LESSON PLAN (concept set 26 not included here) for Responsibility
Target students: Grade 6; students of mixed abilities; they are used to working co-operatively and overall they are productive when working together.
Vision of the educated citizen: A citizen who works hard to be the best that they can be. They take credit where credit is do and they take responsibility for their actions. They are open minded and willing to listening to the opinions of others. They take the time to consider their own lives and the lives of others. They look for similarities, not just differences, to people around the world. They work to create a better world for everyone. They seek out information on their own to come to better understandings.
Goals that this lesson supports:
Content--concept of responsibility in the context of ones self and of others
Critical thinking--Students will decide what to believe about the meaning of responsibility--why samples do/do not fit the meaning of responsibility and whether the definition is adequate to all examples of responsibility; to deepen emotional attachment to the concept, students will be asked to look at the responsibilities in their lives and compare them to that of a child living in rural Peru.
Goals that will be applicable to later lessons:
Personal and social values--students will learn about the need to go through with what they have set out to do and come to understand that people everywhere have responsibilities that they must live up to.
Individual and collective action--students make a decision about how they as a group can maintain responsibility within their classroom and their school.
IRP Learning Outcome:
Related IRP Learning Outcome (p.A-10)—"It is expected that students will compare the rights and social responsibilities in various cultures". In order to demonstrate this learning outcome, students need to understand the concepts within. One of the two main concepts is social responsibilities. The students must begin by gaining a full understanding of responsibility before they can gain an understanding of social responsibility.
IRP Learning Outcome Related for this Lesson: The more focused expected learning outcomes for this lesson is that the students will be able to:
distinguish between examples and non-examples of responsibility and they will tell why they are so (criterion: examples accurately categorized, when compared with an accepted definition of responsibility);
consider examples of responsibility in their life and those in the life of a young man in Peru and explain why they are cases of responsibility (criteria: examples are accurate they exhibit essential attributes that all examples of responsibility exhibit)
Tools students will need to successfully respond to this lesson:
Background knowledge: this lesson-- a base knowledge of Peru and the people within
Critical thinking vocabulary: this lesson—varying degrees of responsibility
Habits of mind: this lesson—fair-minded consideration when deciding if their responsibilities are similar to those of a child living in Peru
Criteria: accurate sorting of examples and accurate selection of examples from both their lives and the life of a young boy in Peru and justification of samples that fit with the key attributes of responsibility
Thinking strategies: Discussing ideas with others—justifying how samples do and do not fit the definition of responsibility
Teacher preparation:
prepares examples and non-examples and borderline examples of concept, one set for each group to sort
have a dictionary for the students to check their definitions against
have the short film about Oscar (young boy in Peru) and video machine to share with the children—this will be done the period before
Lesson Introduction:
Establish meaningful connection for students and/or pretest prior knowledge
View the short film on a young boy living in rural Peru to provide the students with a reason for learning the concept of responsibility.
Brainstorm (teacher records) possible meanings of responsibility (pretest prior knowledge) and then come up with a class consensus as to a definition.
Emotional response to concept—teacher asks students if they think they have similar responsibilities as a child their age in Peru. They may also discuss why or why not they think so. Teacher will have the students revisit their emotional responses after sorting activity.
Body of Lesson
Teacher discusses expectations: Teacher explains that the class is expected to sort out examples of responsibilities. There will be good examples and not good examples and it will be their job to sort through these with their group. They should create two piles: one for good examples and one for bad examples.
Small groups sorting examples and non-examples: Teacher distributes small cards that contain examples and non-examples of responsibility. The students will be divided into groups of four. They will sort their examples into the two piles that were discussed with them earlier. During this time the teacher will circulate and ask students to share their reasons for the choices that they have made. The teacher may ask the students to reconsider the definition they came up with earlier. For those that finish earlier than others they may take the time to share with another group the choices that they made and the reasoning behind it.
Whole class sharing: Teacher has students share the examples that they found most fitting to their definition of responsibility and discuss their reasons behind them. They then go on to talk about the examples that they felt were not good examples of responsibility. At this time they can also discuss those that they had trouble deciding upon.
Class relates information to their study of Peru: Once the class has had time to go over the examples of responsibility, the teacher asks them to reflect back on the film that they had watched about the young boy living in rural Peru. The teacher then asks the students if they think that Oscar (the young boy in the film) has similar responsibilities as themselves.
Emotive response—Teacher asks the students to revisit their emotive responses: Do they have the same responsibilities as a child living in rural Peru. Teacher checks to see if the students have changed their minds (if the lesson was successful, they will see recognize that their daily responsibilities may differ slightly, but their social responsibilities are very similar).
Closing: Teacher may ask the students to think of responsibilities in their lives and then as a class decide if it is an example of social responsibility of an example of responsibility.
Journals: Individual students describe some responsibilities they have in their lives and describe the importance of these in relation to others.
Later lessons: Students might be asked to look into responsibilities they have within their classroom and their school. They may then decide the efforts needed to maintain these responsibilities. They may also look into how these responsibilities relate to the rights that they have.
Assessment activities re-concept of responsibility:
After lots of practice the student could come up with new examples and non-examples of the concept of responsibility and give reasons for believing that they are good or bad examples. The criteria will be that they are an accurate fit with the definition that they created earlier and their reasons correctly show how the examples fit the criteria.
Adjustments & extensions:
Give the students a choice in ways to apply/demonstrate their understanding of the concept responsibility (written stories, poetry, role drama, etc.)