Can't we get along? Making connections.

Teacher to Teacher contributor Andrew Liss teaches seventh-grade social studies at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Edison, New Jersey. As noted in the lesson plan that he wrote for our December 8, 2008, Teacher's Edition, he and his students are supporters of Kiva, a nonprofit microfinance organization that connects people in need with donors willing to help them succeed as entrepreneurs. For Liss and his students, that involvement brought the events following Kenga's 2007 election close to home.

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Fridah Kemunto is a 35-year-old single mother who lives in Kibera, the Nairobi slum mentioned on pp. 6-8. She has six school-age dependents: her own child and five young relatives. Kemunto owned and ran a small retail shop in Kibera for the last 10 years. But during the violence after Kenya's 2007 elections, her business and home were burned down. She defaulted on the money that my classes had loaned to her through Kiva.org. We were very upset and personally touched by the difficult situation in Kenya. Our personal attachments raised some interesting questions that you may want to explore with your students.

OBJECTIVE

Your students will analyze Jimia Ibraham's statement "I don't understand why different tribes cannot get along here" and, in the process, come up with meaningful possibilities for communication, recognize the importance of personal connection by reading, and brainstorm ways to improve communication.

PROCEDURE

1. Students will read the JS article and focus on Jimia Ibraham's statement (see Objectives).

2. Ask students why some cliques in their own school might not get along. Discuss what the effects of these cliques are or could be.

3. Ask students to think of a time when they judged or were wrongfully judged based on their appearance or the group they were with. Share the stories.

4. As a class, sit in a circle and look at eight oranges. Make a list of all the characteristics the oranges have in common.

5. Divide the class into eight groups and give an orange to each. Each group must name its orange and create a story about its life.

6. Bring the students back together and add a few other oranges to the original eight. Ask the groups to pick out their own orange.

7. Have the students write a short paragraph about how they picked out their orange from the group. Did "getting to know" one orange affect how they saw it afterward? Explain.

8. Provide students with several sticky notes. Using your blackboard or a wall in your classroom or hallway, have your students record and post ways they think that communication could be improved between cliques in your school. For example, students from different cliques might work together on a fund-raiser or work as peer mediators to a conflict. Students will post, then discuss, their ideas.

9. Closure: Ask students how this exercise might relate to the issues facing Kenya.

TAKE IT FURTHER

Show the movie The Power of One (info below) to illustrate tribal division in South Africa and inspire students to overcome perceived differences.

* The Power of One (1992), directed by John G. Avildsen. HBO Home Video/Warner Home Video. Running time: 127 minutes. Rating: PG-13.