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Lesson 1 (from Section 1: "Part One: Toxins in the Permafrost and Heat Rising All Around" )

Objective

Students will acquire background knowledge on caste, class, and race.

Wilkerson's book assumes a base level of knowledge about race, class, and caste that students may not have prior to reading her book. Students need to be acquainted with more than the basic definitions of these terms--they also need to understand the relationship among them and their nature as social constructions. This lesson is designed to offer them these foundational understandings prior to their reading of the book.

Lesson

Reading Activity: Distribute copies of the University of Minnesota Library's Open Textbook entry "8.1 Systems of Stratification" (available online).

Research Activity: Give students time to research the definitions and use of the terms "race," "class," and "caste." Ask them to pay particular attention to how these ideas relate to one another, what common misunderstandings of these terms are, and how these ideas are socially constructed.

Partner Activity: Divide...

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