Use this resource page to guide your students as they learn about AWTT portrait subjects who have engaged as Peacemakers.

Essential Questions:

• How do you define conflict?
• How do you promote dialogue and communication between conflicting parties?
• What is peace and how is it or isn’t it present in our lives – our schools, our communities, our country, our world?
• What would it take to create/make peace?
• How do fear and love influence peace making?
• What drives conflict?
• Is there such a thing as a “just war”?
• Who profits/benefits from wars?

Truth Tellers and Peacemakers

Lesson: Who are the AWTT portrait subjects?

Using our lesson plan Who are the AWTT portrait subjects?, choose three of the portrait subjects listed below. This lesson will help students learn more about the portrait subjects’ lives and their commitment to peacemaking.

Stacy Bannerman
Medea Benjamin
Paul K. Chappell
Charlie Clements
Rachel Corrie
Eugene V. Debs
John Hunter
Nelson and Joyce Johnson
Dr. Bernard Lown
Jeannette Rankin
Doug Rawlings
David Rovics
Kali Rubaii
Clifford Ryan
Ben Salmon
Cindy Sheehan
Samantha Smith
David Swanson
Alice Walker
Jody Williams

Lesson: Speaking Truth to Youth – Peacemakers (video interviews)

Use our Speaking Truth to Youth Intro Lesson to explore three of these portrait subjects and what we can learn from them:

Betty Burkes
Peter Davis
Robert Koehler
Shannon Watts
Sandra Steingraber

Other resources to explore:

Learning for Justice (SPLC)
Peace Education Foundation
Peace Literacy Institute / Resources

Integrate AWTT activities into multiple content areas:

Connect what your students are learning in a variety of content areas – science, social studies, English language arts, math, creative arts – by completing the following activities:

• Select four of the suggested portraits.  After reading the bios, discuss the meaning of the quotes. What challenges do the quotes present?
• Dig deeper! Register for the Samantha Smith Challenge to help your students take a deeper dive into Peacemaking.