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Lesson plan: The increasing use of small arms: putting over a message
From Making Sense of World Conflicts online resource
Age group:
14–17
Objectives
Learning outcomes
You will need
What to do
Objectives
- To
recognise how the use of images and words can convey powerful messages.
- To create a basis of understanding of the issues of small arms and the arms trade.
Learning outcomes
Pupils will have:
- identified some initial facts about the increasing use of small arms.
- analysed how words can work with pictures to create meaning.
You will need
What to do
Starter
1.Inform pupils of the meaning of ‘small arms’.
Small arms Small arms are designed for personal use; light weapons are designed for use by several people serving as a crew. Small arms include revolvers and self-loading pistols; rifles and carbines; sub-machine guns; assault rifles; and light machine guns. |
2. Give pairs of pupils a copy of The increasing use of small arms and ask them to try to decide if each statement is true or false. Go through the answers – all the statements are true! The statements are hard hitting, so ask pupils which they find the most surprising and which the most shocking and why.
Activity
3. Ask pupils to look at the image on the same sheet. It is a campaign poster for children in Cambodia designed to raise awareness of the danger of playing with old munitions. Enlarge it on a photocopier if necessary. Do not give any information at this stage.
4. Ask the pupils what they think this picture is about? What does it show? What might it be for? Who might it be aimed at? What part of the world might it come from? How might we know? Discuss the visual clues to the message and the meaning of the image. Then give the pupils information about the poster.
5. Ask pupils to choose one or more of the statements that best relates to the poster or make up their own caption. Do the words increase the power of the message? How?
6. You might like to discuss the posters designed by the Saatchi Advertising Agency on the dangers of landmines in Cambodia. These are displayed on the website of the International Campaign to ban Landmines. There is plenty of other visual material there as well.
7.
You could also provide some information about the legacy of small arms use in Cambodia which can be found by using the search option on the Oxfam website and the Control Arms campaign website or by using a search engine.
Closing discussion
8. Do people in the UK have to worry about the dangers of small arms and discarded weapons? Discuss how it would affect our lives if there were a significant risk from discarded small arms and weapons. What three points would pupils use to warn people of the dangers of small arms? Pupils could design a poster for homework using one of the statements about the increasing use of small arms.
From Making Sense of World Conflicts online resource
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