Lesson Plan: Heroes Among Us

Overview:

Students will explore what it means to be a hero. Collaboratively the class will establish characteristics and criteria for being a hero. A list of their own personal heroes will be generated and compared with the list of characteristics and criteria. One contemporary hero will be chosen by the class and reported on during the videoconference. Students will read excerpts from John Quinones’ book, Heroes Among Us, and interview him about the heroes he has met in his career as a journalist and television reporter.

Objectives:

Students will

• Collaboratively generate a description of the term heroism
• List the characteristics and criteria for being a hero
• Identify heroes in their life and describe the characteristics that make them a hero
• Research others criteria for heroes, including John Quinones book, Heroes Among Us
• Generate interview questions for Mr. Quinones (Be prepared with 10-12 questions as some of your questions my be asked by another site)

Defining a Hero

Consider the following:

• What is the difference between a hero and an idol?
• Who decides who is a hero?
• Can there be disagreements as to the designation of a hero?
• How does history regard heroes?
• Can you be a hero? How?

In small groups or as a class, generate characteristics of a hero.

As a class pick one contemporary hero (local, national or international) and describe why this person is a hero. List the characteristics that make this person a hero. Report on this hero during the videoconference.

Read excerpts from Mr. Quinones book and generate questions for the videoconference.

Agenda for the videoconference:

• Opening remarks from Mr. Quinones
• Each school will give a 3-4 minute description of the person they have defined as a hero including the characteristics that made them decide on this hero.
• Questions for Mr. Quinones from each site. Each site will ask 2 questions at a time and we will round-robin through as many sites as time allows.
• Closing remarks by Mr. Quinones