “Famous Faces” descriptors to each group.

Step 3:

Instruct each group to spread out the famous women face cards on their desk or table.

Step 4:

Instruct each group to carefully read the famous women descriptors. Once they have read each descriptor, they are to try and match the descriptor to the famous women to whom they think it belongs.

Step 5:

Allow the class about ten minutes to correctly match the right descriptor to the correct famous woman.

Step 6:

Once the students are done, place the same pictures on the chalkboard for the whole class to see. Ask each group to help you correctly match one famous woman with her famous act. Allow for class discussion about each group's response. Sample the class if there is a disagreement about one group's selection.

Step 7:

Repeat the process until all of the famous faces have been matched up with a famous event. Do not correct incorrect responses or class decisions.

Step 8:

Explain to your students that at this time you are going to take some time and investigate one of these women further.

Step 9:

While the class is working on the Learning and Culminating Activities, allow the students to change incorrect responses from the Famous Faces game. When this occurs, allow time for the class to discuss the changes made. This will further enhance the lesson.

Note to Teacher:
The answers for this activity can be found at the end of this lesson on the Famous Faces Questions/Descriptors & Answers Key at the end of this lesson.

Step 1:

Insert Africa #8: Southern Treasures into your VCR.

Step 2:

Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to listen for and record how much gold the mines surrounding Johannesburg have supplied the world with over the past century. When they hear the answer to this question, have them raise their hands. PLAY the videotape. PAUSE the videotape when your students raise their hands. Allow your students time to record their answers on the “Focus for Media Interaction” worksheet. (Mines surrounding Johannesburg over the past century have supplied more than half of the world's gold.)

Step 3:

Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to listen for and record what price it took to get this gold and what was the major reason for keeping this wealth away from those that mined it. PLAY the videotape. Hand the remote to a student in the class, and point out where the pause button is. Ask the student to PAUSE the videotape when they hear the answer to these two questions. Again allow time for your students to record their answers on the “Focus for Media Interaction” worksheet. (Countless migrant workers have died taking gold from the earth and apartheid kept them from the wealth.)

Step 4:

Write the word apartheid on the board and ask your students if they know what apartheid was. Discuss with your students what apartheid was. Explain to them that apartheid was a policy of racial segregation formerly followed in South Africa. The word apartheid means "separateness" in the Afrikaans language and it described the rigid racial division between the governing white minority population and the nonwhite majority population. The National Party introduced apartheid as part of their campaign in the 1948 elections, and with the National Party victory, apartheid became the governing political policy for South Africa until the early 1990s. Although there is no longer a legal basis for apartheid, the social, economic, and political inequalities between white and black South Africans continue to exist.

The apartheid laws classified people according to three major racial groups: White; Bantu (or black Africans); and Colored (people of mixed decent). Later Asians (Indians and Pakistanis) were added as a fourth category. The laws determined where members of each group could live, what jobs they could hold, and what type of education they could receive. Laws prohibited most social contact between races, authorized segregated public facilities, and denied any representation of nonwhites in the national government. People who openly opposed apartheid were considered communists and the government passed strict security legislation, which turned South Africa into a police state.

Apartheid continued to be criticized internationally, and many countries, including the United States, imposed economic sanctions on South Africa. Urban revolts erupted and, as external pressure on South Africa intensified, the government's apartheid policies began to unravel. In 1990 the new president, F.W. de Klerk, proclaimed a formal end to apartheid with the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and the legalization of black African political organizations.

Ask your students if they think any of this sounds familiar to them. Did things like this happen in the United States? Has it happened in other countries? Allow your students time to discuss the similarities between apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the southern United States.

Ask your students if the Civil Rights Movement and the end of segregation helped further the cause of African-Americans in the United States. Do they think that the end of apartheid has had a similar effect? Allow your students time to discuss this question.

Ask your students if they think the end of apartheid has helped both African men and women advance themselves within their own society. Again, allow time for your students to discuss the question posed to them.

Step 5:

Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to view the following segment to see how the fall of apartheid has helped women. Tell your students to listen for and record the name and age of the first female African miner and why is she so proud to wear gold. PLAY the videotape. Again, hand the remote to another student in your class, asking them to PAUSE the videotape when they hear the answer to the question posed. Allow time for your students to record their answers on the “Focus for Media Interaction” worksheet. (26-year-old Xoliswa Vando. She is proud to wear gold because she helped get the gold out from under the ground.)

Step 6:

Provide your students with the next FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking your students to listen for and record how many men she works with down in the mines and how far down she travels to work in the mines. PLAY the videotape. PAUSE the videotape at the audio cue "Each morning Xoliswa descends more than two miles into the deepest mine in the world. She is the only woman in a workforce of 5000 men." Allow time for your students to record their answers on the “Focus for Media Interaction” worksheet. (Two miles into the deepest mine in the world as the only woman in a workforce of 5000 men.)

Step 7:

Provide your students with the next FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking your students to predict the types of environmental, cultural, and gender-related problems they think Xoliswa faces as the only woman in the workforce. How does she overcome them? Ask the students to raise their hands when they have heard all of the answers to the question you posed. PAUSE the videotape when your students raise their hands. Allow time for your students to record their answers on the “Focus for Media Interaction” worksheet. (She is black, she is female, and in the culture she comes from men don't take orders from women. She understands her culture and realizes to get the men to do what she wants she doesn't have to take their dignity away from them. Where she mines the gold the temperature can reach 125 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Step 8:

Ask your students if they think that Xoliswa is a pioneer in her country, based on what they have seen so far. Take a poll of your students to determine how many of them think she is a pioneer and how many of them think she is not a pioneer. Discuss with them why they think she is or is not a pioneer.

Provide your students with the next FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to view the following segment to see which group of students has predicted correctly whether or not she really is a pioneer in South Africa. PLAY the videotape. PAUSE the videotape after the audio cue of Xoliswa saying, "I am legally responsible for everyone who works here." Allow time for your students to record their answers on the “Focus for Media Interaction” worksheet. (Xoliswa is the first woman to hold a blasting degree in South Africa. She is the one best suited for handling explosives, making her legally responsible for all of the men who work with her down in the mines.)

Ask your students if she is considered a pioneer in her country? Do they think that her company considers her to be a valuable resource? If so, why? Again, lead your class in a discussion about women's roles in society, especially those who break down walls and stereotypes. Ask your students what they think makes someone a pioneer. Have your students make a list of attributes that they think qualify someone as a pioneer. Ask your students if they think that being the first male or female to do something makes that person a pioneer. Have your class come up with their own set of criteria for determining whether or not a person should be considered a pioneer.

Provide your students with the next FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to listen for and record if her company thinks Xoliswa is a valuable resource to her company, and what makes her such a valuable resource to have? PLAY the videotape. Hand the remote to another student in your class and ask them to PAUSE the videotape when they hear the answers to the question. PAUSE the videotape at the visual cue of the outside shoot of the mining site. Allow time for your students to record their answers on the “Focus for Media Interaction” worksheet. (Xoliswa is young and educated, making her a valuable asset. The company wants to fast track her promotion but first she must pass a crucial exam.)

Step 9:

FAST FORWARD the videotape to the image of three elderly ladies sitting around a campfire. Provide your students with the next FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them listen to and record what personal changes and setbacks has Xoliswa had to suffer as she has worked in the mines. PAUSE the videotape at the visual of Xoliswa in her miner’s hat walking out of the mine with her coworkers. Allow time for your students to record their answers on the “Focus for Media Interaction” worksheet. (Xoliswa explains that she cuts her fingernails down so that she can pick up things. When she first went to work in the mines, she showed up with her fingernails painted and people commented about that. Despite being a woman she needed to be more like a man in her appearance. She has no privacy when she needs to go to the bathroom. There is only one public bathroom shared by all the workers, and it doesn't have a door. She's been waiting almost a year for them to put a door on the bathroom. She has also failed the exam, setting back her hopes for a fast tracked career. Now she'll have to go the long route, the same as everyone else in the company.)

Ask your students if they think she should be given a second chance to take the test. Ask your students if they think she is being given a second chance based on her gender, or because the company believes she is an asset that want to keep. Allow your students to discuss the question you posed, but be sure that you monitor and help guide this discussion as it can bring about some heated points of view from both sides of the class. End your discussion by asking your students to consider if Xoliswa had been a young educated man in the same company, would he been afforded the same opportunity to take the exam over again if he had failed?

Step 10:

FAST FORWARD the videotape to the image of a chain linked fence as the narrator says, "Today, tourism employs around 750,000 South Africans more than gold mining." Provide your students with the next FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking your students to view the following segment and to pay particular attention to Xoliswa's body movements and facial expressions. PAUSE the videotape at the video cue of Xoliswa making a funny face as she takes the exam. (There is no answer here at this segment. We are setting the stage for the students to make a final prediction based on her Xoliswa’s facial expression.)

Ask your students to predict if Xoliswa did well on the test based on what they just observed. FAST FORWARD the videotape to the image of a little boy rolling a tire down the road. Provide your students with a final FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking your students to view the final segment to see if their predictions about Xoliswa are correct. PAUSE the videotape after you hear her mother say "She is a pride to her family. She is a pride to her country." (Xoliswa passed her test and will begin schooling again.)

Ask your students to think back to the Introductory Activity. Do they think that the women in the Introductory Activity were in a similar situation as Xoliswa? Do you think somebody gave them a break or a second chance, or opened up a door for them that had previously been closed?

Explain to your students that you are going to move to a new activity that will help them understand the roles some famous women have played in our world, both past and present, and that we are going to see if they were given the same chances as Xoliswa.

Step 1:

Have the students break down into the groups they were divided into during the Introductory Activity, and hand out the “Internet Scavenger Hunt/Web Quest.” Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to visit the following Web sites and research each of the twenty-five women listed and find the answers to the questions posed for each famous woman.

The National Women's Hall of Fame
http://www.greatwomen.org

Women Past and Present
http://www.netsrq.com:80/~dbois/

Step 2:

Distribute the design guidelines for authoring an animated storybook for children in the lower grades. Once the groups have researched and answered the questions about all twenty-five women on the list, they are to each choose a group of famous women, one famous woman they have already researched, or one that they would like to research and write about. Each student is to complete the answers on the design guide.

Step 3:

Before you begin the next phase of this activity, discuss with your students what characteristics they think make a good book. In particular, what makes for a great-animated storybook directed towards younger children? During the course of your discussion, make sure you pay particular attention to things like readability, language, sentence structure, characters, cover design, illustration, title, plot development, conflict, and resolution.

Step 4:

Give your students time to brainstorm ideas either by themselves or in small groups. Once each student has an idea of what they want to do, ask them to write in detail the ideas they have about the story they want to publish.

Step 5:

As with any writing assignment, it is important that you review the rules of basic grammar and sentence structure. At the same time, it is also important to review the proper way to write dialogue as it pertains to publishing.

Step 6:

Allow your students ample time to write their rough drafts. Have you students break down their first draft into discrete sections or individual pages. This will allow them to determine where they want to place their animated illustrations. As with any children's storybook, be sure that you limit your students to a book that is no greater than ten pages in length. To help your students determine what types of animated illustration they can design and build for their storybooks, have them visit the following Web sites and provide them with some of the following books to help them along the way.

Art Attacks
http://www.artattack.co.uk/menu_artattacks.html

How to Make Pop-Ups
http://www.makersgallery.com/joanirvine/howto.html

How to Make Pop-Ups. Irvine, Joan. Illustrated by Barbara Reid. William Morrow & Co. 1988. ISBN 0688079024. Step by step, child-tested instructions on how to make your own pop-ups for cards or books. Any child with paper, scissors, crayons, a ruler, glue and a bit of patience can now push, pull, turn, fold and fit together anything from a Halloween card with a jump-up witch to a pocket zoo.

How to Make Super Pop-Ups. Irvine, Joan. Illustrated by Linda Hendry. Beech Tree Books (William Morrow Inc.). New York. 1992. ISBN 0688115217. This book takes pop-ups one-step further, with pop-ups that slide, turn, spring and snap. Anything can become three-dimensional with paper and a little glue.

Step 7:

Direct your students to begin designing their animated storybooks using both the printed and Internet resources, as well as the diagrammed instruction sheet found with the student design guide. Have students work on rough draft illustrations and animated illustrations. Meet with each individual student and each group of students to discuss their books, as well as the trials and tribulations that they encountered on the road to publication. Allow time for the students to read and critique each other's books. Allow your students to work on revisions if they deem them necessary. After all of the students' animated storybooks are completed, arrange for them to share their books with students from the lower grades. Working in cooperation with either an elementary school teacher or group of teachers, organize an Authors' Reading Day. Invite younger classes into your class and have your students read their creations. Finally, display the animated storybooks in either your local or school library.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Students can create three-dimensional animated posters and cards for topics such as Historic Events, Presidents, and Places.

SCIENCE
Students can create three-dimensional illustrations to demonstrate scientific concepts.

LANGUAGE ARTS
Students can create a book about a famous author, or a story about their own families. You can set specific guidelines as to the style and point of view the students use.

BUSINESS/MATHEMATICS
Using three-dimensional geometric figures, students can design slide charts, wheel charts, pop-up charts, pop-outs, accordion books, and fan packs.

FINE ARTS/TECHNOLOGY
Students can create posters for recruiting females into either the armed services or local police and fire departments.
Students can create Web sites that highlight famous females of the past, present, and future.

March is Women's History Month. Have your students plan activities and celebrations honoring local women who have made a difference in their communities.
Invite students to read about Laura Welch Bush to learn about our current First Lady. Encourage students to write her a letter or send e-mail. Students can tell her about an issue that concerns them. Younger students might ask a question about the role of the First Lady.
Invite a local female engineer, construction worker, police or fireperson to the classroom to talk to your students about the roles that women play into today's society as it relates to traditionally male jobs.
Ask students to scavenge their local business and retail areas for examples of pop-up used in advertising and in the production or retailing of goods and services.