Teacher's Guide for FACES ^® Peace Corps

• Set the stage by borrowing library books about the countries featured in this issue of FACES ^® (Liberia, Iran, Mali, Mongolia, China, Romania, Guatemala, Kenya) and set up a study/research center. Look up previous issues of FACES ^® (Growing Up in China, January 1996; Mali, February 1997; Kenya, January 1999; Mongolia, October 2003) and FOOTSTEPS issue Liberia, January 2001. National Geographic is another good resource. Introduce the center by showing the books and magazines to the students and encouraging them to choose from them during free time.
• Introduce the Peace Corps issue of FACES ^® by showing the front cover of the magazine. Ask students what they know about the Peace Corps. Begin a KWL chart. Individually or in pairs, ask students to fill out the first two columns before they read the magazine. Reserve the third column for after students have read and discussed the articles in the magazine.
  
  

  What I KNOW about the Peace Corps	What I WONDER about the Peace Corps	What I LEARNED about the Peace Corps

  
  
• Spend some time looking at the map on p. 4-5. Make sure that students are able to locate all of the countries featured. Use a globe to help determine if most of the countries served by Peace Corps are in the northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere. Why might this be?
• Check out the Peace Corps website (www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn) to get more information about what Peace Corps volunteers do, where they go, and what it is like to be a Peace Corps volunteer.

For discussion

• Why is the third goal of the Peace Corps-to help promote a better understanding of other peoples-important?
• What features of culture are likely to be the same everywhere? What is likely to be different? How does culture impact the way people dress, what they eat, what they do for entertainment?
• According to the author, "Many volunteers report life-changing experiences." Ask students to think about what types of experiences these might be.

Activities

• Use Peace Match (www.peacematch.org) or a local Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group (www.rpcv.org/pages/groups.cfm?category-2) to connect with a RPCV. Invite a RPCV to come to your classroom to talk about his/her experience. Or invite parents or community members from other countries to speak to students about the language, culture and customs of their home countries.
• In small groups, ask students to list some universals of culture. Share with the class. Make sure to explain that all people share basic needs as well as sets of behaviors and beliefs. Check to see that students understand that everyone has a culture and that culture is what shapes how we see the world, ourselves, and others.

For discussion

• What are some of the jobs done by Peace Corps volunteers?
• Name the three main goals of the Peace Corps.
• Why do you think President Kennedy challenged college students to serve their country by living and working in developing nations and later created the Peace Corps?
• What might be some of the reasons that Peace Corps is described as "the toughest job you'll ever love"?

Activities

• Have students pretend they are Peace Corps volunteers. How would they explain American culture to people in their host country? Ask them to write an essay describing American culture.
• Ask students to create a timeline that shows the important events in the history of the Peace Corps.
• Ask students to interview their grandparents or another older person: What does the older person remember about President John F. Kennedy? What does he/she remember about the creation of the Peace Corps?
• With students, brainstorm ways they could volunteer in school or the community. In teams or individually, have students participate in a volunteer activity that benefits their school.

For discussion

• Angene and Jack Wilson were in the first group of Peace Corps volunteers to go to Liberia. What do students think it was like to be among the first Peace Corps volunteers to work in a country? What might have been some of the challenges?
• Discuss some of the ways that the Peace Corps experience influenced the lives of the author and her husband.

Activities

• As a whole class, have students research the civil war in Liberia. For a good history of Liberia and the civil war check out http://personal.denison.edu/~waite/liberia/history/. Then have each student pretend he or she is a Liberian. Ask students to write a letter telling their returned Peace Corps volunteer friend who is now living back in the United States about how the civil war has impacted Liberia.
• Provide students with a list of African proverbs. (http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Discourse/Proverbs/African.html or www.kairarecords.com/kane/proverbs.htm) Assign students to small groups and give each group a proverb. Ask each group to talk about the proverb. Then ask them to explain the meaning of their proverb to the class.
• Ask students to review the Friends of Liberia website (www.fol.org). Share their findings with each other.

For discussion

• Ask students to imagine they are telling students from another culture about their community. What would they choose to tell? What is unique or different about their community?
• The author believes that meeting other people is the best way to promote peace and friendship. Discuss some other ways that students can promote peace and friendship.
• The author, Doug Schermer, was motivated to join the Peace Corps by President John Kennedy's speech in which he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country." What did President Kennedy mean by this? Why do you think the author was motivated by this comment?

Activities

• Ask each student to make a KWL chart about Iran and fill in the first two columns. Share the charts in class and allow students to add to their second column after they talk with classmates. Using books, Peace Match, interviews, and the Internet, have students find the answers to their questions. Share findings.
• See if there is an exchange student at the local high school or nearby college. Have the students prepare questions for an interview. Invite the student to the classroom to share his/her culture and to be interviewed. Have students prepare an article about the visit for the local newspaper or for the school newsletter.

For discussion

• The author said, "While I thought that I would be the one helping and teaching, I was the one who learned so much." What did she mean by this? What happened?
• What are some of the things that the author learned as a Peace Corps volunteer?

Activities

• Get copies of the October 2003 issue of FACES ^®. This issue features Mongolia. Ask students to read the issue. Then have them pretend that they are Peace Corps volunteers in rural Mongolia. Tell them to write a letter to their parents in the United States sharing some of their experiences.
• For a look at life in rural Mongolia, rent the video: The Story of the Weeping Camel (ThinkFilm in association with National Geographic World Film, 2003) or check out the Friends of Mongolia website, www.friendsofmongolia.org.
• Have students research the lifestyle, roles, and responsibilities of a child in Mongolia. Using a Venn diagram, ask students to compare their life to the life of a Mongolian child.

For discussion

• In what way did the author's Guatemalan neighbors teach her how to keep the street in front of her house clean? How do you think this might have been done in the U.S.?
• What are some of the things that the author needed to learn when she began living in Guatemala?
• Get a topographical or relief map of Guatemala. With students, analyze and discuss the geographical features. Discuss contour lines. What areas represent flat or gradually sloping terrain? What might be some of the natural resources in a country with this type of topography? Discuss how physical geography impacts people's lives.

Activities

• Ask students if they have ever had an experience like the author when she didn't know what the expectations or rules were? Have them write about this experience and what it felt like. Share.
• Using Material World by Peter Menzel (1994, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 112-119), ask students to look at the pictures and read the text about the Guatemalan family. Then ask students to pretend that they are new Peace Corps volunteers. Have them write a letter to their family back in the U.S. describing their new life in the village of San Antonio de Palopo and their new neighbors the Calabay Sicay family.

For discussion

• What did the author say were some of the advantages of serving in the Peace Corps as a married couple?
• The author described a wedding celebration in Romania. Ask students to retell a story about a wedding in the U.S. In what ways are weddings in the two cultures similar?

Activities

• Ask students to research Romania and show some of the similarities and difference between the U.S. and Romania by using a visual organizer. Be sure to research favorite foods, clothing, housing, transportation, entertainment, language, celebrations, and schools. For photos and links try www.friendsofromania.org.
• The author and her husband are older Peace Corps volunteers who have already retired. Have students give specific examples of how being older could be an advantage. Make a list of advantages and disadvantages.

For discussion

• Discuss what is meant by the following statements:
  • Sooner or later, weird becomes normal.
  • Never make assumptions.
  • Rich and poor have new meanings.
• Why might it be possible for Peace Corps volunteers to misunderstand what is expected in another culture? How can they learn to see things from the perspective of those in another culture? Lead students to the awareness that no two people see the same thing in exactly the same way. All people bring to a situation their own values, beliefs, and life experiences.
• Discuss how people feel about old people in Mali? How do they feel about children?

Activities

• Get copies of the February 1997 issue of FACES ^® that featuares Mali. Ask students to read the issue. Based on the previous articles in this issue of FACES ^® and on the Mali issue, have students write a fictional one-week diary of a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali.
• Ask students if they have ever shared an experience with a friend and yet seen the situation differently. Can they think of an example from the classroom or recess when this has happened? Ask students to think about a misunderstanding and fill out the following chart.
  
  

  The experience as I saw it:	The experience as the other person saw it (or how you think the person saw it):
  How I felt about the experience:	How I think the other person felt about it:
  Why I felt the way I did:	Why I think the other person felt the way he or she did

  
  
• Using Material World by Peter Menzel (1994, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 14-21, 163-143), ask each student to look at the pictures and read the text for the Natomo family in Mali. Compare the Natomo family home and possessions with the home and possessions of the Skeen family from the United States. Ask students to write a reflective paper based on what they learned.
• Imagine that you are in charge of preparing a student from Mali to adjust to life in Vermont. Write a guidebook that will help the Malian student become accustomed to everyday life.

For discussion

• Help students see that environmental issues impact everyone. Discuss why people should care about environmental damage done in a country far away. Explain this quote: "What we call foreign affairs is no longer foreign affairs. It's a local affair. Whatever happens in Indonesia is important to Indiana . . . " Dwight D. Eisenhower (1959). Explain to students that environmental damage created in other parts of the world, or in your own country, can affect the entire planet. As a class, brainstorm examples of global environmental issues.
• What are some of the things that people in Romania have learned from Peace Corps volunteers?
• According to the author, the people in Romania do not understand the concept of volunteerism well. As a group, define volunteerism. Who benefits from volunteerism? (Point out to students that both the volunteer and the recipient or community as a whole benefit when someone volunteers.) Discuss ways to promote volunteerism. Brainstorm ways that the class can volunteer in the school.

Activities

• For ideas on how students can volunteer in promoting cross-cultural understanding see www.peacecorps.gov/wws/service.
• Have students simulate a TV or radio show interviewing a Peace Corps volunteer who has just return from working with Petruta Moisi in Romania.

For discussion

• Explain to students that people in one culture, often think someone from another culture is different. Ask students to discuss ways that all people are the same.
• What did PCV Kevin Henderson mean when he said, "Being deaf actually reinforced my intimacy with deaf Kenyans, children and adults alike, and provided a deeper access to their culture overall."

Activities

• The author talks about how a Kenyan man was surprised that a deaf person could write. Discuss this man's response to a deaf person. Ask students to make a list of some ways that they can avoid stereotyping people with handicaps.
• Ask students if they have ever felt different. Have them write about how it feels to be seen as different. Have them share their responses with each other.
• To learn more about Kenya, have students research www.friendsofKenya.org.

For discussion

• The author stated, "One major difference [between the Chinese and American cultures] is that Chinese culture emphasizes the group over the individual, whereas American culture stresses just the opposite." Explain to students that in some cultures, people believe the group is responsible for the well being of each individual. In other cultures, people believe individuals are primarily responsible for themselves. Is one way better than the other? Why or why not? Do they think this is an either/or situation? Is it possible to achieve a balance between the two beliefs?
• Discuss the job of a Peace Corps recruiter? What skills and background experiences are important for a recruiter to have?

Activities

• Write an essay addressing the question: When is it more important to take care of the group, and when is it more important to take care of the individual? Might the answers vary from culture to culture? Why? How would life in school be different if everyone shared the Chinese values of putting the group first?
• The author's job is to recruit people for the Peace Corps. Make a poster or magazine advertisement that could be used to recruit new Peace Corps volunteers.

• For lesson plans by grade, geographic region, or topic, or ways to connect with a volunteer, stories from volunteers, lists of folktales, day in the life stories, or country information check the Peace Corps World Wise Schools site at www.peacecorps.gov/wws/index.html.
• Food is very important in most cultures. Have students research recipes and make a dish from one of the countries featured in FACES ^®. Organize a celebration and have students bring the dishes in and share them.
• Ask a philatelist to share his/her stamp collection with the class. What can students learn about Peace Corps countries from stamps? Have students design a Peace Corps stamp based on what they learned in this issue.
• Have students cooperatively write a short skit about what it is like be a new Peace Corps volunteer arriving at his/her new home for the first time. Act out the skit for another class.
• Have students research returned Peace Corps volunteers who have become well-know. What are they doing now? How has the experience impacted their life?
• Using Material World by Peter Menzel (1994, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 248-249) or another source, ask students to compare per capita income, life expectancy, infant mortality, literacy rate, rank of affluence, and other statistics. What conclusions can they draw? Have them make their own chart or graph displaying what they have found out.
• After reading this issue, ask a group of students to prepare a bulletin board that displays the life of a Peace Corps volunteer.
• Ask students to search magazines and newspapers for news about the countries featured in this issue of FACES ^®. Display the articles on the bulletin board.
• Celebrate Peace Corps Week. Each year during the first week in March, former Peace Corps volunteers celebrate the Peace Corps birthday by sharing their experiences with their communities. For more information check www.peacecorps.gov/rpcv/peacecorpsday/register/index.cfm.
• Have students write a persuasive letter to their parents explaining why it is a good idea for them to join the Peace Corps.

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Updated: 11/21/09 04:42 pm
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