"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
Globalized Unit Plan
My first real try at creating a Global Education unit (as opposed to adding Global Education elements to an existing unit) was a science, social studies, literature, and writing integration. I chose for my students to study the African country of Kenya. I focused on the Global Education component of "Recognizing Perspectives," with "Investigating the World" tied in.
The students learned about the geography and wildlife of Kenya through photos, websites, videos, and book research. They watched videos on cultural and traditional aspects of Kenya, as well as what a Kenyan first graders school day and home life was like, how they celebrate holidays, and what the weather is like. The students learned a bit of Swahili (and were disappointed when we didn't have time to learn more!). The students tried traditional food and used traditional literature to take notes and compile legends and facts about Kenya.
The culminating assessment of this unit was for the students to write a diary from the point of view of a Kenyan child. I chose to focus on Recognizing Perspectives, since my students have a hard time envisioning a world outside the city block they live on. I wanted the students to try putting themselves in others' shoes, demonstrated by diary that highlighted similarities and differences of first grade in DC and Kenya.
Attached below is the full unit of lesson plans. When I do it next year, I will make sure I have my Kenyan contacts set up way prior to beginning, and I will try to set up a video chat with some friends I have in Kenya. I would also have the first 10 minutes of each lesson be dedicated solely to study of Swahili so students can get an even better understanding. This unit can easily be modified to older grades, and similar activities could be used to study different countries. I hope people reading this will download the unit and be inspired to try learning about a country in their own classrooms!
My first real try at creating a Global Education unit (as opposed to adding Global Education elements to an existing unit) was a science, social studies, literature, and writing integration. I chose for my students to study the African country of Kenya. I focused on the Global Education component of "Recognizing Perspectives," with "Investigating the World" tied in.
The students learned about the geography and wildlife of Kenya through photos, websites, videos, and book research. They watched videos on cultural and traditional aspects of Kenya, as well as what a Kenyan first graders school day and home life was like, how they celebrate holidays, and what the weather is like. The students learned a bit of Swahili (and were disappointed when we didn't have time to learn more!). The students tried traditional food and used traditional literature to take notes and compile legends and facts about Kenya.
The culminating assessment of this unit was for the students to write a diary from the point of view of a Kenyan child. I chose to focus on Recognizing Perspectives, since my students have a hard time envisioning a world outside the city block they live on. I wanted the students to try putting themselves in others' shoes, demonstrated by diary that highlighted similarities and differences of first grade in DC and Kenya.
Attached below is the full unit of lesson plans. When I do it next year, I will make sure I have my Kenyan contacts set up way prior to beginning, and I will try to set up a video chat with some friends I have in Kenya. I would also have the first 10 minutes of each lesson be dedicated solely to study of Swahili so students can get an even better understanding. This unit can easily be modified to older grades, and similar activities could be used to study different countries. I hope people reading this will download the unit and be inspired to try learning about a country in their own classrooms!
tgc_globalized_unit_plan.docx |
Writing and implementing this Globalized Unit Plan was both frustrating and so rewarding, thus it was such a labor of love that it ended up being one of the highlights of my Teachers for Global Classrooms experience. It took a while for me to really learn how to construct this unit and to really understand how the different facets fit together. Although many edits were made, I really enjoyed the challenge and the puzzle of making it flow and-- in working so hard on it-- I got really excited to put it into action! My students excelled at this unit, and it opened doors for their curiosity and wonder to learn about other parts of the world too. My engagement resulted in the students' engagement and a unit that was fun for everyone!
Standards Based Global Education Updates
As expected, the shift to Global Education can seem a bit scary. Embarking on a new pedagogical journey is always a bit frightening, especially when want you want to do doesn't fit in with what you are SUPPOSED to do. What if someone comes into your classroom when you are teaching Global Education and you are supposed to be focusing on Common Core State Standard Literacy.RI.2.1? The good news is that most of the aims of Global Education are the aims of Common Core State Standards, and although I know this doesn't alleviate any messiness with content, the standards are easily infiltrated into Global Education.
From this website, or from somewhere else, we now know that Global Education is about students becoming proactive citizens of the 21st century, who are college-ready, career-ready critical thinkers, that have an awareness of global issues. The mission statement of the Common Core State Standards echo these sentiments. On the ELA homepage of the Common Core website, they purport: The Common Core asks students to read stories and literature, as well as more complex texts that provide facts and background knowledge in areas such as science and social studies. Students will be challenged and asked questions that push them to refer back to what they’ve read. This stresses critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that are required for success in college, career, and life.
Thus, the knitting of Common Core and Global Education is seemingly effortless. By following the Common Core State Standards, students will be trekking in the right direction towards the aims of Global Education. As more people become interested and passionate about Global Education components like Investigating the World, the content that districts require for teachers will hopefully follow suit. For more interesting reading on the marriage of Common Core and Global Education, you can read this article: http://asiasociety.org/education/whats-global-about-common-core-standards by the Asia Society, or this article: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/global_learning/2016/04/equity_in_a_global_context.html which is found on an Education Week blog.
Updating Standards for Global Competencies
Here are some examples of how Common Core standards can be globalized in the classroom.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4: Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
As expected, the shift to Global Education can seem a bit scary. Embarking on a new pedagogical journey is always a bit frightening, especially when want you want to do doesn't fit in with what you are SUPPOSED to do. What if someone comes into your classroom when you are teaching Global Education and you are supposed to be focusing on Common Core State Standard Literacy.RI.2.1? The good news is that most of the aims of Global Education are the aims of Common Core State Standards, and although I know this doesn't alleviate any messiness with content, the standards are easily infiltrated into Global Education.
From this website, or from somewhere else, we now know that Global Education is about students becoming proactive citizens of the 21st century, who are college-ready, career-ready critical thinkers, that have an awareness of global issues. The mission statement of the Common Core State Standards echo these sentiments. On the ELA homepage of the Common Core website, they purport: The Common Core asks students to read stories and literature, as well as more complex texts that provide facts and background knowledge in areas such as science and social studies. Students will be challenged and asked questions that push them to refer back to what they’ve read. This stresses critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that are required for success in college, career, and life.
Thus, the knitting of Common Core and Global Education is seemingly effortless. By following the Common Core State Standards, students will be trekking in the right direction towards the aims of Global Education. As more people become interested and passionate about Global Education components like Investigating the World, the content that districts require for teachers will hopefully follow suit. For more interesting reading on the marriage of Common Core and Global Education, you can read this article: http://asiasociety.org/education/whats-global-about-common-core-standards by the Asia Society, or this article: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/global_learning/2016/04/equity_in_a_global_context.html which is found on an Education Week blog.
Updating Standards for Global Competencies
Here are some examples of how Common Core standards can be globalized in the classroom.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
- This is a first grade writing standard. This standard could be easily intertwined with the global competency of Investigating the World. For this standard, students need to do research on a topic to write a real informative or explanatory text. Instead of students writing about, perhaps, their favorite animal or about their family (both important in first grade, and widely used), it would be fun to do a unit on a country, or continent and have the students write their informative text about what they discovered; or study something more narrow, like the importance of soccer in Brazil and write an explanatory text about this topic. Using a global focus, take for example the Brazil one, for this standard would provide outlets to use interesting, different world media (like books about Pele, or videos on Cristiano Ronaldo) and would give students a global perspective of why and how that sport came to be so important to those people. Learning about global topics could make writing come alive for students!
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4: Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
- This is a first grade reading standard for literature. Often global books include different ways to convey feelings or an appeal to the senses than the typical American text. Motivations and reactions of characters in stories are different, depending on where the story is set. Students should be exposed to all types of literature, so why not include books from around the world? There are plenty of books written by foreign authors that would give students the opportunity to practice identifying "feeling" parts of books, as well as translating meaning from an unfamiliar dialect. This standard also opens the door for guest speakers from other countries to come discuss their experience with learning English-- Was it hard to learn? What was the hardest part? What are some idioms or saying from your native tongue? What do "feelings" words sound like in your language? This standards provides a good opportunity to give students global perspectives of feelings and feeling language from around the world.
Below is a document that outlines a couple other standards, and how they can be globalized. Teachers should not try to reinvent the wheel when globalizing standards for students, but try to see how globalization can fit with the things they are already teaching.
consider_standards_in_global_education.docx |
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