Citizenship at key stage 3    (Year 7-9)

• Choose a current event or recent news story from an area where there is conflict. Start discussion by finding out what pupils already know, using newspaper headlines or a TV news clip. Use maps to help pupils locate places mentioned in the discussion.
• Alternatively, use pictures or news footage of military forces in the area of the conflict. Who are they? UN forces? British soldiers? Why are they in this part of the world?
• From this introduction, make a list of key words, eg names of places and individuals, for the next activity.
• Working on their own or in twos or threes, pupils use available resources, including ICT, to research the key words and produce definitions or summaries to contribute to a class information board.
• Draw out key issues from pupils' research through class discussion. Encourage pupils to ask questions: What do they need to know to understand the situation? How can they find out? Add pupils' questions to the class information board.

• Use an incident from the current conflict as a case study to enable pupils to consider different aspects of the conflict, eg the nature of the fighting, the impact on civilians, previous peace treaties, human rights issues, etc.
• Brainstorm with pupils the different aspects to be considered, or build up a concept map to prepare for the next task.
• Provide groups of pupils with written accounts of the incident from, for example, different newspapers and/or transcripts of TV/radio news. Ask pupils to identify and highlight in the text different aspects of the story, eg the different factions involved, the nature of warfare, the impact of war on civilians. Using these topic headings, each group of pupils produces a summary of the incident on a poster.
• Inform pupils about the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
• Discuss with pupils how the Declaration relates to the incident they are studying: Are there any human rights implications? Who is being deprived of their human rights? Which rights are they being deprived of?
• Pupils annotate their posters with the human rights issues they have identified and display these in the school.

• Select a number of key dates relating to the history of the selected conflict. Working in groups, pupils research these dates, focusing on the question: Why is this moment important?
• Pupils compile information and write on a card a maximum of 100 words about each key date. Cards are added to the class timeline with a brief note on the date's significance.
• The teacher uses the timeline as a basis for question and answer sessions to check pupils' knowledge and understanding of the conflict. The teacher also encourages pupils to pose questions, eg What else do we need to know?
• The teacher focuses on the present by asking: What might leaders of all the current factions say about each of the key events listed on the date cards?
• Round off with discussion using key questions: How far do the roots of the conflict go back? In what ways do those involved use history to back up their present ambitions? Is the cause of the present conflict racial? religious? ethnic? nationalistic? What human rights issues are involved? What has this got to do with us?

• Pupils, on their own or in twos or threes, carry out internet searches about the event using key words from the initial activity. Pupils review each site they find, using the questions: What side is the author of this site on? How can you tell? and summing up the author's point of view in three sentences.
• The teacher leads a brief class discussion of pupils' findings, emphasising how to handle partisan information.
• This work could be followed up in several ways, for example
  • A debate. Create a one-sided motion or a trial situation, such as: 'X is to blame for the conflict' (the websites previously visited may well supply this kind of statement). Ask pupils to make a case for or against the motion. Both sides might prepare short speeches and present witnesses, perhaps from the past, to support their cases.
  • A leaflet campaign. Pupils write the text for a leaflet addressed to the population on one side of the conflict. The aim of the leaflet is to calm the situation. It could point out the dangers and possible consequences of the conflict and suggest ideas for reconciliation.
• The teacher leads discussion on issues involved in considering other people's experiences and the importance of being well-informed when trying to express views that are not their own.

• Pupils discuss law enforcement at various levels of authority: the family; the school; Britain; the world. Who makes the rules at each level? Who enforces them? Why is it easier to enforce laws at school, for example, than in the world?
• Continue the discussion, comparing the family with the school level and seeing why the international level does not work the same way. What 'crimes' can a country, or a government, commit? What can the rest of the world do about them? Who has the right to intervene to stop a government behaving badly?
• Textbook investigation: What powers does the United Nations have? Why is/isn't it involved in this conflict? Find examples of: military intervention; economic sanctions; and moral condemnation.
• Follow-up activity: pupils find out about the work of one international voluntary organisation active in the area of conflict.
• Summarise with a discussion: What are the most effective ways of intervening to halt the conflict and prevent mistreatment of minorities and human rights abuses?

• Explain to pupils that the final task is designed to draw on both their knowledge of the conflict and the skills and understanding they have gained by using the media as a source of information.
• Working in groups, pupils prepare a briefing paper for a journalist who is just starting work on the conflict. The journalist needs a clear summary of the current position and sufficient background knowledge to understand how it has arisen. She also needs guidance on how to research future developments. She feels uncertain about her new role and needs to be told why events in other parts of the world matter to people in Britain.
• Pupils should be encouraged to select their own form of presentation, as well as to determine its content. Forms of presentation could include ICT, for example, PowerPoint.
• The teacher follows the presentations with a class discussion on 'Where do we go from here?' The class decides whether and how to follow up the study and develop their knowledge of this and other world events. Pupils agree roles, responsibilities and timescales, as well as deciding who should be included, eg class tutor. The class could delegate responsibility to a small group to monitor the media for a few months and report back at significant points.