Responding to Unfairness and Injustice

Facing History learning experiences are classroom-ready activities that you can incorporate into your lesson plans. They are designed to be modular and adaptable, so you can use them over and over again with a wide range of texts to help students explore characterization, point of view, perspective taking, setting, and thematic development through a Facing History lens

1. Divide students into pairs to complete the “Predicted Meaning” column of The Range of Human Behavior Vocabulary Terms handout.
2. Debrief by asking volunteers to share their predicted meanings. Then share the definitions of the terms. Explain to students that targets can also be called victims. Because these are roles and not parts of our identities, we say “He is a target of bullying” rather than “He is a bullying victim.” Explain that individuals and groups do not fit solely into one category. Instead, they slip into and out of these roles throughout their lives and because of extenuating circumstances. They can even take on more than one role at the same time.
   • Perpetrator: A person carrying out a harmful, illegal, or immoral act.
   • Target: A person who is the object of the harmful, illegal, or immoral act(s) of a perpetrator. 
   • Bystander: A person who is present but not actively taking part in a situation or event.
   • Ally: A person who supports an individual or group who is either actively being targeted or vulnerable to being targeted. 
   • Upstander: A person who speaks or acts in support of an individual or cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of a person being attacked or bullied.
3. Finally, invite students to critique the dictionary definitions. 
   • Do you have any questions about these definitions? 
   • How are the dictionary definitions similar to or different from your own definitions? 
   • Are the dictionary definitions adequate, or do they need to be further clarified?

Before class, familiarize yourself with the Four Corners teaching strategy. Make four signs—Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree—and hang them in the corners of the classroom before the lesson.

1. Pass out The Roles People Play Anticipation Guide handout so students can practice applying some of the new vocabulary terms to their own lives. Have students complete the handout and then choose one or two statements to reflect on in their journals, explaining their response and/or any questions the statements raise for them. 
2. Use the Four Corners teaching strategy to discuss a few of the statements that most interest your students. 
3. On an exit card, have students respond to the following prompt: What conclusions can you make about the complexity of the roles we play in society?

If you didn’t use it earlier, before class, familiarize yourself with the Four Corners teaching strategy. Make four signs—Perpetrator, Bystander, Upstander, Ally—and hang them in the corners of the classroom before the lesson. Then choose three or four moments in the text where one or more characters perpetuate an injustice while others must grapple with how to respond. 

1. Explain to students that they will do a Four Corners activity in order to deepen their understanding of characters’ motivations when deciding how to act in the face of an unfairness or injustice.
2. Start by calling out the name of a character and/or group (such as a sports team or clique in the text) along with a specific scene. Have students move to the corner that they feel best represents that character’s role in that moment. Discuss what factors may have motivated or influenced the character’s decision-making process. Then repeat the activity for the other moments you chose. 
3. Have students discuss the following questions in small groups and then share their ideas with the class: 
   • Why do you think people do nothing even when they know something happening around them is wrong?
   • What role do one or more of the following factors play in characters’ decision-making processes in the book: fear, love, difference, similarity, conformity, obedience, and/or societal expectations? What role do these factors play in real life decision-making? 
   • Is upstanding always visible? Can it be something other than a specific action? What makes you say that? 
   • What lessons can you take from the text to help you understand how individuals react in the face of exclusion, unfairness, or an injustice in the world today? 

In their journals or in a piece of reflective writing that they submit, have students choose one of the following prompts: 

1. What new, different, or deeper understanding do you have about how individuals respond to exclusion, unfairness, or injustice? What makes you say that? Include ideas from the text, class discussions, and your own experiences to develop your response.
2. Complete the following sentence starter and explain your reasoning in a written reflection: I used to think . . . about how individuals respond in the face of injustice or unfairness, but now I think . . . Next, I will . . . Include ideas from the text, class discussions, and your own experiences to develop your response.