Lesson One:   Equity

Key Concepts and Issues: This lesson plan explores the idea of Equity as it relates to ensuring that everyone in a given society has access to all the rights and freedoms available to them under the law without favoring one group over another.

Duration: One - Six Class Periods

Curriculum Links: English, Civics, History, Geography, Drama

Objectives/Outcomes:

Students will learn:

• To appreciate the freedoms they currently enjoy and/or take for granted
• To recognize the different positions people occupy in a society or culture
• To assess challenges and determine solutions for those in inequitable situations
• To understand that many people on the planet live in difficult circumstances
• To deal with real world issues
• To work together in teams
• To sharpen critical assessment skills

Vocabulary List:

• Oligarchy
• Junta
• Consolidate
• Autonomy
• Caudillo
• Estancia

Case Study:

Juan comes from a family of small landholders in Argentina. He is now 18 years old and he came to Canada to live with relatives when he was 14.

Here is Juan’s story:

Many families in the Argentinian countryside farm or operate ranches. And like many countries, there is a hierarchy of social classes in Argentina.

The elite are called “Caudillos”, those who own large estates (estancias) throughout the land. For many years, the Caudillos ran the country as an oligarchy through much of the 19th and 20th centuries

The Caudillos obtained their land holdings through royal grants or as a reward for being supportive of the government or ruler of the day.

They controlled wages and contracts and as a result of their overall influence, the Caudillos influenced social, political and economic policies in the country. Not surprisingly, many of these policies favored those in their own class. Comprised of cattle barons and merchants, the Caudillos, acquired more and more land squeezing out the smaller landholders like Juan’s family.

As a teenager, Juan was denied many of the rights that North Americans take for granted. He wasn’t able to attend school regularly, for example. He was needed to help out on the land. His family suffered financially because the Caudillos controlled the agricultural markets with the support of the government.

It is the goal of most parents to have their children progress, to realize educational opportunities, to get ahead in their careers and to do better financially. Juan felt like he was stuck in the same position as his father, that they would continue to labor on just to get by and never get ahead.

On the surface, Juan was faced with the most difficult situation of all; that of no choice. To simply continue as his father and grandfather had before him. Juan admired his father and felt that he was a brave man and feared for his safety. Fear seemed to be their constant companion as those who opposed the Caudillos suffered.For his own safety and well-being, Juan’s family sent him to live with an uncle and aunt in Montreal.

Teacher-Directed Discussion

Step One: Reading and Discussing
the Scenario (1 Period)

Have each member of the class read the case study above, the story of Juan. Discuss the vocabulary words. Can they relate to his situation? If so, how? Is there anything that Juan’s family could have done to change his situation? Remember this lesson is about equity and in the case study one group is in control and the other is not. How could Juan’s family have gained equity given their circumstances? Brainstorm some ideas.

Step Two: Creating an Action Plan (1 Period)

Recall the brainstorming ideas from the previous period. Divide students into groups of three or four and have each group consider at least one of the following scenarios:

• Juan joins a youth movement in Canada, the
  mission of which is to lobby the Argentinian government to improve conditions for smaller landholders and give them more say in government policy.
• Juan makes a presentation to the United Nations detailing the plight of his family and many others in his country. His story is picked up by the world media.
• Juan concentrates on going to school in Canada to get a good education so he can improve his position eventually in society and help provide for his family.

Keep the same small discussion groups. Have each group select one of the scenarios they consider the best solution given Juan’s situation. The group will then present a brief oral report to the rest of the class laying out the reasons for their selection. Make a list of the suggestions in each report and write them on the board for everyone to read. After which, re-introduce the concept of equity. Do the student responses explore this idea?

• Are the suggestions realistic and doable for someone like Juan?
• It is also permissible for the group to come up with alternative scenarios for Juan should they choose to do so. Again, their reasoning must be justified in the oral report to the class.
• Discuss how these scenarios can apply in a number of contexts. That is, to the students personally, to an organization to which a student may belong, to the situation of a particular group or culture and to a given country students may have read about or heard about in the news.

Optional Extension Activities (1-2 Periods)

Students will complete at least one of the following:

1. Review the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
   Is there an article within the Charter that most applies
   to Juan’s situation? If so, write a short essay detailing
   how this aspect of the Declaration applies to Juan and
   if applied reasonably, might help improve his situation
   while in Canada and if he still lived in Argentina.
2. Consider the nature of equity in the following relationships:

• members of opposing football teams
• single mothers on welfare and social workers
• a Chief Executive Officer and assembly line workers
• family farmers and corporate farms
• a married couple
• Canada and the United States

Choose one and describe in a short report the nature of the relationship and what sort of equity is present in that relationship between the two parties. Back your reasons up with concrete examples.

Length: 1/2 page to a maximum of one page.

Step Three: Clarifying Inequality (1 Period)

Once again, divide the students into small groups of three or four. Each group will devise a scenario that clearly demonstrates the level of equity in a given relationship. It might be a parent and a child, a worker and a supervisor, boyfriend and girlfriend, a new immigrant and a government official, a coach and a player and so on.

The team will devise a short script, fleshing out the situation. The scenario students create may have two to four characters in it. The group will rehearse either “acting out” or “reading out” the scenario for presentation to the class. After each performance, a few minutes should be allotted for response from the audience. Was the situation clearly presented? Were the “characters” believable and the circumstances realistic? Was there a resolution to the situation? Each presentation should have a duration of roughly five minutes.

Step Four: A Second Action Plan (1 Period)

Write the ending to Juan’s story. What actions  does he take and what resolutions appear realistic and plausible. Refer back to Step One of the lesson for reference. Once the story is written, have the class form into small groups and have each member of the group read their story to the others. Have the group select one of the stories and present this story to the rest of the class, i.e., read out loud. The story should take about five minutes to read. Leave time for class discussion over each story read. All written stories are to be handed in to the teacher.

Step Five: Comparison

In the television series, Get Outta Town (www.getouttatown.tv), the host visits Costa Rica and Mexico City. Have students think about who Juan’s counterpart in each of these destinations might be? How might the situation in each place compare? Would the Costa Rican Juan be better off or not? If so, why? Would the Mexico City Juan lead a similar life as the Argentinian Juan but just in a different physical environment, i.e., rural in Argentina versus urban in Mexico City? Students will write a short essay on this topic. Maximum length: one page.

Assessment and Evaluation

Evaluate the class teams on their oral reports:

Suggested criteria:

• Content (was the content/strategy clearly articulated and well thought
  out? Were the points the team made persuasive?)
• Presentation (was the presentation well-delivered, easy-to-hear and understand with good vocal quality, gestures, postures etc?)
• Effectiveness (were the points presented effective, how practical were the suggestions?)
• Teamwork (did the group work well and effectively together?)

Assess students on their written work:

Suggested criteria:

• Grammatically correct with sentences properly structured, i.e., use of complex sentence structure and correct verb tenses, spelling and punctuation
• Comprehension of the word/phrases—sentences clearly reveal the meaning
• Ideas are expressed clearly
• Information is well organized.
  

Evaluate students on their presentation work:

Suggested criteria:

• Present information clearly
• What have they done to enhance the presentation
• Effective use of oral and visual communication?

Student self assessment of team work:

Suggested criteria:

• Contribution to group knowledge
• Preparation undertaken for research and investigation
• Articulating goals, devising alternate solutions, selecting best alternatives