Lesson Plan - Animal Justice for Hyena and Hare

Lesson Plan - Animal Justice For Hyena And Hare

Information For Teacher

Title: Animal Justice For Hyena And Hare

Character Traits: Justice & Responsibility (Grades 6-8)

Materials Needed: Print off at least 10 copies of the role-play for students to share called "Animal Justice For Hyena And Hare" found at the following link:

http://askdjlyons.com/animal_justice_for_hyena_and_hare_role-play.pdf

Cognitive/Instructional Objectives:

1. Student will learn the meaning of justice and being responsible.
2. Students will learn to recognize that when they give in to subtle or overt threats, they are neither being responsible or acting with justice to themselves or others.

Emotional Objectives:

1. I value others; therefore, I will make certain that I act in responsible and just fashions.
2. I want others to like and respect me but I also wish to respect myself; therefore, I only honor the requests of people who are making just and responsible requests of me.

Behavioral Objectives:

1. Students will decrease the number of times they give in to other people's threats.
2. Students will increase the number of times they are only making just and responsible requests of themselves and of others.

Concepts Covered: Reading; Critical-Thinking Skills, Oral-Speaking Practice; Conflict Resolution Concepts: (Passive, Aggressive, & Assertive Responses To Conflict, Diplomacy & the Usage of I Messages); Character Education Concepts: Justice & Being Responsible

Glossary Of Terms:

• Justice is the principle of moral rightness; fairness; the upholding of what is just and fair; fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.
• Being Responsible is being dependable and reliable; involving personal accountability; liable (legally obligated) to being required to give account for something.

Lesson Length: 55 to 80 minutes

• 5-10 minutes: Step 1: Preliminary Discussion on Justice & Being Responsible
• 10-15 minutes: Step 2: Teacher Reads Story To Class found on Web (see web link above)
• 20-25 minutes: Step 3: Scripted Role-Play found on Web (see web link above)
• 15-20 minutes: Step 4: Six Bloom's Taxonomy Discussion Questions
• 5-10 minutes: Step 5: Wrap-Up Discussion on Justice & Being Responsible
  

Student Lesson

Step 1: Preliminary Discussion on Justice & Being Responsible

a. Ask the "K" question of the K-W-L MODEL.

Teacher Asks:What do you know about the meaning of Justice? Being Responsible?

Students Respond:(Accept Reasonable Answers)

b. Ask the "K" question of the K-W-L MODEL.

Teacher Asks:What do you want to know about the meaning of Justice? Being Responsible?

Students Respond:(Accept Reasonable Answers)

c. Discuss Glossary Of Terms.

Teacher Asks: What does Justice mean? (answer: Justice is the principle of moral rightness; fairness; the upholding of what is just and fair; fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.)

Teacher Asks: What does it mean to Be Responsible? (answer: Being Responsible is being dependable and reliable; involving personal accountability; liable (legally obligated) to being required to give account for something.)

d. Discuss 3 Essential Questions.

1. Teacher Asks: If someone threatens you in some way, how do you decide whether or not it is better to give in to that person's demands? Please give an example and explain your answer.

2. Teacher Asks: Imagine you are babysitting for a younger child or some younger children. Someone comes along and threatens to hurt you unless you hand over one of those children to him or her, what is it your responsibility to do?

3. Teacher Asks: To what extent do you feel it is just or fair for you to face personal risk or harm when you are babysitting for your younger siblings or somebody else's children?

Step 2: Read story to class called "Animal Justice For Hyena And Hare" re-telling by Debbie Dunn; based on oral tale shared with author by Ann Njeri Mwangi of the Kikuyu Tribe Of Kenya, Africa.

Animal Justice For The Hyena And The Hare

© 1990 re-telling by Debbie Dunn;

based on oral tale shared with author by Ann Njeri Mwangi of the Kikuyu Tribe Of Kenya, Africa

Introduction: The Grandmothers of the Kikuyu tribe of Kenya would tell many stories to teach the children of the tribe very important lessons. This next story was told to teach the children not to be greedy. Listen to this tale and see if you do not agree, it has an even stronger message about Justice and about being Responsible.

There was once a Hare who was looking for a job. The Hyena found the Hare a job. "Hare, I have found you a cub-sitting job. You can look after the cubs of Queen Lion while she is out hunting."

The Hare said, "Oh, thank you, Hyena."

The Hyena replied, "No problem! One day, I'll come for my reward. Naturally, you'll have to pay me back, because I found you a job at the finest place of all, the Lion's Place. After all, the Lioness is the Queen of all the animals."

While Lioness went hunting every day, Hare was left to watch over the Lioness's nine cubs.

One day, the Hyena came and said, "I've come for my reward."

The Hare asked, "What do you want?"

The Hyena greedily replied, "I want a cub to eat."

The Hare said, "I can't do that."

The Hyena said, "You have no choice! If you do not give me a cub to eat, I'll have to eat you."

The Hare reluctantly gave the Hyena one cub to eat. That evening, the Lioness came home. She said, as she did every night, "Bring me my cubs, so I might feed them."

Fortunately for the Hare, all the lion cubs looked alike; therefore, the Lioness could not tell them apart. So the Hare brought out the eight cubs that were left, one at a time to feed. After the eight cubs had finished their dinners, the Hare brought out the first cub all over again.

The Hyena continued this practice of demanding a cub to eat, day after day, until there was only one cub left. When the Lioness came home, the Hare had to keep bringing out the same cub, nine times over to be fed. Not too surprisingly, that cub started vomiting.

The Lioness found out what had happened. The Hare said, "It was the Hyena who ate your cubs."

The Lioness said, "I don't believe you! I think you're the one who ate my cubs. So now, I'm going to kill you!"

The Hare thought fast and then said, "Okay, ..., uh, ..., yeah, uh, ..., why don't you tie a rope around my waist? Then I'll go to the forest and say good-bye to all my family and friends. And when I'm done, you can pull me back. After that, you can kill the one who is responsible for the death of your children."

The Lioness agreed. "Okay, I'll give you one hour."

The Hare went into the forest and frantically began to look for the Hyena. Finally, he found him. The Hare knew the Hyena was very greedy. So he said, "Hyena, the Lioness is forcing me to eat some meat that is covered with flies. She said she'd kill me if I did not eat this meat. Do you want to eat this meat?"

The Hyena said, "I don't care if it has a million flies! I'll eat that meat!"

So the Hyena and the Hare exchanged places.

The Lioness pulled on the rope and found the Hyena.

The Hyena said, "Give me the meat even if it has a million flies. I'll eat it!"

The Lioness realized then that the Hare had been telling the truth. It was the Hyena who had killed eight of her nine children. So the Lioness killed the Hyena; thus, Animal Justice was done.

Step 3: Class should now act out the role-play called "Animal Justice For Hyena And Hare." The role-play features six guys: Hare, Hyena, Lion Cubs #1, #3, #5, & #7 and six girls: Queen Lion & Lion Cubs #2, #4, #6, #8, & #9. Everybody else in the class will take turns either reading the parts of Narrator 1 or Narrator 2. You can find the role-play on the web (see Page 1 for Web Link)

Step 4: 6 Bloom's Taxonomy Discussion Questions To Follow Role-Play.

a. Ask the Knowledge Question.

Teacher Asks: Recall why Hyena felt like he had the right to demand a favor of Hare. (Answer: Hyena found Hare a job and therefore claimed that Hare owed him a favor back.)

b. Ask the 2 Comprehension Question.

1. Teacher Asks: Explain why Hare did not try to fight or trick Hyena into NOT killing the cubs.

2. Teacher Asks: Explain why Hare did not tell Queen Lion about the tragedy that first night.

c. Ask the Application Question.

Teacher Asks: Give examples from real life or from the history books when a person or people have risked their lives to save the life or lives of others. Determine why that person seemed to feel it was his or her responsibility to do this. Conclude whether you feel like it was just or fair (i.e., justice) for those people to risk their lives or actually lose their lives to try to protect the life or lives of those other people.

d. Ask the 2 Analysis Questions.

1. Teacher Asks: There are many times that you may have received threats in some fashion or another. For the following examples, analyze is there any way you are being responsible and acting with justice if you DO give in to their threat and in what ways you are being responsible and acting with justice if you do NOT give in to their threat.

Example #1: Someone says: "Smoke this cigarette or drink this beer or I won't be your friend anymore."

Example #2: Someone says: "Loan me this money or let me copy your homework or I will say that you are selfish."

Example #1: Someone says: "Don't tell on me for doing this wrong thing to that other person or I will beat you up."

2. Teacher Asks: Determine the factors that could help you NOT give in to those threats.

e. Ask the Synthesis Question.

Teacher Asks: Find as many unusual ways as possible for Hare to have protected the lives of those 8 innocent lion cubs.

f. Ask the Evaluation Question.

Teacher Asks: Evaluate in what ways Hare is almost as guilty as Hyena for the death of the 8 cubs.

Step 5: Wrap-Up Discussion On Justice & Being Responsible

a. Ask the "L" question of the K-W-L MODEL.

Teacher Asks: What have you learnedabout the meaning of Justice? Being Responsible?

Step 6: Discuss Character Education Concepts.

1. Teacher Asks: There are two Character Education Concepts that were covered in this lesson. The first is Justice. What parts of the story we heard, the role-play we participated in, or the discussions we had describe any ways that someone can demonstrate Justice or being Just?

2. Teacher Asks: A second Character Education Concept that was covered in this lesson is Responsibility. What parts of the story we heard, the role-play we participated in, or the discussions we had describe any ways that someone can demonstrate being Responsible?

3. Teacher Asks: Give examples of ways that the story, role-play, and our class discussion also demonstrated how to show Self Control? Trustworthiness? Caring & Giving? Leadership? Being A Good Citizen? Respect & Self Respect? Respecting & Valuing Authority?