Primary Source Exemplar: Nutrition and Human Rights

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Joanna Schimizzi


Overview

Now that students have a thorough understanding of the energy cycle of food and its relationship to malnutrition, they turn to the anchor document and connect nutrition to human rights. In this lesson, students will not only analyze the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but will also continue exploring how to access a primary source document. This lesson is not directly tied to any biology content objectives and can be chosen as an optional extension to the content-directed lessons. Omitting this lesson will decrease students’ ability to make over-arching connections to the ethical concerns of nutrition, but it will not prevent them from completing the summative task. This lesson was developed by Odell Education.


Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

    • Understand the context in which a primary source (The UDHR) was developed and has been used.

    • Read and interpret complex text from a primary source accurately (UDHR Preamble and Articles).

    • Identify important textual details and use those details to support an observation.


Standards Addressed

ELA/Literacy - RI.1.11-12: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Instructional Approach


Close Reading of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Preamble

1) Provide students with a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (or alternatively have them locate the webpage for the UDHR [http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr]). Before they receive any background on the document, have students follow along as you read the Preamble aloud.

2) Following the reading, have students make observations about the structure and nature of the text. [Sample answers: It is one long sentence (321 words); It has a lot of “whereas” statements; It has something to do with the United Nations and Human Rights; It is a Declaration.]

3) Discuss the structure of the text; for example, its structure might be related to “if… then” statements in scientific reasoning. Have students use this analogy to discuss/explain the ideational structure of the Declaration [It presents a series of seven reasons for why human rights should be protected – “if” each of the reasons is a given, “therefore” it follows that we should do something to protect human rights].

4) Divide students into small groups and assign each group one of the seven “Whereas” paragraphs. Explain that reading and interpreting a primary source entails: a) careful attention to details (whether those details are words, data, graphics, or other information); b) close reading to accurately understand what the details mean; c) interpretation of the details to make an evidence-based observation; d) use of information/evidence to support a claim or conclusion. Have students use the following text-dependent questions to do a close reading of their assigned paragraph:

      • What words or phrases stand out in the “Whereas” statement?
      • What is the meaning (dictionary definition and/or personal interpretation) of those key words?
      • When connected into a statement, what do those words present as a “given” or reason why human rights should be protected?
      • What does the statement imply about how nations should treat their people, and how the UN should hold its members accountable? (Use specific details from the text to support this conclusion.)

5) After student groups have used these questions to do a “close reading” of one paragraph of the Preamble, have them report out to the class – paraphrasing their paragraph and explaining its meaning. Have someone record the “givens” that emerge in a list that all students can see.

6) Now move to the final paragraph of the Preamble, projecting it in the classroom so that all students can see it. Ask students to first note the words presented in all caps, then highlight for them the phrase “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.” Have students respond to and discuss these text-dependent questions:

      • What does the phrase “common standard of achievement” imply? How might biology and nutrition be involved in setting or maintaining such a standard?
      • When the UN General Assembly “proclaims” this “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” what expectations is it setting for the nations of the world? [Here it may be helpful to highlight the core statement in this long and complex sentence: “every individual and every organ of society… shall strive… to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and… to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance.”]


Understanding the Context for the UDHR

Explain to students that reading and interpreting a primary source, such as the UDHR, involves knowing something about the context in which the document was generated, its history, and its authorship. Have students learn (and record details) about the context of the UDHR through one or more of these instructional options:

    1. If computers/tablets are available in class, have them read and study the two tabs of the UDHR website: History and Human Rights Law. Have them make a list of key details about the document’s development and use, then discuss these in class.

    2. Alternatively, assign this task for homework.

    3. Watch an informational video such as: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [a student-developed video and National History Day award winner], with students taking notes.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZFUuGOPLPg

    4. Present key contextual information about the document and have students record details, e.g., its date, its authorship, its historical context in 1948, its adoption process, its use since adoption, etc.


Close Reading of the UDHR Articles

Assign each student to do a similar close reading of Article #25. Have students use the following text-dependent question set to produce a short written analysis of the Article [which will be turned in as an informal assessment of their close reading skills]:

1) What words or phrases stand out in the Article? [Have students copy the text of the Article and highlight or annotate the key words they identify].

2) What is the meaning (dictionary definition and/or personal interpretation) of those key words?

3) When connected into a statement, what do those words present as an expectation for “every individual and every organ of society”?

4) What does the statement imply about how nations should treat their people, and how the UN should hold its members accountable? (Use specific details from the text to support this conclusion.) In partners or small groups, have students paraphrase and explain their text-based interpretation of the Article. In groups, students can also already begin brainstorming how nutrition is related to Article #25. Use the following questions to help make this link:

      • How do the principles laid out in the UDHR help you to understand the phrase “nutritional equity?”
      • According to Article #25, and the document in general, what would constitute a violation of rights with respect to a person’s access to a specific diet?
      • How do the concepts in this unit thus far – diet, nutrition, malnutrition, overweight/underweight, metabolism, etc. – relate to the rights as defined in Article #25?
      • What possible barriers exist that would prevent an individual from exercising his or her right, as stated in Article #25?


Extension/Homework Activities

Present students with this historical quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt [from Source #1, the UN’s Human Rights Indicators Guide] and have them do an independent close reading, highlighting key words and details:

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

    1. Ask students to do a short written response to this text-dependent question: What do Roosevelt’s words indicate about how diet may play a part in an individual’s human rights?
    2. Ask students to generate a list of ideas about why access to a proper diet is related to the right to nutritional health implied by Article 25.

Assessment

    • Discussions, both small group and full class, present multiple opportunities for informal observation and assessment of how well students are using close reading skills to accurately interpret the complex text of this primary source document.

    • Students submit a short written analysis of assigned Article, which can be reviewed to see how well students are annotating key details, interpreting their meaning, and using them to explain their thinking.

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