Understanding the world and the societies in it requires recognizing the role that our prejudices and stereotypes play in shaping the lives of people. This lesson plan makes use of Özlem Gezer's article in Der Spiegel, 'Turkified': Why I Can Never Be a Proper German, to examine some of these processes through their effects on the life of one Turkish-German girl. It is part of a broader unit oriented towards guiding student reflection and initiative on these topics.
Materials
Students engage with this worksheet as they complete the lesson. They can use a meme generator site (e.g. https://imgflip.com/memegenerator ) to create the memes on their phones or tablets.
Introduction - 20 minutes
If students have not already done this as part of another lesson in this unit (see: Understanding the danger of the single story), this warm-up could prove useful. Students are provided time to free write on the topics of stereotypes and prejudices and encouraged to devote time from the very basic - definitions - to the more complex - specific examples and feelings. Time and space is subsequently designated for guided student discussion. By the end of this process, the class should have a general idea of what stereotypes and prejudices are, some common examples, and how they can be harmful. The Equality and Human Rights Commission page can be used as a source for formal definitions.
Being Turkified - 60 minutes
Now engaged with the theme of stereotypes and prejudices, students are ready to explore the concrete effects of these processes through the life of one person and her childhood growing up as narrated by herself.
Özlem, the granddaughter of Turkish immigrants, is born in Hamburg with the ordinary aspirations of any German child but she doesn't necessarily feel German growing up. Despite her use of "different Turk" phrases that help her occasionally fit in, she gradually becomes "Turkified" through the stereotypes and assumptions imposed on her by society. Everything from her daily routines, role in her family, dietary preferences, and political allegiances become subject to (often mistaken) role-typing with harmful consequences to her and the process of integration more generally.
The worksheet can be employed to guide student engagement with the text and split up the rather lengthy article into chunks for reflection. I especially like to use the questions as a springboard for more extended discussions.
What would have made her feel the same as other kids during her childhood?
What was the meaning behind the "different Turk" phrases and why does Özlem later abandon them?
To what extent was her life trajectory her own choice (and how does that compare to students' own experience in their lives)?
Students typically note that many immigrant groups (e.g. American family in Germany) probably wouldn't have encountered the same degree of prejudice from the teacher. This is a beneficial opening for comparing/contrasting issues that different immigrants face depending on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, etc...
Implications of exclusion: what consequences (economic, social, health, etc...) could result from the "Turkification" of an entire group of young Germans?
Meme Activity - 15 minutes
Students are finally provided an opportunity to employ their content learning through the creation of a meme that articulates an opinion from the point of view of Özlem as expressed in the article. This activity, done in pairs, helps both reinforce and assess student understanding and enable students to practice empathy by representing Özlem's perspective. A word of caution: my students are always warned to be appropriate in the creation of these memes.
A few examples of student work:
Further Extension
I've developed a packet of lessons for this unit. This lesson is a particularly effective follow-up to my lesson on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story, which provides an introduction to the topic. After learning about stereotypes and prejudices and (hopefully) developing empathy, students are ultimately challenged to become part of the process of changing them. In this vein, students prepare articles that put a spotlight on stories that challenge the stereotypes told about a particular community.
For more on my teaching, connect with me on Twitter: @ShaneMarkowitz