The goal of the Global Schools Teaching Program for Grade 2 is to help students understand the meaning of diversity while exploring and identifying the diversity that exists in the world and their classroom. They will learn to ask thoughtful questions and perform active listening. This resource is comprised of 5 lessons.
Lesson 1 - Questioning the World Around Us: The teacher will share a digital copy of the book "Where Children Sleep" by James Molleson. They will then learn to construct open-ended questions based around culture, experiences and background.
Lesson 2 - Interviewing a Classmate: The students will write inquiry based questions for a peer interview and will be encouraged to listen thoughtfully and carefully to take notes for a future presentation.
Lesson 3 - Presenting Your Classmate: The students will create a presentation of their classmate in the form of a poem, song, dance, or drawing based on what they like about their partner using the information from their interview.
Lesson 4 - Friendly Bar Graphs: The class will create bar graphs based on the qualities of a good friend.
Lesson 5 - Debriefing and Reflecting: The students will reflect on their learning and how the skills of thoughtful questioning and active listening can be used in their everyday life.
This resource is suitable for early elementary classrooms. It connects very well to the Social Studies curriculum and can be used early in the year to develop a well balanced learning environment for the students based on diversity and an understanding of everyone's needs.
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
Principle | Rating | Explanation |
---|---|---|
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives | Very Good | |
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives:
| ||
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions | Satisfactory | |
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions: Effectively addresses the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the issue(s) being explored.
| ||
Respects Complexity | Satisfactory | |
Respects Complexity: The complexity of the problems/issues being discussed is respected. | ||
Acting on Learning | Very Good | The students work towards an understanding of their classmates and how to apply their new skills of thoughtful questioning and active listening in a larger forum. |
Acting on Learning: Learning moves from understanding issues to working towards positive change — in personal lifestyle, in school, in the community, or for the planet
| ||
Values Education | Very Good | |
Values Education: Students are explicitly provided with opportunities to identify, clarify and express their own beliefs/values. | ||
Empathy & Respect for Humans | Very Good | The core goal of this resource is to develop a respect for diversity in the students. |
Empathy & Respect for Humans: Empathy and respect are fostered for diverse groups of humans (including different genders, ethnic groups, sexual preferences, etc.). | ||
Personal Affinity with Earth | Poor/Not considered | This is not the focus of this resource. |
Personal Affinity with Earth: Encourages a personal affinity with -the natural world.
| ||
Locally-Focused Learning | Very Good | The learning is made relevant to the students as they are developing a respect for their classmates. |
Locally-Focused Learning: Includes learning experiences that take advantage of issues/elements within the local community.
| ||
Past, Present & Future | Poor/Not considered | This is not the goal of this resource. |
Past, Present & Future: Promotes an understanding of the past, a sense of the present, and a positive vision for the future. |
Principle | Rating | Explanation |
---|---|---|
Open-Ended Instruction | Very Good | This lesson excels in this domain as it is based around developing the skill of asking open ended questions. The students also participate in a number of class discussions and reflection activities that are based around open ended questions. |
Open-Ended Instruction
: Lessons are structured so that multiple/complex answers are possible; students are not steered toward one 'right' answer. | ||
Integrated Learning | Good |
|
Integrated Learning: Learning brings together content and skills from more than one subject area
| ||
Inquiry Learning | Good | Students do learn to generate appropriate, inquiry-based questions about interests, home life, and cultural practices using visual supports and modeled questioning. This lesson does not focus on solving problems or questions, it is more about developing skills for students. |
Inquiry Learning: Learning is directed by questions, problems, or challenges that students work to address.
| ||
Differentiated Instruction | Satisfactory | |
Differentiated Instruction: Activities address a range of student learning styles, abilities and readiness.
| ||
Experiential Learning | Poor/Not considered | This is not the focus of this lesson. |
Experiential Learning: Authentic learning experiences are provided
| ||
Cooperative Learning | Satisfactory | Students work in groups of three or four and during one activity they work in pairs and interview a partner. |
Cooperative Learning: Group and cooperative learning strategies are a priority.
| ||
Assessment & Evaluation | Satisfactory | There is one suggestion made for an assessment but otherwise there are no assessment tools provided. |
Assessment & Evaluation: Tools are provided that help students and teachers to capture formative and summative information about students' learning and performance. These tools may include reflection questions, checklists, rubrics, etc. | ||
Peer Teaching | Good | Students will be able to present findings of their peer interviews with the class. By sharing their findings, students will build classroom community and support intercultural understanding. |
Peer Teaching: Provides opportunities for students to actively present their knowledge and skills to peers and/or act as teachers and mentors.
| ||
Case Studies | Poor/Not considered | This is not the focus of this lesson. |
Case Studies: Relevant case studies are included. Case studies are thorough descriptions of real events from real situations that students use to explore concepts in an authentic context. | ||
Locus of Control | Good | After the interview of a classmate, the students have a choice of how they would like to present the information they learned about the other student. |
Locus of Control: Meaningful opportunities are provided for students to choose elements of program content, the medium in which they wish to work, and/or to go deeper into a chosen issue. |