1 / 42

Religion and Boundaries: Conflicts in World History

Religion and Boundaries: Conflicts in World History. Religion in the Modern Middle Eastern World Classroom Applications April 24, 2010 The UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project Department of History • 2407 Dwinelle Hall #2550 • Berkeley, CA 94720-2550

gerard
Download Presentation

Religion and Boundaries: Conflicts in World History

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Religion and Boundaries:Conflicts in World History Religion in the Modern Middle Eastern World Classroom Applications April 24, 2010 The UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project Department of History • 2407 Dwinelle Hall #2550 • Berkeley, CA 94720-2550 Phone: 510-643-0897 • Fax: 510-643-2353 E-mail: ucbhssp@berkeley.edu Website: http://history.berkeley.edu/ucbhssp

  2. Discussion Prompts • How do you teach about religion and conflict in the Middle East in your classroom? • What reading strategies do you use? • What kind of assessment do you use?

  3. California Content Standards for 6th Grade 6.3 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the Ancient Hebrews. 1. Describe the origins and significance of Judaism as the first monotheistic religion based on the concept of one God who sets down moral laws for humanity. 2. Identify the sources of the ethical teachings and central beliefs of Judaism (the Hebrew Bible, the Commentaries): belief in God, observance of law, practice of the concepts of righteousness and justice, and importance of study; and describe how the ideas of the Hebrew traditions are reflected in the moral and ethical traditions of Western civilization. 3. Explain the significance of Abraham, Moses, Naomi, Ruth, David, and Yohanan ben Zaccai in the development of the Jewish religion. 4. Discuss the locations of the settlements and movements of Hebrew peoples, including the Exodus and their movement to and from Egypt, and outline the significance of the Exodus to the Jewish and other people. 5. Discuss how Judaism survived and developed despite the continuing dispersion of much of the Jewish population from Jerusalem and the rest of Israel after the destruction of the second Temple in A.D. 70.

  4. California Content Standards for 7th Grade 7.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages. 1. Identify the physical features and describe the climate of the Arabian peninsula, its relationship to surrounding bodies of land and water, and nomadic and sedentary ways of life. 2. Trace the origins of Islam and the life and teachings of Muhammad, including Islamic teachings on the connection with Judaism and Christianity. 3. Explain the significance of the Qur'an and the Sunnah as the primary sources of Islamic beliefs, practice, and law, and their influence in Muslims' daily life. 4. Discuss the expansion of Muslim rule through military conquests and treaties, emphasizing the cultural blending within Muslim civilization and the spread and acceptance of Islam and the Arabic language. 5. Describe the growth of cities and the establishment of trade routes among Asia, Africa, and Europe, the products and inventions that traveled along these routes (e.g., spices, textiles, paper, steel, new crops), and the role of merchants in Arab society. 6. Understand the intellectual exchanges among Muslim scholars of Eurasia and Africa and the contributions Muslim scholars made to later civilizations in the areas of science, geography, mathematics, philosophy, medicine, art, and literature.

  5. California Content Standards for 10th Grade 10.9 Students analyze the international developments in the post-World World War II world. 7. Understand how the forces of nationalism developed in the Middle East, how the Holocaust affected world opinion regarding the need for a Jewish state, and the significance and effects of the location and establishment of Israel on world affairs. 10.10 Students analyze instances of nation-building in the contemporary world in at least two of the following regions or countries: the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and other parts of Latin America, and China. 1. Understand the challenges in the regions, including their geopolitical, cultural, military, and economic significance and the international relationships in which they are involved. 2. Describe the recent history of the regions, including political divisions and systems, key leaders, religious issues, natural features, resources, and population patterns. 3. Discuss the important trends in the regions today and whether they appear to serve the cause of individual freedom and democracy.

  6. Backwards Planning UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project Cycle of Instruction

  7. OUR PREMISE Improving Student Achievement Knowledge of Discipline-Specific Literacy Skills: Building Academic Literacy through History Knowledge of the Discipline: History Content Process of Historical Investigation

  8. INSTITUTE OVERVIEW: CYCLE OF INSTRUCTION • Step 1: FRAMING INSTRUCTION • TOPIC/ ISSUES • MATERIALS • STANDARDS • FOCUS QUESTION./ Teaching Thesis PLANNING REFLECTION • Step 2: Map the Lessons • Accessible steps • Focus question for each lesson • SKILLS: reading, writing, and • discipline-specific analysis skills • Step 7: Analyze the Data • Analyze student work to plan instruction • Do protocol with colleagues • Revise or re-teach as needed • Revise unit for future use Summer Follow up STRATEGIES • Step 3: Identify Challenges and Opportunities to Increase Understanding of Content • Unlocking text and content • Analyzing historical argument • Writing to a focus question • Step 6: Administer the Assessment • Have students complete the assessment • Use the rubric • Provide feedback Classroom Application INSTRUCTION • Step 5: Instruction, Learning, Practice • Reading and writing strategies • Oral language and critical thinking skills development • Content Acquisition • Model - Guided practice - Independent Practice ASSESSMENT • Step 4: Design the Assessment(s) • Writing prompt • Expectations for students • Rubric or scoring guide Adapted from Michelle M. Herczog, Consultant, History/Social Science, Los Angeles County Office of Education

  9. Planning Goals • Identify challenges of and opportunities for teaching reading, writing, and historical analysis skills within the content standards framework by: • Using focus questions to plan and frame content, reading and writing instruction, and assessment • Establishing a teaching thesis to determine the scope of instruction • Introducing instructional strategies for teaching reading, writing, and historical analysis skills within the content standards framework

  10. Planning Strategically • Unit Focus Question: (Getting at the heart of the matter--Unifying a broad range of information) • Unit Teaching Thesis: (A concise answer to myUnit Focus Question) • Unit Assessment: How will students express their learning? How will we measure student learning? • What do the students need to know to answer the focus question? • Lessons • Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 etc. • Lesson Focus ?What will students need to know? • MaterialsWhat resources will students use to access the information/content? • SkillsWhat literacy and thinking skills will students need? • ActivityHow will students interact with the materials/content? • What reading and writing strategies will help students accomplish these tasks? What vocabulary knowledge is needed? • Lesson Assessment How will students express their learning? How will we measure student learning?

  11. Backwards Planning Model • Framing Instruction • Mapping the lessons

  12. Step 1: Determine Topic & CA State Content Standards • Determine TOPIC • Identify the ISSUES • Determine Instructional MATERIALS • Identify STANDARDS • Design a UNIT FOCUS QUESTION: What question will guide the students’ learning?

  13. Determine Topic & CA State Content Standards Determine TOPIC Identify the ISSUES Topic vs. Issue Discussion • Topic: • Medieval China • Late 19th Century & early 20th Century Imperialism • The Middle East • Issues: • Costs of expansion during the Tang Dynasty • Influences of militarism and nationalism • Relationships of religion and politics in the conflicts in the Middle East.

  14. Designing a Focus Question Criteria for Focus Questions • Provides a focus for student learning on a standards-based issue • Creates connections among the issues and topic • Requires students to utilize critical thinking and writing skills • Elicits an explanation or argument that will be used to generate a thesis statement supported by evidence (i.e. how, why and what role questions do this) • Elicits more than one answer

  15. Writing a Teaching Thesis • Focuses on the significance of unit/lesson • Answers the Focus Question • What you want the students to know • Establishes learning goal • Directs assessment Note: Take into account if the students will be able to get this information from the materials and texts you have planned for the unit or lesson.

  16. Model Unit Plan

  17. Unit Map Ferro Draft Focus Question: How does the Israeli/Palestinian conflict provide a good case study for understanding the challenge of creating resolution in the Middle East.

  18. Middle East Unit Focus Question: How does the Israeli/Palestinian conflict provide a good case study for understanding the challenge of creating resolution in the Middle East? http://www.zionism-israel.com/maps/map_Israel_distances_small.gif

  19. Middle East Lesson Focus Question: Which of the obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine pose the most significant challenge? Why? http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article7

  20. How to teach this complex issue? • Our approach • An understanding of the historical background of the conflict • An understanding of the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives • An understanding of the issues that present challenges to finding a resolution to the two state problem

  21. Passage Organization The Problem of Palestine The situation in Palestine made matters even more complicated in the Middle East. While Palestine had been the home of the Jews in antiquity, they were forced into exile in the first century A.D. A Jewish presence always remained, but Muslim Arabs made up about 80 percent of the population. In Palestine, the nationalism of Jews and Arabs was in conflict, since both groups saw the region as a potential homeland. Since the 1890s, the Zionist movement had wanted to establish Palestine as a Jewish state, as it was in ancient times. Arabs pointed out that their ancestors had also lived in Palestine for centuries. As a result of the Zionist movement and growing anti-Semitism in Europe, more Jews began to migrate to Palestine. Then during World War I, the British government, hoping to win Jewish support for the Allies, issued the Balfour Declaration [1917]. It expressed support for a national home for the Jews in Palestine, but it also added that this goal should not undermine the rights of non-Jewish peoples living there. The Balfour Declaration drew even more Jews to Palestine. In 1933, the Nazi regime in Germany began policies that later led to the Holocaust and the murder of 6 million Jews. During the 1930s, many Jews fled to Palestine. Tensions grew, and violence between Jewish and Muslim inhabitants flared. Trying to end the violence, the British declared in 1939 that only 75,000 Jewish people would be allowed to immigrate to Palestine over the next five years; after that, no more Jews could do so. This decision, however, only intensified tension and violence. -World History, McGraw Hill/Glencoe, 2006, 689.

  22. Cause & Effect – The Problem of Palestine Content Question: How did the Balfour Declaration lead to conflict in Palestine? Analysis Question: How did European involvement in settlement Palestine create barriers to peace in the region?

  23. Cause & Effect – KEY

  24. Cause & Effect – KEY Content Question: How did the Balfour Declaration lead to conflict in Palestine? Analysis Question: How did European involvement in settlement Palestine create barriers to peace in the region? The Balfour Declaration led to problems in Palestine by increasing existing feelings of nationalism between the Arabs and Jewish populations who both felt that they had the right to claim Palestine as their own homeland. The Declaration brought even more Jews to Palestine, followed by further immigration of Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany. Even though Britain later tried to end the violence by limiting the number of Jews who could immigrate to Palestine, violence intensified. European involvement in the settlement of Palestine created barriers to peace in the region because Europeans encouraged Jews to settle in Palestine, which was already settled by Arabs. For example, the issuing of the Balfour Declaration, lent British support to and legitimizing of the Zionist movement. This support in turn acted as an encouragement for Jews to immigrate to Palestine. Nazi Germany’s persecution of the Jews resulted in an increase in the Jewish population in Palestine, as they saw Palestine as a refuge. The United Nation’s relocation of Jews to Palestine after WWII further increased the Jewish population there. The large number of Jews in Palestine led the UN decided to divide Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. Finally, it was after the UN decision that the Jewish state’s prime minister declared the State of Israel.

  25. Primary Source ExcerptsIsraeli-Palestinian Settlement Issues • 1. An Excerpt from Avi Shlaim, an Israeli in support of a Palestinian State • 2. An Article in the Liberal Israeli Newspaper, Haaretz, about the Israeli settlers in Palestinian Territory • 3. Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement Plan Key Principles, April 2004 • 4. Israel’s Revised Disengagement Plan, Addendum A, Main Principles Posted, June 6, 2004 • 5. Israel seizes West Bank land

  26. Primary Source Excerpt 1 An Excerpt from Avi Shlaim, an Israeli in support of a Palestinian State “…To the world, Sharon presented the withdrawal from Gaza as a contribution to peace based on a two-state solution. But in the year after (2006), another 12,000 Israelis settled in the West bank, further reducing the scope for an independent Palestinian state. Land grabbing and peace-making are simply incompatible. Israel had a choice and it chose land over peace. “The real purpose behind the move was to redraw unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel by incorporating the main settlement blocs on the West Bank to the state of Israel. Withdrawal from Gaza was thus not a prelude to a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority but a prelude to further Zionist expansion on the West Bank. It was a unilateral Israeli move undertaken in what was seen, mistakenly in my view, as an Israeli national interest. Anchored in a fundamental rejection of the Palestinian national identity, the withdrawal from Gaza was part of a long-term effort to deny the Palestinian people any independent political existence on their land.” Excerpt from Avi Shlaim, How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe, The Guardian, January 7, 2009. Avi Schlaim is a professor of international relations at Oxford University. Though an Israeli and having served in the Israeli army, he supports Israel’s return to its pre-1967 borders and rejects Zionism and the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. He is the author of Collusion Across Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine ( winner of the 1988 Political Studies Association’s W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize) and The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (2001), and many other books. Professor Schlaim is a regular contributor to The Guardian but is criticized that his “New History” approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is misleading; “Old History” critics claim that he argues the Arabs are strictly peace seekers. The Guardian is one of England’s largest daily newspapers, and has one of the highest international online readerships of English languages newspapers. It is considered to be just left of center in its focus.

  27. Primary Source Excerpt 2 An Article in the Liberal Israeli Newspaper, Haaretz, about the Israeli settlers in Palestinian Territory “Like a rising fountainhead, the battle for [the] spring has thrust another Palestinian village into what has become known as the ‘white intifada.’ For the past four months, the residents of the village of Nabi Saleh, accompanied by left-wing activists from Israel and abroad, have staged demonstrations over the spring, which settlers have appropriated for themselves. One more piece of stolen private land – this time for a spa in Halamish, once known as Neve Tzuf, a settlement in Samaria. “The Israeli Defense Forces, of course, didn’t waste any time in declaring the spring a closed military zone on Fridays. Signs put up by the Civil Administration’s staff officer for archeology now prohibit entry into what has been designated an ‘antiquities site.’ On one sign, someone scrawled: ‘No Arabs Allowed,’ and also, ‘The Lord is King.” Dozens of Stars of David have been plastered on the white agricultural building in the Palestinian’s fields at the foot of the spring – the settler’s handiwork. “The villagers began to organize themselves in order to support the spring’s owner and protest his property. They held their first demonstration on a Friday late last year. “‘We said we had to launch a popular struggle to protect our lands. That is the best way to protect the land,’ Bassam Tamimi says. ‘The settlers want to push us to commit acts of terrorism, but we will not let them. We do not hate anyone, we hate the occupation and we believe that we have a right to our land. During the first demonstration we were attacked by soldiers, who used tear-gas grenades and rubber bullets to evict us from our land,’ he continues. ‘The settlers stood on the hill with their firearms and watched. The soldiers did nothing to defend us when the settlers attacked. We even held olive branches to show that this was a peaceful demonstration, but on that Friday the settlers uprooted 153 of our olive trees.’” Excerpt from Gideon Levy, A spa for Samaria, Haaretz Daily Newspaper, April 22, 2010. The Haaretz Daily Newspaper is Israel’s oldest daily publication and is considered liberal and leftist. Its readership demographics tend to be highly educated and elite. The newspaper’s opinion sections regularly feature articles opposing occupation, the security barrier and the discrimination of Palestinians.

  28. Primary Source Excerpt 3 Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement Plan Key Principles, April 2004 Overview Israel is committed to the peace process, and aspires to reach a mutual agreement on the basis of two states for two people, the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, as part of the realization of President Bush’s vision. Israel believes that it must act to improve the current reality. Israel has come to the conclusion that at present, there is no Palestinian partner with whom it is possible to make progress on a bilateral agreement. In light of this, a unilateral disengagement plan has been formulated, which is based on the following considerations: The stagnation inherent in the current situation is harmful. In order to emerge from this stagnation, Israel must initiate a move that will not be contingent on Palestinian cooperation. The plan will lead to a better security reality, at least in the long term. In any future final-status agreement, there will be no Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. However, it is clear that in Judea and Samaria (northern West Bank), some areas will remain part of the state of Israel, among them civilian settlements, military zones, and places where Israel has additional interests. The exit from the Gaza Strip and from the area of northern Samaria (four settlements and military installments in their environs) will reduce friction with the Palestinian population and has the potential to improve the fabric of Palestinian life and the Palestinian economy. Israel hopes that the Palestinians will have the sense to take advantage of the disengagement move in order to exit the cycle of violence and rejoin the process of dialogue. The disengagement move will obviate the claims about Israel with regard to its responsibility for the Palestinian in the Gaza Strip. The disengagement move does not detract from the existing agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The existing arrangements will continue to prevail. When there is evidence on the Palestinian side of the willingness, ability and actual realization of a fight against terror and of the implementation of the reforms stipulated in the road map, it will be possible to return to the track of negotiations and dialogue…. as quoted by Charles D. Smith. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 6th Ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007: pages 555-556, originally printed in Haartz, www.haaretz.com, April 16, 2004 The entirety of this text and Sharon’s accompanying letter were the basis for George Bush’s letter approving Sharon’s Disengagement Plan( April 2004).

  29. Primary Source Excerpt 4 Israel’s Revised Disengagement Plan, Addendum A, Main Principles Posted, June 6, 2004 I. Background: Political and Security Implications The State of Israel believes that it must act to improve the current situation. The State of Israel has come to the conclusion that there is currently no reliable Palestinian partners with which is can make progress in a two-sided peace process. Accordingly, it has developed a plan of revised disengagement (hereafter, the plan), based on the follow considerations: The stalemate dictated by the current situation is harmful. In order to break out of this stalemate, the State of Israel is required to initiate moves not dependant on Palestinian cooperation. The purpose of the plan is to lead to a better security, political, economic, and demographic solution. In any future permanent status arrangement, there will be no Israeli towns and villages in the Gaza Strip. On the other hand, it is clear that in the West Bank, there are areas which will be part of the State of Israel, including major Israeli population centers, cities, town and villages, security areas, and other places of special interest to Israel. The State of Israel supports the efforts of the United States, operating alongside the international community, to promote the reform process, the construction of institutions and the improvement of the economy and welfare of the Palestinian residents, in order that a new Palestinian leadership will emerge and prove itself capable of fulfilling its commitments under the Roadmap. Relocation from the Gaza Strip and from an area in Northern Samaria should reduce friction with the Palestinian population. The completion of the plan will serve to dispel the claims regarding Israel’s responsibility for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The process set forth in the plan is without prejudice to the relevant agreements between the State of Israel and the Palestinians. Relevant arrangement shall continue to apply. International support for this plan is widespread and important. This support is essential in order to bring the Palestinians to implement in practice their obligations to combat terrorism and effect reforms as required by the Roadmap, thus enabling the parties to return to the path of negotiation. As quoted by Charles D. Smith. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 6th Ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007: pages 558-559, originally printed by the Israel Prime Minister’s Office, www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/DisengagmePlan/displan060604.htm (please note that the Revised Disengagement Plan is no longer offered online on the PMO website). Compare this revised plan to the original. For example, reference to a Palestinian state has been deleted, and point 3 in Section 1 has far more detail as to the types of Israeli settled areas that will remain in the West Bank compared to I.C. in the previous document. The United States remains officially committed to the original version of the Disengagement Plan and it is not known if Israel informed American officials of these changes.

  30. Primary Source Excerpt 5 Israel seizes West Bank land Israel has taken control of a large area near a prominent settlement in the Palestinian West bank, paving the way for a possible construction of 2,500 settlement homes, official said. Oded Revivi, the mayor of Efrat, said on Monday that the Israeli military has designated 425 acres near the settlement of about 1,600 families south of Jerusalem, as so-called state land two weeks ago. Revivi said Efrat plans to build 2,500 homes on that land, but government approval would still be needed before construction begins, a process that could take years…. Revivi said nine appeals, eight of which were rejected and one was upheld, had been foiled by Palestinian landowners. ‘Sticking point’ Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, West bank, said the “confiscation [of the land], which by international law is deemed illegal, has been greeted with condemnation among Palestinian circles”. “We’ve seen statements from these leaderships describing this measure as condemnable, calling on the international community to take a firm stance,” she said. “…This will undoubtedly be a major sticking point when the US peace envoy George Mitchell visits the region towards the end of the month. “This is what [the] Palestinians will be concentrating on. Already we’ve heard from the Palestinian president’s office that there will be no negotiations until all settlement activities in occupied West bank including east Jerusalem stops.” Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has warned that continued settlement expansion would cripple peace talks. His aides said recently that peace talks can only resume after a settlement freeze. Expansion could also create friction with the US, as Mitchell, the US Middle east envoy has long called on Israel to halt construction in settlements. Nearly 290,000 Israelis currently love in West bank settlements. February 16, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/02/2009216134248562227.html Aljazeera is a television networkheadquartered in Doha, Qatar. Initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairssatellite TV channel Aljazeera has since expanded into a network with several outlets, including the Internet and specialtyTV channels in multiple languages. Aljazeera is accessible in several world regions. The original Aljazeera channel's willingness to broadcast dissenting views, including on call-in shows, created controversies in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

  31. PRIMARY SOURCE INVESTIGATION WORKSHEET Name ____________________________ Focus Question: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Title of Source: ____________________________________ Author: ___________________ Genre (letter, cartoon, photo?): ________________ Which of the obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine pose the most significant challenge? Why? “How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe”. Avi Shlaim Letter January 7, 2009 (England-based newspaper) Avi Shlaim: an Israeli in support of a Palestinian state and Oxford professor Continuing conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians Guardian newspaper readers

  32. Primary Source Analysis with Multiple Documents Directions: Use the documents in your handout to complete the analysis charts.

  33. Looking at Primary Sources for Evidence Lesson Focus Question: Which of the obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine pose the most significant challenge? Why? In bullet format, answer these questions as you do your research.

  34. IDENTIFYING THE MAIN IDEA Looking at your observations of the primary source, what is the main idea or message of the source? Source One_______________________________________________________________________________________ Source Two _______________________________________________________________________________________ WRITING USING THE PRIMARY SOURCE Focus Question: ____________________________________________________________________________________ The issue of Israeli and Palestinian settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip pose the most significant challenge to an Israeli-Palestinian resolution because ____________________________________________________________________ (thesis – argument)  _________________________________________________________________________________________________. In _________________________________________________________, ________________________________ states (description of document #1)(author) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (evidence in the primary source)  While in ___________________________________________________, ________________________________ states (description of document #2) (author) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (evidence in the primary source)   Together, these documents show________________________________________________________________________ (meaning of two documents together) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. ___ Which of the obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine pose the most significant challenge? Why?

  35. Writing Frame WritingQuestion: Which of the obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine pose the most significant challenge?

  36. Writing Frame (cont.)

  37. Israel-Palestinian Conflict Writing Prompt Background: In the modern era, the conflict over land, power and the right to statehood in Israel and Palestine have continuously presented significant barriers to region’s peaceful existence. These challenges regarding the contestation over land in the region go back to ancient times and escalate through the modern age. While Jerusalem, settlements, security, borders, and refugees are all identified as significant obstacles to the peaceful resolution of conflict in the region, historians and political scientists debate which is the most significant. • Expectations: An excellent essay will have the following five elements: • A clear thesis statement that addresses the question, provides an argument, and introduces two topics that will be addressed in your essay. • An expository essay four paragraphs long– an introductory paragraph, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. • Two clear body paragraphs that each contain at least three pieces of evidence accompanied by analysis. Each body paragraph will address the thesis. • Few to no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. • Neat and organized – and TYPED!! (12 point font, Times New Roman, double spaced – no negotiations). • Due Date:

  38. Writing Prompt (cont.) Evaluation of a Thesis • Directions: Is this a strong thesis statement? • Read each thesis. • Underline the topics. • Circle the argument. • Grade the thesis: A, C or F • Provide a reason for your grade. • Revise the C and F thesis to an A. • Writing question: Which of the obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine pose the most significant challenge? Why? • Grade: • Reason: • Revision:

  39. Writing Prompt (cont.) Evaluation of a Thesis Writing Question: Which of the obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine pose the most significant challenge? Why? • Sharon’s allowance of 12,000 Israelis to settle the West Bank in 2006 is the greatest challenge to peace in Israel and Palestine because settlements that go against peace accords serve only to increase conflict. • Grade: • Reason: • Revision: • 2. Jerusalem poses the greatest obstacle to creating sustained peace in Israel/Palestine because the ancient history of the land and contested division of the city create unwillingness for negotiation by either side. • Grade: • Reason: • Revision: • 3. The lack of security for both Israel and Palestine is the most significant challenge to peace in Israel/Palestine. • Grade: • Reason: • Revision:

  40. Writing Prompt (cont.) Evaluation of a Thesis – TEACHER COPY Writing question: Which of the obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine pose the most significant challenge and why? 1. Sharon’s allowance of 12,000 Israelis to settle the West Bank in 2006 is the greatest challenge to peace in Israel and Palestine because settlements ultimately increase conflict. Grade: F Reason: No topic, no obstacle (evidence only), weak argument. 2. Jerusalem poses the greatest obstacle to creating sustained peace in Israel/Palestine because the ancient history of the land and contested division of the city create an unwillingness for negotiation by either side. Grade: A Reason: name an obstacle, two topics and an argument 3. The lack of security for both Israel and Palestine is the most significant challenge to peace in Israel/Palestine because the unwillingness to talk that results from no security in turn creates a continuation of conflict and the failure of peace talks. Grade: C Reason: has an obstacle, weak argument, poorly written topics

  41. Analytical Paragraph Terminology

  42. Discussion Prompts • How do you think you might be able to implement these strategies in your classroom? • What do you think will be the most effective strategy for the challenges your students face?

More Related