1. facinghistory.org

2. Note to Teachers: Getting Started
This PowerPoint presentation accompanies Lesson 9: Defining Our Obligation to Others from the Standing Up for Democracy scheme of work. It is important to read the lesson plan in order to understand its rationale, context, and to learn more about the optional assessment in the Notes to Teachers section.
This presentation includes verbal instructions for the activities in the Notes beneath each slide. Accessing hyperlinks in PowerPoint involves extra steps: select View - Notes Page - right click on the hyperlink - and select Open Hyperlink. Alternatively, you can access the hyperlinks from Lesson 9: Defining Our Obligation to Others or by viewing the presentation in Google Slides.
While you may need to modify this presentation to meet the needs of your students, please note that Facing History and Ourselves is not accountable for any changes that alter the presentation's content or original layout.
Information about Standing Up for Democracy PowerPoint Slides
Each PowerPoint accompanies a corresponding lesson plan that includes more detailed instructions about the activities and should be read in advance of teaching the lesson.
Wherever possible, we have used images in lieu of writing to encourage the verbal delivery of instructions as a means of boosting focus and to promote active listening skills.
The same image is used for each recurring teaching strategy throughout the scheme of work to facilitate recall and promote student independence.

3. Defining Our Obligation to Others

4. Guiding Questions
What factors influence the extent to which we feel an obligation to help others?
How does the way we view others influence our feelings of responsibility towards them?
Defining Our Obligation to Others: Learning Objective
To apply a new concept of human behaviour—universe of obligation—to be able to analyse how individuals and societies determine who is deserving of respect and whose rights are worthy of protection.

5. Universe of Obligation
Phrases
Images
Universe of Obligation
Tell students that in this lesson, they will be learning about a concept of human behaviour called “universe of obligation.”
Before defining universe of obligation, ask your students to make a modified concept map: a pictorial representation using images, words, ideas, and phrases of the concept based on their understanding of the words “universe” and “obligation” and what those words might mean when used together in this way.
Remind them about the concept maps that they created for “stereotype” in Lesson 2. They will be doing a similar exercise for this activity.
Ideas
Words

6. Universe of Obligation
Phrases
Images
Universe of Obligation
Ask students to share their Universe of Obligation pictorial representations with a partner in a Think, Pair, Share before moving on to the next activity.
Encourage them to add new ideas to their maps if any emerge during their conversations.
Ideas
Words

7. Universe of Obligation
Explain the concept universe of obligation to students by first explaining that it is one way to consider the benefits of belonging to groups and the consequences of being excluded. An individual or group’s universe of obligation represents the extent to which they feel responsible for others, and we often feel a greater sense of responsibility for those who belong to the same groups that we do.
Hand out the Reading: Universe of Obligation and read it aloud as a whole group.
You might pause after each paragraph to check for understanding by asking students to underline one sentence in the paragraph that helps them better understand the benefits and costs of group membership or universe of obligation, and then asking one or two students to share what they underlined and explain why, before moving to the next paragraph.

8. Which seems to have the most exclusive?
PD-US
In what ways do these three people agree? In what ways do they disagree?
Which of these people seems to have the most inclusive universe of obligation?  
Which seems to have the most exclusive?
Is it possible for everyone in the world to be included in an individual or country’s universe of obligation?  If not, how should we prioritise?
David Hume
Globalmediamakers, CC BY-SA 4.0
Chuck Collins
Call attention to this reading’s quotations with perspectives from three people: philosopher David Hume, activist Chuck Collins, and social scientist William Graham Sumner (connection question #4).
Re-read the quotations from each of these three people to the class, and then discuss the questions as a class.
PD-US
William Graham Sumner

9. What factors influence the way a society defines its universe of obligation? In what ways might a nation or community signal who is part of its universe of obligation and who is not?
What do you think might be some of the consequences for those who are not within a society’s universe of obligation?
What factors influence how an individual defines his or her universe of obligation? In what ways might an individual show others who is part of his or her universe of obligation and who is not?
How would you describe your nation’s universe of obligation? Your school’s? Your own?
Time allowing, in small groups or as a class, discuss one or more of the remaining connection questions that you did not cover in the previous slide’s discussion of connection question #4.

10. Ask students to illustrate their own universes of obligation using the handout Universe of Obligation Graphic Organiser. The concentric circles on this handout can help students visualise and draw what an individual, group, or country’s universe of obligation might look like.  
Tell them that they will not be sharing their graphic organisers with their peers. Instead, they will be discussing the process of creating it. (See Notes to Teacher).
It might be helpful first to quickly brainstorm a variety of types of individuals and groups that might appear on one’s graphic organiser, including family, friends, neighbours, classmates, strangers in one’s town and more.  
Alternatively, you can also start to create your own Universe of Obligation graphic on the board to model the process for your students.
Give students time to follow the instructions and complete the activity on the handout.

11. Have students move into groups of 3–4 to discuss the experience of trying to illustrate their universes of obligation.
Discussion questions are on the next slide.

12. What was the experience of drawing your universe of obligation like?
What did you think about when deciding where to place certain groups in your universe of obligation? Which decisions were difficult? Which were easy?
Under what conditions might your universe of obligation shift?  
What might cause you to move some groups to the centre and others to the outside?
What is the difference between an individual’s universe of obligation and that of a school, community, or country?
Project and/or pass out the discussion questions.
All of the groups should discuss questions 1 and 5. You might have everyone discuss questions 2–4 as well, or, if you don’t feel that you have enough time, assign one question from 2-4 to each group and have them share brief summaries of their discussions.

13. How does learning about an individual or group’s universe of obligation help you think about one of the following stories or moments in a new, different, or deeper way?
Eve Shalen and her classmate’s diary
James Berry’s poem about how we respond to difference
Jane Elliott’s students in the brown eye/blue eye experiment
Mr. Judge, Sarfraz Manzoor’s Asian maths teacher
Let students know that they will finish the lesson by making connections between this lesson’s concept of universe of obligation and other situations they studied in this scheme of work.
Invite students to refer to their journals, class notes, and readings for this reflection (The “In" Group, What Do We Do With a Variation?, A Class Divided, and Identity and Belonging). Review the texts before students start writing as needed.
Ask students to respond to the prompt in a closing journal response.

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