Faith and Conflict Syllabus and Vocab

Faith and Conflict: Israel, Palestine, and Afghanistan
Class Syllabus
Trillium Charter School S2 2008/9

Instructors:
Ken Gadbow and Melina Reynoso
Email: Ken@TrilliumCharterSchool.org, RealismIsRealistic@gmail.com
Blog: http://ken-trillium.blogspot.com/
Ken’s Mobile Phone: 503-348-9849

Course Overview
This course explores the roots and current events of the ongoing social and political conflicts in Israel-Palestine, and Afghanistan. Special attention is placed on understanding the historical significance of the religious groups involved, and post WWII developments, including the Cold War. Students will have the opportunity to engage in real world and real time dialog with students in the Palestinian territories via web-dialog and video conferencing through the Mercy Corps Why Not program.

Melina Reynoso, a senior at Trillium, will be co-planning and teaching this course with Ken Gadbow, as the primary focus of her Senior Project. Melina plans to pursue a career as a social studies teacher, and has demonstrated outstanding commitment and perseverance in her work at Trillium as a student. Melina and Ken have been working together to coordinate this course since the fall of 2008. We are fortunate to have Melina’s skills, experience, and leadership in this class.

Code of Conduct
All students are expected to know and uphold the Rights and Responsibilities of the Trillium Constitution. We will use the non-violent conflict resolution process that includes conversations, mediations, and agreements.

Grading policies:
Student and teacher negotiate the individual grading system. The way in which the final grade will be determined is up to the individual student. Below is a range of options from which students will be asked to choose at the mid-semester point. Students may choose any percentage from the possibilities below, as long as they add up to 100%.
Weekly Responses (Due each Tuesday): (5%-15%)
Quizzes (Each Thursday): (10%-30%)
Projects (Writing, Presentation, Performance, etc.): (20%-35%)
Participation (Class activities and discussions): (30%-50%)

Attendance and Tardiness Policy:
This course requires participation in order to be successful for the student, the group, and the class. Therefore it is imperative that the student take part in all class activities. Our partnership with Mercy Corps’ ‘Why Not” program allows for the unique opportunity of communicating live via video with students in the Palestinian territories. Due to the time difference, and the security situation in Gaza and the West Bank, these video conferences will take place according to the schedule of our counterparts in the Middle East. This means we may need to meet quite early in the morning before school in order to take part. All students are expected to attend these sessions. They are mandatory.
A person is considered on-time if he/she is in the classroom, in his/her seat ready to work when the bell rings. A person may be considered tardy if he/she does not meet the above criteria or comes to class less than 5 minutes after the bell rings. Three tardies constitute one un-excused absence. A person will lose one letter grade for every two unexcused absences. A person who is tardy will still benefit in coming to class as he/she will better understand what is happening in the course, and will be able to participate and contribute to the class in a meaningful way.

Course Material:
We will draw from a variety of books, films, and periodicals in this course. These will include, but are not limited to: Promises (A PBS documentary), Three Wishes by Deborah Ellis, Night by Ellie Wiesel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Bread Winner Trilogy by Deborah Ellis, Martyr’s Crossing by Amy Wilentz.
Students are encouraged to keep up to date on relevant topics through any of the following news source:
• The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/),
• The British Broadcasting Corporation (http://www.bbc.co.uk/),
• National Public Radio (http://www.npr.org/)
• Rethinking Schools (http://www.rethinkingschools.org/)
• The Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/),
• Al Jazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net/),

Other titles and sources that may be of interest will be included on Ken’s blog as they become relevant.

A note on sources: Students should take special care when researching on-line to find credible information, especially due to the volatile nature of this particular topic. Government (.gov) and university (.edu) websites are among the more reliable. PBS, BBC, NPR, and National Geographic are also likely to offer well researched material. Wikipedia.org has its merits, and can be a useful tool, but like most sources, can contain biased or inaccurate information. All sources should be treated critically. Always use more than one source. Compare and contrast the information you find. ALWAYS site your sources. Failure to do so is considered plagiarism, a form of stealing, and will be dealt with accordingly. If you have questions about plagiarism, I highly recommend speaking with one of your teachers and/or consulting the following web resources:
• The On-Line Writing Lab at Purdue University (OWL) (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/)
• The University of Southern Mississippi Plagiarism Tutorial and Quiz (http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/plag/plagiarismtutorial.php)

Weekly Schedule:
Every Tuesday: Weekly Response due (see below for topic list) at the beginning of class.
Every Thursday: Weekly quiz over geography, readings, vocabulary, or current events.


Weekly Response Topics
Faith and Conflict Class
Semester 2, 2008/9

Students must turn in a response to one of the following questions each Tuesday. Responses are to be typed or neatly handwritten, and double spaced, between one-third and one-half page in length.

Topics:
1. What ways could this class be better, and why should those changes be made?
2. What things do you like or appreciate about this class and why?
3. Describe an event in your out of class life that relates to material covered in class.
4. What is important to you about education? Describe your ideal education environment as if you were telling it to someone who had never seen an American school. What does it look like? What happens there?
5. How has your family or culture influenced you? How might you be different if you grew up in a different family or in a different culture? How would you describe your family or culture to someone who was unfamiliar with American culture? What makes it special or unique?
6. What traditions and foods are important to your family and friends? Give specific examples.
7. What past times do you enjoy and what do you like about them? What sports, music, or hobbies do you appreciate and why?
8. Describe a conversation you have had about class material outside of class. What did you talk about and why?
9. Describe a time when you felt safe and comfortable. What was the around you that helped you feel that way?
10. Describe a time when you felt unsafe, scared, or threatened? What was happening that you felt that way?
11. Imagine if war were happening around you and your family, what do you imagine you would do? How might you feel? How might it affect your daily routine?


Vocabulary Terms, Part One
Faith and Conflict Class

Arab
Arab Peace Initiative
Arab-Israeli War
Balfour Declaration
British Mandate of Palestine
Camp David Accords
Camp David Summit
Checkpoints
Diaspora
Fatah
First Intifada
Gaza Strip
Hamas
Holocaust
Islam
Israeli
Israeli Settlements
Jerusalem
Jew
Judaism
Multilateral
Orthodox
Palestinian
Palestinian Authority
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)
Peace Process
Pogrom
Refugee
Right of Return
Road Map to Peace
Second Intifada
Security Fence or Wall
Sinai Peninsula
Six Day War
Suicide Bombing
Two-State Solution
UN Resolution 242
Unilateral
United Nations
West Bank
Zionism