Abortion & Extremisim – A Lesson Plan
Continuing with my religious theme this week, I’ve got a lesson for you 
Preface: There are a number of reasons I like to use lessons including religious subjects.
1) I personally find religion to be a fascinating topic, so I often try to bring it into the classroom. We talk a lot about keeping the students interested, but we also have to keep ourselves interested.
2) Religion is often controversial and always thought-provoking. It’s great for debates, critical thinking skills, cross-cultural thinking skills, empathy and much more.
3) You can easily do lesson connected to the students’ culture as their is a wealth of material both in ancient texts and modern newspapers.
4) Religion often has a huge impact on culture and helping students to understand religion in the locations they expect to use English in can help a lot.
So on to the lesson.
I like this lesson a lot, but only use it with classes rarely as it has some very strong themes and class where trust has been built up over a long time. There are a lot of skills practiced, but the main thing for me is that it provokes a need to understand the Other. Both in the context of the material in the lesson and in the context of the subject matter, in this case abortion. Abortion is not a contentious issue in Turkey, especially not to the degree it is in the US, so a debate lesson on abortion simply falls flat. Throwing in some really controversial material spices things up and gets students interested in a topic they might not otherwise care about.
Lesson Part 1:
Level: Upper-Intermediate
Objective:
Inferring meaning
Looking at the world through another’s eyes
Drawing conclusions from spoken and written texts
Analytical skills
Examining rhetoric through vocabulary
Materials: Internet Access or downloaded copy of The Execution of Paul Hill (also found here http://www.mercyseat.net/sermons.html, then search for the title).
Procedure:
Note: You should familiarize yourself with Paul Hill & the Army of God before the lesson.
Show the picture of Paul Hill to the class. Ask the class to take a minute and guess information about the man. They should probably be able to identify that he is associated with a church, went to jail, and is a hero to some people. Now ask the class in small groups to brainstorm how all this information is connected.
After you get some ideas, tell them Paul Hill was a former minister who was given the death penalty for killing an abortion doctor (you’ll probably have to pre-teach “minister” “death penalty” and “abortion.”)
Now tell them that he believed his actions were justified. In the same groups, have the class try to come up with ideas as to how he could feel murder was justified. Write their ideas up on the board.
Pre-teach vocabulary for the sermon: a deed, a verse, the Bible, evil, oppression, Scripture, a pew, and offering plate, Sunday school, lethal, righteousness, legitimate, sane, to execute, to condemn, to intervene, to slaughter, to obliterate, to repudiate, “To Kill a Mockingbird” & Boo Radley.
The verse – “See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all.”
Hand out the question sheet for the sermon.
Now play the designated parts of the sermon (Minutes 4:19 – 8:08, 10:07 – 11:18, 13:09 – 15:30, 41:20 – 42:30). [Note: This sermon is given by Pastor Matt Trewhella of Mercy Seat Church in Milwaukee, WI. He is the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn. He is a very intense and opinionated man both in his sermons and in everyday life.]
The listening always gets strong and interested reactions from the students. You should just be able to open the class up to debate and see where it goes. There are a number of themes that can be discussed following the listening such as:
The use of violence (in law, in religion, by small groups, when it’s justified, etc.)
Abortion
The death penalty
The right to free speech
Alternative: Ask the class to come up with some questions they have about the people involved, the movement, etc. For homework or in the computer lab (if you have access to one) students can then do further research. Here are some useful sites:
One Soldier’s Story – Shelly Shannon
The Brutal Truth: Part 1 & 2 (Movement’s documentary on police brutality against protests)
Walk for Life March & Counter-Protest
Lesson Part 2:
Level: Upper-Intermediate
Objective: Inferring meaning
Looking at the world through another’s eyes
Drawing conclusions from spoken and written texts
Analytical skills
Examining rhetoric through vocabulary
Materials: The Fetus Focus Fallacy
http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/fetus-focus-fallacy.shtml
Procedure:
By now the class has taken a look at part of the pro-life debate. Tell them they’ll now be looking at the other side of the equation.
Split the class into two groups. Group 1 will state any reasons against abortion they can remember and add any more they can think of. Group 2 will try to come up with reasons for supporting Pro-Choice.
From the article mentioned in materials, I cut out this portion and hand it out.
Write 2 questions on the board:
1) How is the language used in this article different from that used in the sermon from the first lesson?
2) What are some key reasons used to defend the pro-choice argument?
Follow-Up:
Students choose sides and debate abortion.
Tags: Abortion, Lesson Plan, Paul Hill, Religion
Lesson Ideas | turklis1 | 
September 20, 2010 12:53 pm
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