The Ethics of War
In this activity, students will compose an essay or speech on an ethical dilemma of contemporary warfare or military policy.
PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON 1:
ESSAY / SPEECH
1-2 class periods (60-90 min) + written assignment or speech (optional 1-2 class periods)
VIDEO:
A Culture of War Video and Transcript(as needed)
HANDOUTS:
Unit Research
Handout 1 (as needed)
Handout 2 (as needed)
WORKSHEET:
TEACHING PLAN:
- Art and Culture
Subject Matter> Philosophy
- History and Social Studies
Place > Africa
Place > The Americas
Place > Asia
Place > Europe
Place > The Middle East
Themes > Culture
Themes > Immigration/Migration
Themes > War and Foreign Policy
World > The Modern World
- Literature and Language Arts
Genre > Essay
Place > American
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Compare and contrast
- Critical analysis
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Data analysis
- Debate skills
- Discussion
- Evaluating arguments
- Expository writing
- Gathering, classifying and interpreting written, oral, and visual information
- Historical analysis
- Internet skills
- Interpretation
- Investigating/journalistic writing
- Literary analysis
- Logical reasoning
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Media analysis
- Online research
- Oral presentation skills
- Persuasive writing and speaking
- Report writing
- Representing ideas and information orally and in writing
- Research
- Summarizing
- Synthesis
- Technology
- Textual analysis
- Using secondary sources
- Writing skills
- ELA Reading: 1, 5-7, 10
- ELA Writing: 1, 4-10
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-6
- HSS Reading: 1, 3, 5-10
- HSS Writing: 1, 4-10
LESSON 2 HANDOUTS
- Present essays or speeches as part of a class initiative to raise awareness of a specific war, armed conflict, or human rights abuse (see Class Action Activity), with individual students highlighting different ethical dilemmas raised by this conflict.
- Allow additional time for peer review, editing, and revision of work, or for students to evaluate the structure, style, voice, and rhetorical strategies of their finished works.
- Increase the minimum length requirement for the essays or speeches, asking students to incorporate research on historical instances of this ethical dilemma in modern wars and armed conflicts (see War & Activism Unit Research handout for resources).
- Publish class excerpts in the school newspaper or literary/art journal, coordinate a class blog, radio segment, or podcast, or encourage students to submit their work independently.