Title

Soldiers, Slaves, & Lost Children: Investigating the Children Left Behind

Concept/Main Idea of Lesson

Over 250,000 children are involved in armed conflicts around the world (Briggs, 2005) and over 126 million people work in the worst forms of child labor (“Anti-Slavery,” 2007). As a country that likes to use the motto “No Child Left Behind” this is a subject in which awareness must be raised. This lesson focuses on a topic that gets little publicity in the curricula and mainstream media, arguably the two areas in which students gain the majority of their awareness on issues.

This lesson focuses on Robert Hanvey’s (1976) global dimension known as “State of the Planet Awareness,” which entails being aware of world conditions and trends. Within that dimension, of global education, the ultimate goal of this lesson is twofold. First, it is to bring attention to the worldwide disregard of child human rights and the interconnections those have to us in the United States. In addition, it has a goal of raising empathy levels of teenagers in the United States towards these issues.

This will be a multi-day lesson, conducive to 10th-12th grade World History or Global Studies courses, and will begin by having the students take a school climate survey that is modeled after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which will be used as a prelude to receiving background on worldwide child exploitation, student projects on childhood labor and children soldiers, and culminate in a student-driven, and teacher facilitated, wiki and discussion board that raises awareness on this issue.

Intended Grade Level

Grades 10-12

Infusion/Subject Area(s)

Indicate for which secondary school subject(s) the lesson is intended.

National Curriculum Standards

Indicate which national standards (e.g., NCSS, NCEE, NCGE, etc.) are addressed by the lesson. Here are some useful Internet addresses:

NCSS’s Expectations of Excellence http://www.socialstudies.org/standards
National History Standards http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards
National Economic Standards http://www.ncee.net/ea/program.php?pid=19
National Geography Standards http://www.ncge.org/publications/tutorial/standards/
National Standards for Civics and Government http://www.civiced.org/stds.html

I. Instructional Objective

Write objective in behavioral terms stressing the student behavior and anticipated outcome(s). Try to emphasize higher-order thinking skills (last three levels of Bloom's taxonomy). Objectives may cover skills as well as knowledge (cognitive, affective, psychomotor). Do not be concerned with success criteria --- that will be specified in the Evaluation.

II. Learning Activities Sequence

a. Set Induction/Lesson Initiating Behavior: every lesson should begin with a dynamic set induction (a.k.a. the springboard or L.I.B.) that "hooks" the students into the lesson. The set induction must be consistent with your lesson objective and tie in to subsequent activities.

b. Learning Activities: every lesson should include at least two learning activities (aside from the set induction) such as: small-group discussion, large-group discussion, teacher explanation, seat work, library activity, simulation game, role-playing, etc. If a classroom discussion is to be implemented, include some appropriate discussion-provoking questions.

c. Closure: each lesson should have a summary or wrap-up. Sometimes this takes the form of reiteration (by teachers or students), sometimes it can be a thought-provoking questions. The closure should complement the set induction.

III. Evaluation

How do you know that the lesson objective was achieved? Think creatively about evaluation; pencil-and-paper tests, although useful, are not the only way to assess students' comprehension. State what criteria you will use to evaluate students. Above all, do not give students a lower order test after you have emphasized higher order thought in class.

IV. Materials and Resources

Include here both teacher and student resources. Attach all handouts to the lesson plan. Be sure to list all texts, movies, music, etc. that your students use or that you use to prepare for the lesson.


IV. Internet Links

Web sites (for either students or teachers) that could impart additional information or be useful in exploring a different angle of the lesson’s topic/issue.

V. References

Include a minimum of two fully-cited references. At least one

should not be an Internet source. These should be resources that you consulted for

preparation of the lesson.

Source (if applicable):