Irish Famine
Unit IV
UNIT IV - Mortality Rates and "The Horror"
ADDITIONAL UNIT GOALS:
PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
1.The student will examine the levels of mortality experienced in Ireland during the Great Famine, and humanize numbers and statistics.
TEACHING/LEARNING STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
A.Students will learn that the range of mortality estimates is from 500,000 to 1,500,000 or more, with a consensus mortality estimate of 1,000,000 deaths.
Activity 1. Students will read excerpts from This Great Calamity (p. 167-169), and The Great Hunger (p. 411-412), answer questions following the readings and discuss the issues raised.
Activity 2. Have students go to the library and use the Statistical Abstract of the United States to determine the population of the United States, and the number of deaths per year from automobile accidents.
What percentage of the population are killed in such accidents each year?
How does that percentage compare with the percent killed in Ireland during the Great Famine?
Activity 3. Students will read the personal accounts contained in "Famine Scenes (The Horror)" and compare their reactions to ones they experienced reading the statistical accounts in Activity 1. Students will answer questions following the reading.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL/RESOURCES
Kinnealy, Christine, This Great Calamity; The Irish Famine 1845-52, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Boulder Colorado, 1995
Woodham-Smith, Cecil, The Great Hunger; Ireland 1845-1849 Penguin Books, London, England, 1991. First printing: 1962.
Unit IV
UNIT IV - Mortality Rates and "The Horror"
ADDITIONAL UNIT GOALS:
PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
1.The student will examine the levels of mortality experienced in Ireland during the Great Famine, and humanize numbers and statistics.
TEACHING/LEARNING STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
A.Students will learn that the range of mortality estimates is from 500,000 to 1,500,000 or more, with a consensus mortality estimate of 1,000,000 deaths.
Activity 1. Students will read excerpts from This Great Calamity (p. 167-169), and The Great Hunger (p. 411-412), answer questions following the readings and discuss the issues raised.
Activity 2. Have students go to the library and use the Statistical Abstract of the United States to determine the population of the United States, and the number of deaths per year from automobile accidents.
What percentage of the population are killed in such accidents each year?
How does that percentage compare with the percent killed in Ireland during the Great Famine?
Activity 3. Students will read the personal accounts contained in "Famine Scenes (The Horror)" and compare their reactions to ones they experienced reading the statistical accounts in Activity 1. Students will answer questions following the reading.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL/RESOURCES
Kinnealy, Christine, This Great Calamity; The Irish Famine 1845-52, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Boulder Colorado, 1995
Woodham-Smith, Cecil, The Great Hunger; Ireland 1845-1849 Penguin Books, London, England, 1991. First printing: 1962.
