Last Year of Middle School

Lesson Plan #3

Teaching Trafficking in Small Groups

(45 minutes)

Objectives:  Students will have a better understanding of the danger and consequences of trafficking and will become aware of issues that make one vulnerable to exploitation.

I. Small Group Activity (10 minutes)

A.  The class is divided into small groups of 5 students each. The leader is decided at random by the teacher and given a packet of materials (a series of statements and copies of a true story) . The group members decide who in the group will play which roles. Each person in a group must have a role.

a. The “Leader” has already been determined at random

b. One person is the “Timekeeper” (whose responsibility is to keep the group on track and make sure the group finishes the entire task in the amount of time given)

c. One person is the “Facilitator” (who makes sure everyone in the group participates and actively contributes)

d. One person is the “Notetaker” (who takes notes of the discussion for the “Presenter”)

e. One person is the “Presenter” (who presents the small group’s findings to the class)

B. The “Leader” opens the packet and takes out the piece of paper with the “Leader’s” directions. On a piece of paper (ideally in a notebook), students write “Opinions” at the top of the page. The “Leader” reads each statement, and each group member decides how much he/she agrees or disagrees with each one using a scale of 1 – 10. The “Leader” should read one statement, pause to let group members decide for themselves and write down their answers, and only read the next statement until everyone is ready. Each person writes down her number choice, 1 = strongly agree and 10 = strongly disagree for each statement. Students should not share their answers at this time.

Statement #1: People who get involved with trafficking could escape if they really wanted to.

Statement #2: Victims of trafficking know what they are getting themselves into.

Statement #3: Girls who are trafficked are immoral because they have become prostitutes.

Statement #4: Victims of trafficking deserve the help of the government and Albanian citizens.

Statement #5: Girls who are trafficked must somehow be a little stupid to get involved with a pimp. 

Statement #6: Girls who are trafficked get involved because they need the money and have no other way to get it. 

Statement #7: Girls who are trafficked have brought their fate upon themselves; nothing can be done for them, and the government should not waste money trying to help them.

Statement #8: If someone I was attracted to fell in love with me and promised me a great job far away, I would believe him/her.

Statement #9: Girls who are trafficked are victims; it’s the traffickers who are guilty of committing crimes.

Statement #10: I could never be trafficked.

[Optional: The teacher can add other statements on the board.]

Members of the group now put their responses away and do not share them at this time. The “Leader” tells them not to throw them away because they will need them later.

II. Real Stories

A. Group Work (10 minutes)

Next, the “Leader” distributes to each group member the true story of a real victim, telling group members that a victim of trafficking wrote the story but that her name has been changed, that group members have as much time as they need to read the story, and that they should look up when they are ready to discuss it. The members of each group have the same story. Each small group in the class has a different story. After everyone in the group has read the story, the teacher gives the groups a time limit for discussion and reminds the class that the “Facilitator,” “Timekeeper,” and “Notetaker” will be playing their roles. The “Leader” leads the small group with the following questions: 

a. What is your reaction to this story?

b. How does this story make you feel?

c. Which part of the story affected you the most?

d. Who is the trafficker in the story?

e. How did this happen to her? Why did she become trafficked?

f. What options/alternatives does she have?

g. Is she at fault for what happened to her? Explain your viewpoint.

h. What would you do if you were her?

i. If she were a member of our class, what would you want to say to her?

B. Presentations (10 minutes)

When the time limit is up, the teacher explains that each “Presenter” will give a short presentation on their group’s story and that students should look for any similarities in the stories. The “Presenter” of group one, relying on notes from the “Notetaker,” summarizes the story for the class as well as the group’s reaction to it. Each “Presenter” from the other groups follow.

C. Discussion of Similarities (15 minutes)

When all the presentations are over, the teacher asks the class, “What similarities do you see?” and writes students’ responses on the board. Similarities may include methodology of the recruiter, characteristics of the victim, characteristics of the recruiter, reasons for the victims’ decision to accept the recruiter, etc.

III. Homework

Students need to finish writing about the similarities in the stories if they were not able to finish the task in class. Students are also given another reading assignments about trafficking and told they will discuss their reactions at the next class.

{This should be a recent newspaper article about trafficking, and this article needs to be chosen.}