Genocide Teaching Project
As part of its commitment to raise awareness about genocide and to end the ongoing violence currently taking place in Sudan, the Center continues to support the Genocide Teaching Project, originally developed by former WCL students, Sarah Hymowitz (Marshall-Brennan Alumna) and Amelia Parker.
The Project provides resources to teach about the legal concept of genocide in high schools, including a discussion of the Genocide Convention (1948), a brief overview of genocides that have taken place throughout history, and the types of behavior and actions which may lead to genocide. Our two lesson plans include a 90-minute lesson on the genocide in Rwanda and a 45-minute lesson on the current violence in Darfur, Sudan. After the students learn about these two crises, the lessons conclude by having the students identify actions they can take - as individuals and as a group - to impact the situation in Sudan and to ensure that genocide does not happen again. Therefore, the Center encourages high-school teachers as well as advocates and practitioners to use these lesson plans to teach young people about the need to take responsibility for egregious abuses and to speak out for those with no voice.
Teachers will want to download either the 45-minute lesson on Darfur or the 90-minute lesson on the genocide in Rwanda, which includes the four jigsaw exercise documents. The hand-out with ideas for student activism, as well as the resource page with ideas for continued study/homework, should be distributed to students at the end of the lessons as "take home" resources. Teachers may also wish to download and distribute copies of the Center's resource booklet, The Rwanda Commemoration Project: Genocide in Our Time, which is a valuable tool for classes contemplating further action or wanting to learn more about the events in Rwanda.
In 2006, the Center formed a volunteer panel of students to develop new lessons and expand the reach of the Project. The Project's Curriculum Development Committee is currently developing new lessons which will be made available on the Center's website.
- GTP Anticipation Guide / Answer Key
- 45-minute Lesson Plan on the Crisis in Darfur: Is Genocide Occurring? (does not use the jigsaw pieces)
- 90-minute Lesson Plan on Genocide in Rwanda
- Jigsaw 1
- Jigsaw 2
- Jigsaw 3
- Jigsaw 4
- Ideas for Student Activism
- Ideas for Continued Study/Homework
- Applicability to DC/MD/VA Teaching Standards
- Rwanda Commemoration Project Resource Booklet
For more information about the Genocide Teaching Project, please contact Amelia Parker, the Center's Program Coordinator, at aparker@wcl.american.edu.
TEACHERS in the Washington, DC-metropolitan area interested in having WCL law students come teach either lesson at your school, please email Amelia Parker at aparker@wcl.american.edu or call 202-274-4180.
LAW STUDENTS in the Washington, DC-metropolitan area interested in teaching the lessons of genocide in DC-area schools as part of the Genocide Teaching Project, please send an email to Amelia Parker at aparker@wcl.american.edu or call 202-274-4180.
