Model Lesson

Model Lesson for a Current Event
Level: High Intermediate ESL to University level
Newspaper article title: “Tourists boycotting Burma.”
1. Show the interconnectedness of the world, blogs, online communities
a. How communities merge to help other communities, beyond borders
2. Discuss a variety of viewpoints
a. Read blogs about local concerns
3. Ask students to discuss what the options are for the Burmese citizens and what choices they have.
a. Investigate how this boycott could affect people inside and outside of Burma/Myanmar.
b. How does it affect the triple bottom line of the globe?
c. Could it affect you personally? What choices would you make?
4. New questions to integrate:
a. What did you learn from this subject that could work in other countries? Would something like this in your home country? Why or why not?
b. What other points of view are there? Can you see how different solutions to this situation could harm people inside and outside the country?
c. What solutions are sustainable? How does it effect the environment, economy, population over time? What are the trade-offs?
d. Can any of the negative behaviors be changed? What could someone (or you) personally do to change the outcome?
e. What ideas are connected to this idea?
f. What related ideas would you like to bring from your country to this country? Or from this country to your home country?

Final Activity: Write an individual or class letter [of support for] or to non-violent protester Aung San Suu Kyi. Discuss other human rights activists in other countries or for other issues. Discuss mild and extreme forms of protest.
• Bloggers in Burma tell world what’s happening. (S.F. Chronicle, World, 9/28/2007)