FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY (undelivered)

8th grade / Language Arts


TEK(s):
(11) Reading/literary response. The student expresses and supports responses to various types of texts. The student is expected to:
(A) offer observations, make connections, react, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to texts (4-8);
(B) interpret text ideas through such varied means as journal writing, discussion, enactment, and media (4-8);

(30) Social studies skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of sources including electronic technology. The student is expected to:
(B) analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions;
(D) identify points of view from the historical context surrounding an event and the frame of reference which influenced the participants;
(E) support a point of view on a social studies issue or event;

Objective(s) -
TSWBAT orally evaluate the effectiveness of the Tiananmen Square protests in light of the Chinese government’s response with partners. Participation is the only requirement.
TSWBAT create a 1 page fictional narrative of the Tiananmen Square protests from his choice of perspectives.
TSWBAT compare and contrast the American government’s policy toward freedom of assembly with the People’s Republic of China’s through class analysis of the massacre.

Teacher materials needed:
~ Overhead of Unnamed Rebel photo
~ YouTube Tiananmen Square mini-documentary

Student materials needed:
~ Pen
~ Paper
~ Freedom in China: Tiananmen Square fact sheet
~ Articles from 1989 covering Tiananmen Square Protests

Focus or anticipatory set:
1) 7 minute free write on picture of man facing tanks (the “Unnamed Rebel”). Prompts: “What is he thinking? How did he get in this situation? What happened 5 minutes before? What will happen in 5 minutes? Why doesn’t he move?”
~ Have a few read theirs aloud.
* “Before we can totally get this, we need a little background info on China.”

2) Discuss what the class knows about China. Make a word web of relevant additions, adding new keywords and getting their input on each subsequent addition.
~Pass out a FREEDOM in CHINA fact sheet, with blanks like:
* Chinese accomplishments:
* Always a lot of _______ people
* Farm work = _________________
* social imbalance: a few _[rich]__ people and a WHOLE BUNCH of
__[poor]__ people
* Communism = take from the _rich_, distribute among everyone
* Great Leader of Communist China: _____ Zedong
*2nd leader: Deng Xiaoping
*democracy = ______________
(etc.)

“So China has a beautiful cultural heritage going back thousands of years. Gorgeous art, music, architecture. Philosophy from people like Confucius, the amazing Great Wall of China that was built to protect the country from invaders, the invention of paper, firecrackers, and elaborate calligraphy. This country has an extraordinary history. You really ought to find out what all was going on there way back when most of America and Europe was nothing more than tents and wooden hovels. But what China, like every other civilization, has always had is poor people. Lots and lots of poor people. Throughout history, what have most poor people, or peasants, done?”

- Farm work… agriculture. Well, every now and then, people start considering how hard these peasants have it, and start getting frustrated that a few people can have be so rich and live in such luxury and almost everybody else lives in terrible poverty- maybe without enough food, or with bad water, or constantly falling ill to terrible diseases because of the filth they live in. Every now and then people start thinking it’s not fair.

~ One solution, called “communism,” says what? We can fix our society’s problems if we’ll just take all the money and property from the rich people and distribute it evenly between all of us. Then, with everybody having an equal opportunity for success, all the money WE make, we can put in a big fund and make sure everybody get food, education, health care, and other such niceties. Sounds nice, right? I mean, assuming you’re not a rich person, that is.

* People who support to this idea are called communists, and Mao Zedong was the communist leader in China. Right after WWII, he kicked out the Chinese emperorand declared that China was now a communist country. He set to work making thewealth even among everybody… but a lot of it didn’t work and a lot of bad stuff happened. After he died in the late ‘70s, a new leader, Deng Xiaoping took control. He tried to ease up on all the controls and rules that Mao had put on everybody. The country started to be able to breathe again. They prospered a little bit. They wanted to become as modern and technologically advanced as possible, so they started sending their young people to the best universities around the world to get an education to bring back…

~… and guess what they found out while they were away… They found people who talked about the destruction that Mao caused, something they were DEFINITELY not allowed to do back home. They found books that presented the weakness of communism, something they were DEFINITELY not allowed to read back home. They found people who criticized their own government, but were left unharmed. They found countries where the PEOPLE decided who they wanted in office and made sure their officials made the choices that the PEOPLE wanted. They found out about something called FREEDOM of ASSEMBLY, which means you can get a bunch of people together, make a lot of noise, and make sure the government, the media, and everybody else that you can find knows how you feel about an issue. In short, they found democracy… and they wanted that in China.

~ So they come home and they start groups talking about what they had found. One thing lead to another and a bunch of university students decided, Hey, let’s give this democracy thing a try. So they ASSEMBLED as many people together as they could and started marching in the center of the capital city, right in front of all the important government people, demanding more freedom and choice in their government…

~ Guess what happened… ha! Don’t guess… read it for yourself.

Activities
3) Divide them into groups and pass out various news sources concurrent with the demonstrations, especially those that accompany the original publication of the photo (primary sources.) Have them switch with a partner and read the second source. Switch with another partner and read. With the last article, have them highlight WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, HOW. Then, have them discuss and orally review each of the questions. Have them discuss the PRC’s response and what happened afterwards. As a class, discuss what would have happened if they had been in the U.S.

4) Individual work/ homework: Imagine you are going to the protests at Tienennmen - as a student, young person, child, adult, soldier, whatever. What do you see? How do you feel? What happens? What is your final response?

Questions
~ Where were the Tiananmen Square protests? (Do NOT just tell me “Tiananmen Square!”)
~ Who were protesting? At whom were their protests aimed?
~ Why were they protesting?
~ How long were the protests?
~ Did the protesters achieve their goals?
~ How did the government respond?
~ What freedom(s) did they deny the protesters that we enjoy here in America?
~ What do you think would happen if students tried the same thing here in the U.S.?
~ What positive effects came of the protests?
~ Can you think of any famous protests here in America? What were the effects?
~ What would you be passionate enough about to risk your life to protest?

Closure/Summary:
Show YouTube Tiananmen Massacre mini-documentary. Show original Unnamed Rebel picture. “Now, when you see this photo will you be able to tell a little about this man?”