Confronting change; evaluating customs and values of groups in conflict; recognize and resist conditions detrimental to human development and opportunity.

CONNECTIONS TO MANDATE/MISSION:

Becoming a responsible, respectful member of a democratic society.

CORE CONCEPTS:

• Change:  how inventions change the lives of people.
• Conflict:  how people use democratic processes to solve problems.
• Culture:  study of customs and values of different cultural groups.
• Interdependence:  social relationships.
• Perspective:  how people view events and react to situations.
• Responsibility:  how rules and laws affect the way people live and behave.
• Scarcity:  use of limited resources to meet basic needs.

During this unit, lesson, or activity, students, individually or in groups:

• Respond to literature about how family and community work together and help each other.
• Interview the school principal about how he/she makes decisions and compare it to other ways decisions are made.
• Examine how decisions are made in a democracy and role-play various scenarios.
• Read the newspaper to become aware of what is happening in the world and their community.
• Interview community members to learn about problems in the community.
• Have students do a biography study of people displaying courage and resourcefulness.  Create a biography of someone in the community from interviews.
• Class meetings.
• Take part in a project that will benefit the community.

• Teaching Tolerance 
• Southern Poverty Law Center

As visitors enter the classroom, some students are having a meeting about their community service project, which they have developed in response to interviews with community members and readings of literature, such as: Uncle Willie's Soup Kitchen,The Big Wave, Angel Child Dragon Child, The Wall, and Talking Walls.  They have also been following the newspaper and are researching areas of concern.  They have incorporated a mission statement and CORT activities into the planning process.

Other students are creating a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting how the characters in Uncle Willie's Soup Kitchen and Angel Child, Dragon Child acted to help an individual or group.

In the computer lab, groups of students are working on a newspaper chronicling their community project. Students are creating articles for their newspaper to share their experiences in working on a community service project.

LEARNING ASSESSMENTS:

At the conclusion of units, lessons, or activities students might

• Retell a story.
• Demonstrate how the decision was made to select their community project using a variety of tools.  Ex.: flowchart, brainstorming, consensogram Learning Strategies(pdf)
• Write journal entries based on selected literature and/or experiences regarding community service project. Journal Writing(pdf)
• Participate in a community service project.