'Rwanda Genocide Memorial' photo (c) 2010, configmanager - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Geography is one of the classes I teach to Beginning and Intermediate English Language Learners, and we’re just finishing up our unit on Africa (see A Beginning List Of The Best Geography Sites For Learning About Africa).

We’re studying the Rwandan genocide (see The Best Sites To Learn About Genocide In Rwanda) as part of that unit, and American University has an excellent lesson on it, including readings for small group “jigsaws.”

In addition to that lesson, students watched the movie Hotel Rwanda.

I’ve previously posted about our school’s use of AWPE Writing prompts, and decided to integrate them into this Rwanda unit. Students watched the movie yesterday, and began work on this prompt today:

What does the movie Hotel Rwanda say about courage? To what extent do you agree with the movie’s message? To support your opinion, be sure to include specific examples drawn from your own experience, your observations of others, anything you have read, and scenes from the movie.

The Beginning students aren’t responding to it, but the Intermediates are working hard on it — with the support of peer tutors.

They’ll be posting their final essays at our class blog soon, so you’ll be able to see the results….