General Projects/Activities

The projects and activities included in this document are designed to aid teachers and students in learning about fair trade.

Introductory discussion: 10 golden rules

Fair Vs. Unfair Discussion

Newspaper article (profile)

Article review: Bias/persuasion

Website review

Group/Classroom Art Project: Fair Trade Mural/mosaic

Understanding choice: Role-play/story/advertisement

Interview a guest speaker

Importance of electricity

Debate: Fair trade is an instrument of justice

Fair trade taboo/Catchphrase

Fair trade Mascot

Fair Trade Superhero

Fair trade cookbook

Extra-curricular

Introductory discussion: 10 golden rules

Discussion can be used to inform a single class/lesson, or be used/referred to inform longer-term discussions within a unit.

In groups, have students create 10 golden rules for how to treat people. Decide as a class what 10 golden rules should be displayed in the classroom for the rest of the year.

Fair Vs. Unfair discussion

Discussion: Tell me if you agree or disagree with the statement: "If you work hard, you'll make a lot of money."

  • Can you think of examples of people who work hard and make a lot of money?
  • Can you think of examples of people who work hard and don't make a lot of money?
  • How would you feel if someone paid you very little for something that took you a long time to make? How would you feel if what you worked hard to make made someone else a lot of money, while you were paid very little?

Newspaper article (profile)

Research a fair trade organization/business on the internet

What makes them a fair trade organization/business? What is their involvement in fair trade?

What impact do they have on producers in the developing world?

Write a profile on their organization/business.

Present organization/business to the class.

Producer option -- provide the following information:

  • who they are (name and background)
  • product selling (+5 facts about their product)
  • why fair trade is important to them
  • why Canadians should buy fair trade

Article review: Bias/persuasion

Provide students with a selection of articles on fair trade

Have students answer the following:

  • Who wrote the article? If there is a single author name, does s/he have any affiliation with any specific organization?
  • What is the purpose of the article? Why was it written?
  • Who is the target audience?
  • What strategies does the author use to persuade the audience? (empathy, anecdote, humour, evidence, statistics, quotations, examples, rhetorical questions, direct address contrast, sentence structure, paragraphing)
  • How effective is the article? Does it achieve its purpose?
  • Of the [#] articles read in class, which is the most effective? Why?

Have students create a list of 5-6 key components to writing an effective article on (for/against) fair trade.

Have students write their own persuasive article for/against fair trade.

Website review

Select, or have students select, a fair trade business/organization/producer group website to review. (Preselecting websites for students may help avoid translation issues.)

  • What is the purpose of the website?
  • Who is the target audience?
  • What topics are covered?
  • What is the tone of the website?
  • How well is the information explained?
  • Find examples of language used on the website that: a) informs, b) describes, and c) persuades
  • How could the website be improved?

Have students write text for a website promoting fair trade among [target audience] at [location: school/community].

Key strategies:

  • have students check information is correct before using on their website.
  • include images
  • include a rational for their website. What will be indicators of effectiveness? How well does their website meet these indicators?

Have students present websites to the class.

Group/Classroom Art Project: Fair Trade Mural/mosaic

Represent how [cocoa/banana] farmers benefit from fair trade relationships.

Students will need to decide:

  • What do you want the mural to communicate? What are its key themes? Key messages?
  • How will you develop a design to tie the elements together?
  • Decide who will draw/design certain key elements and draft design elements.
  • Provide feedback on each other's elements.
  • Decide how the elements will fit together.
  • Work together to copy drafts onto the mural, colour/paint.

Evaluation: Fair trade themes, creativity and harmony, effective group work.

Understanding choice: Role-play/story/advertisement

Goal: Demonstrate understanding of how choices can make a difference in the world by creating a message aimed to educate others.

Topics to consider — We can choose to buy food based on

  • where it comes from
  • where it was processed/produced
  • how workers, farmers, or other producers are treated
  • what impact the product has on the environment
  • whether it has any connection to a cooperative or how the business is structured

Evaluation: clearly present understanding of consumer options and potential ramifications on the world, creativity/presentation/effectiveness of message, effective team collaboration.

Interview a guest speaker

  • local farmer
  • coffee roaster with experience with coffee farmers

Learning goals: Understand daily life of a farmer. Understand how s/he sells products. Understand the challenges of the job/business.

Before the interview: Brainstorm with the class a list of questions to ask.

After the interview: Review with the class

Activity: Report on the life and times of the interviewee (newspaper article, story, poem, etc.)

Importance of electricity

Goals: understand the importance of electricity and what life might be like without it.

Starter: In groups, students brainstorm a list of uses for electricity in our life (at home, in the classroom, elsewhere?). Students share responses with the class, write list on the board.

Distribute producer stories to different groups or read to the class. Discuss in groups:

  • What would life be like without electricity?
  • What would your day look like?
  • What would you do when you get home from school?

Activity: Give students a piece of paper. Ask them to fold down the middle. On one side, describe what life would be like without electricity; on the other, describe what life is like with electricity. Students can either write or illustrate representations.

Debate: Fair trade is an instrument of justice

[Need for a controversial context? Consider SOAS?]

Discussion points to consider:

  • what is justice?
  • what difference does Fairtrade make to producers and their communities?
  • what would happen to farmers if they did not have fair trade? Would their lives be any different? How? Why?
  • would different groups people have different perspectives on this issue? (consumers, producers, supermarkets, governments, businesses?) Whose opinion is the most important?

Review Activity: Draw a line down the centre of the classrrom. One end represents "Strongly agree" and the opposite "Strongly disagree"; the middle represents "undecided". Ask students to stand along the line according to how they feel about the statement: "Fair trade is an instrument of justice." Follow up with individual students:

  • why did they choose their particular position?
  • has their opinion changed since the beginning of the lesson/unit? How? Why?

Fair trade taboo/Catchphrase

Ask students to write a word or phrase that relates to fair trade on a piece of scrap paper (or prepare word/phrase cards in advance). Divide the class into two teams. Teams take turns, where one person from each team must come to the front of the classroom to draw card and describe the word/phrase without using the word or phrase. The team gets 30 seconds to guess the word. If the team doesn't guess the word, the other team has 10 seconds to "steal" a point by guessing the word.

Fair trade mascot

In pairs, students develop a mascot to represent a new fair trade product.

choose a product

  • Describe the mascot: is it colourful? what personality does it have? does it talk/communicate in a certain way?
  • How does it connect to the product?
  • How does it connect to fair trade?
  • How would your mascot respond to the following statement?: "Fairtrade does not make a difference to the majority of farmers in the developing world."

Present mascot and rationale to the class.

Fair trade superhero

Students design a superhero to address the issues of a community in a developing country. Have students write or design a skit demonstrate how this superhero can help this community.

What challenges do people in the community face? What are the reasons for these issues?

Design a superhero

  • what is his/her name?
  • what type of personality does s/he have?
  • what super powers does s/he have?
  • how does s/he help solve problems for people in the community?

Write a short story or design a short sketch to demonstrate how your super hero helps the community.

Each skit/story needs to begin with the line: "Help [insert superhero’s name]! We need you!"

Review discussion: Do super heroes really exist in the world? Who will help solve these problems? How?

Fair trade cookbook

Have students select a fair trade product and then search for a recipe that contains that product.

Explain how/why fair trade can/should be used for the recipe. Identify any other products that can be bought as fair trade.

Students may work in groups, but must work together to develop a cohesive menu (appetizer, main, dessert).

Include an image of the final dish(es).

*If being used for a cooking class, include a maximum price range for each recipe.

**Have students select a recipe to be cooked by the teacher/class.

***Consider combining all recipes into one "Fair Trade Cookbook" -- to be bound, printed, and/or shared online.

Extra-curricular

Aside from in-class resources, goals for action outside of the classroom will be especially valuable.

-Develop a local shopping guide for your community

-Contest: trade in your fairtrade logos = win a prize

-Develop an online marketing campaign

-Conduct a research project to investigate public opinion on fair trade.

  • Identify target group:
  • students, grade # to #
  • teachers
  • parents
  • people in the community
  • Decide: will research be done in-person or online? Use personal networks?

-Connect and build relationships with other town and campus groups in your community

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