Even though it is safer here, I think that it is unfair we cannot live in our own country because we would not be safe.
~ words from Shah Reh that keep us thinking and wondering ~
Not hers. Not yours. People are always more than the chapters anyone could share. Hold what is here gently. Approach with curiosity, before judgment.
Notice what you notice. Wonder what you wonder. There is no quiz, no right way. Read until something stays.
this film has no words. notice what you notice. notice what you wonder. wonder out loud. and don't forget to notice what you feel, too.
Shaping Stories
Out of the corner of my eye I could see you watching us play soccer! Come closer, we are taking a break right now. Would you like to join in once we start again? You can be on my team. My full name is Ko Reh Sah, Koo Sa, Shah Reh, but you can call me Shah Reh. Did you know that the “Shah” part of my name means “elephant”? Even though I am smaller than some other men, I am proud that I am as strong as an elephant.
I am named after my grandfather, although I never met him. I was born on one side of the river in Karenni State, which used to be independent but is now part of the country called Burma (also known as Myanmar). My grandfather lived on the other side of the river. Because the people of my country were fighting when I was young, it was difficult to travel and he never had the chance to come visit me. My parents used to tell me stories about my grandfather. They say that he was tall, generous and very friendly. I am told that he also liked to make jokes just like me. In a way, we have similar spirits.
Are there any stories in your family that have been passed down from generation to generation? Do you think that stories are important for remembering history? Can you tell me an example of a time in your life that a story helped you connect to the past?
I wish that I had the chance to meet my grandfather. Sometimes I get angry and blame the people of my country who were fighting each other for keeping my grandfather and I apart. Because they were dangerous times, I was not able to travel to visit him.
Growing up, my family had farmland, horses and other animals, and a home. Because the military of Burma was fighting with people who wanted to remain independent in Karenni State, we had to flee from our traditional land. We didn’t take anything with us. We had to rebuild our lives from the beginning.
What do you imagine leaving your home and all of your belongings to be like? Have you ever been in a situation where you had to start all over again? If so, how did that make you feel?
Right now I live in a refugee camp in the country Thailand, which is about four kilometers from the border of Burma. Even though it is safer here, I think that it is unfair we cannot live in our own country because we would not be safe. It can also be boring here. Because we are refugees and not citizens of Thailand, we cannot leave the camp and explore the rest of the country.
Some new people recently came to the refugee camp from the border of Burma, and when they arrived I asked how long it took them to walk from there. Below is a picture graph I made to show how long it took each person. Because it was hot when they were walking, I’m using the sun symbol to represent 10 minutes.
How about we now turn this picture graph into a bar graph! This will help us visualize the information in a different way.
Can you now help me complete the chart below using the bar or picture graph? I really appreciate your help!
Now, how about you put those number of minutes in ascending order. Once you have them organized from least to greatest, can you tell me which rule below describes the pattern shown?
At some point the fighting needs to stop, even though I might want revenge for the takeover of my family land. We need peace more than suffering, and that will not happen if we do not try to create a new path to follow instead of fighting. I firmly believe that the military should not occupy the land of minorities such as the Karenni group and should instead be protecting all people. Even though I do not think that a person should be forced to be a part of a country if they do not want to be, and should be allowed to be independent in their own land, we need to think about what is best for the next generation. Even loss, we can forgive.
Have you ever been in a situation where you could decide to either keep fighting or to forgive someone? What went through your mind as you were making the decision? What type of advice might you give to a person who may be struggling to forgive someone else?
Have you ever thought about what influences the way that you feel? For me, whether I am happy or sad depends on my environment. Sometimes when I am upset, I hide it by pretending to be happy instead. I will joke around with my friends and have a smile on my face. This sometimes helps me forget the things that I feel bad about. It lets me release the suffering that I feel because of the fighting in my country. Even if there are difficult things going on around you, I think you should remember that life is short and it is better to be happy.
Do you agree with me, that it is better to be happy? Or do you feel that other emotions, such as sadness, are important sometimes too? What are some ways that you can express negative feelings so that you can understand them rather than hide them?
Want to set up an inclusive, comfortable space that encourages discussion? Arrange your chairs in a circle for this lesson!
“How do stories influence how we see and relate to others?” Consider approaching this as a classwide discussion or as a short free-write, letting students brainstorm what they think your question means.
Together you could think of some common cultural stories and then ask, “Do these stories play a role in your life? Have you learned anything from them? Have they impacted how you see the world? If so, in what ways?” You also can share some stories that are important to you and how they have shaped your perspective. Then, introduce the rest of the lesson by saying, “Let’s explore some ways that storytelling can help us learn about the experiences of others while also helping us understand more about ourselves.”
Watch the video “I am Shah Reh” and read the Learning Journey “I am Shah Reh.” After watching the video, you can discuss different mediums for telling a story.
“What are some other ways that you can share stories, besides watching a video or reading? Can you think of some benefits and negative aspects to watching, reading or listening to a story? Do you think that the story changes based on how it is presented?” In this Learning Journey, Shah Reh describes how even though he never met his grandfather, he has learned about the person that he was named after through the stories that his family shared with him. “What are some ways that stories shape your identity? Have you ever been influenced by the stories that were told to you? In what ways? Do you think the stories you tell other people can impact their opinions and how they see the world?”
You can introduce the concept of a ‘single story’ by first asking students what they imagine the phrase to mean.
After you collectively brainstorm some ideas, you can explain that a ‘single story’ means that it is a narrative that does not give the ‘big picture’ and instead is limiting because it only presents some of the information– sometimes on accident, and sometimes on purpose. Once students understand what it means, you can discuss if they have ever heard or read a ‘single story’. “Can you give an example of a time that you were exposed to a story that was one-sided? What were some ways that you could tell you were only learning part of what was the reality? Did you feel like that was unfair?” You can also ask students if they have ever personally felt like their own story was not presented fairly because some information was left out. “Have you ever felt like someone saw only one side of you, and thought you had only a ‘single story’? How did that make you feel?” A powerful quote by the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is, “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” “Have you ever assumed something about another person based on only one part of who they are? What are some ways you can start to practice avoiding stereotyping others, and instead learn more about who they are and how they see themselves? How can you can tell stories so that they are not one-sided and instead increase understanding of yourself and others?”
There are many reasons that people tell stories, such as for entertainment, or to teach moral lessons, or to learn about the past. Another reason is to pass on information, since framing data in a story can help people remember it because it is engaging.
Let’s discover how we can create picture graphs from data to tell a visual math story. Explain to your class that you are going to create a collective story, with each student adding a section to help it grow. Decide as a group what the story will be about (you can come up with your own or use a familiar story from your culture), and what information you are trying to convey through your narrative. For example, you can say this will be a story about someone going on a journey, and the data will be about how far he/she travels each day. Discuss what symbol to use to represent the data and write the symbol and its meaning down, and then create a graph outline with a vertical line and a horizontal line that are clearly marked with what they represent. Begin with a few sentences to start off your story, and then have each student add some additional information one at a time. Encourage them to include information about the data you are trying to convey, and keep track of it on the chart. Once you have your data represented visually, you can explore finding patterns in the data set and figure out what rules describe the patterns. You can also turn your picture graph into a bar graph to see what the information looks like when represented differently.
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →What's Your Reason
Come, take a seat as I’m preparing lunch and I’ll tell you about the history of my home and of my family. Do you have a favorite type of vegetable that you would like me to add to the rice? I hope you like spicy food, because I use a lot of pepper and ginger! It will be awhile before everything is finished cooking, so there is plenty of time for you to hear my story. At one point, Karenni State was independent. It was not ruled by the British, who were in charge of Burma (which is also sometimes called Myanmar, depending on who you ask) for many years. After the British left, the government of Burma decided that Karenni State would become a part of the country. Many people disagreed with this, like my father. He decided to fight for the freedom of Karenni State because he did not believe that the rulers of Burma had the right to take over the land. When I was about three years old, my father was captured and killed by the military of Burma. He believed so strongly that the Karenni people should be free that he was willing to die for his beliefs. Even though he knew that it was risky, he felt that it was his duty to fight.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had to stand up for what you thought was right, even though those in power disagreed with you?
What were some ways that you explained your point of view?
What did it feel like to listen to the other side of the argument even though you disagreed with it?
Even though I was young when my father was killed, I do have good memories of how much he loved me and my family. I remember how he used to carry me on his shoulders, even though he had trouble walking since he had been shot in the knee by a bullet. He was the commander of the soldiers in his unit, and he cared for them too. When his men came back from fighting, he would invite them to our house and feed them. He treated them like family because he felt that their shared goal turned them into brothers.
My father took care of his soldiers by feeding them good meals and inviting them into his home.
He did not have to do that – he was not being paid to give them some of his own supplies – but he did it because he thought of them as brothers.
Have you ever helped someone even though you had no obligation?
What motivated you to do so?
When soldiers would come visit my house, we had to set up an area so they could eat.
My father would sit at one side and his second in command would sit across from him.
All of the other soldiers would sit in two rows of equal length in the middle.
Because there were more people in the middle sides than on each end, we needed to set up some space in the shape of a rectangle.
Can you please help me figure out which of these shapes below is a rectangle but not a square?
After he was killed it was really hard for me to grow up without a father. Sometimes people would look down on me and say, “If you have no father, who will you turn to if you need help?” If I ever felt weak and like I would never be as strong as my father, my mother would tell me that I can do anything and would comfort me. She was always strong for me, even if people doubted my family because I did not have a father. Even though he was not around, my father taught me how to be strong and how to live for others through his example. This was his gift to me. Even though I cannot see him right now, I feel that our spirits are connected. I am proud of him and all of the people who gave their lives for Karenni State. If I could speak to my father now, I would tell him that I want to join in his fight to protect others. Together, we could help our people.
I never really got the chance to talk to my father since he died when I was three years old.
Is there anyone in your life that you would like to say something to but have not had the chance?
It can be someone that you used to know that is no longer in your life, or someone that you have not met personally but who influenced your life through their example.
How about you take a few minutes and write down a lesson that you have learned from them and what it means to you.
If you would like, you can also thank them.
After I finished high school, I wanted revenge. I felt like it was my duty to fight the military because they had killed my father. So I joined an activist group and fought for about four years. It was difficult for my mother to see me fighting and she begged me to stay with her and not go away. She told me, “Your father already gave his life for the nation so you can do things that help your people besides fighting.” I told her that I loved her but that I wanted to fight for what I thought was right. After four years, I came back home to my mother. Even though I believed in fighting for the Karenni people, it was difficult for me to leave my mother because she has suffered a lot during her life. She gave birth to two other sons besides me but they died soon after they were born. After the loss of my younger brother, my mother became very sick. At the time there was no clinic near my home so people had to take her all the way to the hospital. She was placed in a chair and people from my town carried her more than 10 hours to reach the hospital. No one knew if she was going to survive. My family was even preparing for her burial in case she did not return from the hospital because of her illness. We all had to wait to see what would happen. I felt lost because I wasn’t able to help her. Luckily she survived, and I am so grateful that I still have my mother.
Have you ever been in a situation where something bad happened and you felt like you had no power to do anything about it?
What emotions did you experience?
Can you think of a way where, even if you were not able to help directly, you could make a positive difference in an indirect way?
Many people helped carry my mother all the way to the hospital.
Below is a number line showing for what fraction of an hour the first person carried her (marked by X).
To figure out what an equal amount of time is, can you help me determine which number line below shows the equivalent fraction of an hour?
Even though my mother survived that horrible sickness, she never fully recovered from facing death. I think that if she had been able to access better health care right away, instead of having to go on a long journey to the faraway hospital, she would be better today. It is so unfair that she was not able to get the help she required when she most needed it. My mother has always been brave despite all of the challenges she faced. She took care of me and helped me get an education, and she encouraged me to always try my best. Even as she faced difficulties, she always did what she thought was right for me, herself and her environment. Even if I did something that she didn’t agree with or I made a mistake, she would tell me that the important thing is to learn from the experience. Instead of punishing me, she wanted me to learn a lesson.
Imagine that you caught someone doing something wrong.
Do you think it would be better to punish them or to try and learn why they did it and see if there are any lessons that you can learn together from the situation?
Do you think that in the long term, a person will avoid doing the wrong thing if they are afraid they will get in trouble?
Or do you think that person will avoid doing the wrong thing because they understand why it might cause harm?
What are some differences between those two approaches?
How do you think you personally learn better– from fear or understanding?
Why?
Want to create a calm and focused space to start the conversation? You can start the lesson with 2 minutes of collective silence and deep breathing.
“Is there a difference in helping others because you have to and helping others because you want to?” Let’s explore how feeling obligated to do something can be different than feeling motivated to do something for a good reason you understand.
Encourage your students to share examples of times they’ve helped someone, asking them to explain the who, what, and why. Ask them, “What did you feel while helping that person?” Save this list for later so that, as a class, you can examine these different emotions and question why they vary.
Read the Learning Journey “Shah Reh and Loyalty” with your students and watch the video “I am Shah Reh”.
In this story, Shah Reh explains how his father was a commander and took care of his soldiers even during times when it was not his “job” to do so (such as when he would invite them over for dinner). Shah Reh’s father did this because he felt like they were his family, not because he was forced to. But let’s imagine that Shah Reh’s father felt like he was obligated to do things like this for his soldiers because of his position as commander. “Even if the results – like the soldiers receiving food at his house – were the same, do you think there would be any differences in the way he approached the situation?” You can encourage students to imagine potential physical differences (like maybe Shah Reh’s father would be smiling more if he did it out of his own free will, or he would be more abrupt if he were forced to do it), and also some internal differences (such as maybe Shah Reh’s father would hold a grudge against his soldiers, or maybe the soldiers would feel that they would owe Shah Reh’s father since he did a nice deed for them out of necessity). After you discuss some potential variances in feelings based on the two different approaches, you can ask students about their experiences helping others because they wanted to. “Have you ever been in a situation where no one was forcing you to help other people, but you did so anyway? Why? How did it make you feel to know that you were the one to make the decision to help someone, rather than feeling forced?” If helpful, you can return to the list you brainstormed at the beginning of the lesson.
Engage students in an experiential classroom activity. Facilitate a classroom experiment to help students explore the emotions they feel when helping out of obligation vs. helping because they want to help.
First, tell students that they have to help you clean the classroom no matter what and that they cannot ask you any questions about it. “How did it make you feel not to have a say in what I told you to do? Did you want to know why you were asked to do this?” Next, you can tell students that you would really appreciate their assistance in keeping the classroom organized, and that you would be happy to talk about why it is important and how you can all work together to accomplish this goal. Let them ask questions as long as they’d like, and then begin organizing. Afterward, ask them, “When you were encouraged to ask questions to learn more about why it mattered, did that change your reaction me asking for your help? If so, in what ways? Imagine you were in a position where you would like someone to help you– what are some ways you could positively motivate them rather than using force?” To practice finding equivalent fractions on the number line, you can ask how many students changed their mind about helping when you encouraged them to ask questions and to be engaged in the process. Write down that fraction on a number line. Then, draw another number line below the first one and mark it with different units. Together, determine which fraction on the 2nd line is equivalent to the first. If you want to tie in classifying quadrilaterals, you can figure out if the classroom space to be cleaned is in the shape of a rectangle or square (or even both).
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Making Moves
Right now, my mother lives in the state of North Carolina in the United States of America. She has been there for over six years now and I get to talk to her on the phone every once in a while. It is difficult for me to have my mother on the other side of the world. In Karenni culture you are supposed to take care of your older family members after you grow up. Since your parents helped you grow, it is now your time to thank them and to take care of them. I sometimes feel sad and lost because I am not able to take care of my mother, but we encourage each other that someday we will meet again.
What are some ways that you can thank the people who have helped take care of you? Have those people inspired you to help take care of others? In what ways?
I am not able to travel right now because I have no citizenship, since I had to move from Burma (also called Myanmar) to a refugee camp in Thailand. Like many other Karenni people from the Karenni State of Burma, I had to move because I felt that my homeland was unsafe since there was a lot of fighting taking place there. I am registered with the United Nations refugee agency, which is designed to aid refugees around the world. Right now they are doing a resettlement project, which means that they have helped maybe around 50,000 Karenni people move to a safer country like the United States of America, Finland, Australia, or England. My mother was one of the people who was resettled, because she was suffering in the refugee camp with her poor health. I applied for resettlement like my mother, but I have not heard back yet if I will be able to leave this refugee camp. I have hope, but it makes me frustrated not to know if I will ever see my mother again.
I do not have access to the United Nations’ records so I am imagining these numbers, but let’s say that 1/4 of the refugees who are being resettled move to the United States of America.
Can you show me where that fraction would be on the number line below?
I think that it is good to have Karenni people all over the world because the next generation will be able to have better access to education and economic opportunities. Then, they might be able to come back and help people in refugee camps here. While the resettlement program can help a lot of people, like it did for my mother, I feel that it can also hurt those left behind. People who have skills and knowledge are leaving this area to go to different countries, so we are losing many people who could do good things here at the camp. My hope is that, one day, we will all be reunited once it is safe again.
I think that the resettlement program has aspects that are really helpful to some people who can leave, and parts that are not very good for the people left behind.
This is not a simple issue, where it is 100% right or wrong.
Now that I think about it, are there many issues that are 100% good or bad?
Or does it depend on how you look at the situation?
Can you think of a situation that you believe is very right, and then try and see it from the perspective of someone who might think that it is wrong?
Can you think of an example of something that you believe is bad, but how someone else might think that it is good?
Instead of resettling in a different country, another option would be to go back to Karenni State. This would be challenging because many natural resources in the area were taken by people who were outsiders and rich, or who were in positions of power. These companies came in and took resources like trees to use for timber. All they left behind was conflict and suffering. Many of the people who used to live in Karenni State are now in refugee camps, and it will be very difficult for them to return to land that was abused rather than cared for. There is also no infrastructure to which people could go back. There is not a good system for education, nor health care, nor transportation. So even if people could go back to the land in Karenni State, it would take a lot of work to make it an area in which the next generation can thrive.
Imagine that the below boxes are the same size and that each is 1 whole. Let’s say that the shaded area in Box A represents the fraction of resources taken from the land by people who do not own it. How many pieces of Box B would you need to shade in to have the same amount of shaded area as Box A?
While we are not able to return to our homeland right now, I believe that we should focus on education. Education is important for the Karenni people to be able to communicate with the outside world, and it also helps people solve problems quicker because they have learned to think in creative ways. If people are not literate, their history could become extinct and disappear because it is not shared with others.
For the Karenni people, our history is not in textbooks that are taught in schools. It’s not kept in public record. This is because Karenni State is now part of the country Burma, and those in power do not want to talk about how Karenni used to be independent. They want the country to seem united, even if some people do not feel that way. There are people who died fighting for their beliefs that Karenni State should be free, and we do not even know their names. I think that we need education to help us remember our past and to build community again.
Do you think that all written accounts of history cover every single perspective of those involved in a historical event?
Or do they sometimes take the side of a particular group?
If something you are reading is one-sided, can you think of some ways that you could learn about the other point of view?
Do you think that it is important to do so, even if it might take some extra effort to do more research?
What value is there in checking out different sources?
Want to create a calm and focused space to start the conversation? You can begin the lesson with 2 minutes of collective silence and deep breathing.
“What does modern globalization look like, and how does it relate to humanity’s migrations in the past?” You can begin the discussion by asking your students if they have ever had to leave their home and move somewhere else.
“Can you share some of the reasons why you moved? How did it make you feel to travel to and live in a new place? Were you excited? Nervous? A little bit of both?” If some students have never moved, you can ask them to imagine what emotions they might experience if they ever do so in the future.
Watch the video “I am Shah Reh” and then read with your class the Learning Journey story “Shah Reh and Global Access.” First watch the video and ask your class, “Where do you think Shah Reh’s family lives?” After hearing a few ideas, point out that we don’t really know unless we ask or hear about a person’s story – and introduce the Learning Journey as a way to do so.
In this story, Shah Reh explains how his mother immigrated to the United States of America (USA) through a refugee resettlement program. He thinks that relocating to a new country has many benefits, but there are also parts that make it more challenging for those left behind. Encourage critical thinking and check for comprehension by asking, “What are some reasons why Shah Reh might think this? Do you believe he might feel differently if he were moving to another country, instead of having to stay in the refugee camp? We don’t hear his mother’s perspective, but can you imagine what she might be feeling in the USA? What might be some other reasons that people immigrate to a new country, besides the ones shared in the story?”
Explain to students that human migration is not new, but has occurred for thousands of years. Now we have airplanes, cars, and boats to cross long distances, but one of the earliest ways people moved was by walking.
In 2013, a reporter for the magazine National Geographic decided to trace the footsteps of the first humans who left Africa to disperse around the world. His goal is to reconnect with what it means to travel by foot. He will be continuing his walk for many years to come and you can check out his progress here . You can explore his blog posts about his experiences (it will be helpful to look through the material in advance of the lesson and choose posts that will be interesting to your students), follow along on the map, and pose questions to the reporter in the comment section (he frequently answers). If you click on the “Out of Eden Walk” words on the upper left of the screen, you will access even more resources. Some discussions you can have with students include, “What do you think it was like for the first humans who migrated by foot? Do you think that modern transportation has changed the way we see the world? Do you think how humanity views migration has changed over the years? What might be some reasons why?”
Let’s explore what modern global migration looks like by using data from the International Organization for Migration map . You can explain to students that current events can quickly influence and change migration patterns.
The map shows the number of international migrants to a country, and if you click on the country it also shows key migration statistics. Have fun exploring with your class the inward and outward migrations for different countries– you can even have students guess what they think the numbers might be before you click on the country. Because the map shows what percent the immigrant population is of a country’s total population, you can convert the percentages of a few countries into fractions before the lesson begins so you can explore fraction math concepts with your students. For plotting fractions on the number line, you can take the percentage that you converted to a fraction for one country and place it on a number line, and then do the same for other countries and compare them. To practice equivalent fraction models: you can find two countries (and label them “Country 1” and “Country 2”) that have a comparable population size (and you can round if it is not exact). Then make visual models that are broken down into units that each equal 1 whole (where the whole represents the total population). Take the fraction you created representing the immigrant population for “Country 1” and shade in that many units of its model. Then ask the class to shade in the units of the “Country 2” model until they are equivalent. After, look at the real fraction of the immigrant population for “Country 2,” since those countries most likely do not have an equivalent immigration population in reality. Is the real amount more or less than the amount shaded in when we assumed they were equivalent?
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Not hers. Not yours. People are always more than the chapters anyone could share. Hold what is here gently. Approach with curiosity, before judgment.
If a moment stayed, follow it. If a question rose up, hold it. The quiet teaching is still teaching.
Three or four real stories woven into one lesson, your topic, your time. Shah Reh is one. The weaver finds the others, threads the math, the literacy, the values, the reflection.
Open the weaver →