Jen Hardie, IC Grade 3 Master Teacher: What Action Can You Take?
Grade 3:
Global Mindedness and the SDGs -- What Action Can You Take?
WHAT:
An integrated unit with third graders in which students explore the central idea that environment, climate/geographical locations and human actions affect living things. Students inquire into the research cycle, persuasive writing and use of technology to convey their message to an audience. Students engage with the Sustainable Development Goals and Good Life Goals, make connections to issues and topics they see in their own lives and feel compelled to take action on.
WHY:
Through exploring and identifying problems within their school and communities, students are making connections between themselves and the wider world. By engaging with transformational learning goals centered in global mindedness, students connected with authentic audiences, followed their own passion on how to improve their communities and considered what actions they and others could take. Student agency, critical thinking and use of technology to creatively communicate their ideas underpin this integrated unit.
HOW:
CARE
Students began by exploring problems they see at school and grouping related topics, noticing themes and connections as they went. They then repeated this by considering problems within their community (immediate area/city) and then within the global community. Time was spent making connections across these areas. Students reflected on how some problems they noticed in their school or community were mirrored on a larger scale in the world.
Students were then introduced to the Sustainable Development Goals. As this was their first exposure to them they looked at both the Good Life Goals next to the UN developed comic explaining each goal. It was important in our context to provide as many avenues into the goals as possible. As much as possible students were given texts in their home language alongside the comic, leveraging their languages strengths. As students gained familiarity with the goals, they began to make connections back to the problems they see within their school, community and wider world, to help better understand what is the essence of each goal.
This is the point in the unit where we had less than 12 hours notice and switched to virtual learning. Lesson learned, when teaching in a global pandemic, take photos at the end of each day of any whole class thinking/anchor charts.
AWARE
Using a 3, 2, 1 protocol, students selected a goal that resonated most deeply with them and began to explore problems within their community connected to that goal. As teachers, we developed an overarching Padlet which included mentor texts, multilingual Good Life Goals and connections to the problems students identified in their school and community. As we were online this served as a landing page. Padlets for each individual goal that students were engaging with were created to support their understanding and research. These Padlets had a range of information and mediums in order to allow for multiple entry points for learners such as; videos, picture books, articles, Epic!, online resources that translate (such as PK Life Science) and infographics. Students demonstrated their learning in connections to the Grade 3 Reading Standards.
ABLE
While students gained a deeper understanding of their chosen topic through the research cycle, students also explored mentor texts connected to persuasion. Again, text and videos of young people persuading others to act on an issue connected to the SDGs were used to engage students, noticing patterns and features of persuasive writing. Students then worked to apply this to their own writing including: transition words, reasons, examples, facts, personal connections, calls to action in connection to the Grade 3 Writing Standards.
IMPACT
Students published their work to raise awareness within their school community. Class websites were made, each student created their own writer’s profile and work was linked here. Students were able to choose how they wished to convey their message to their community via either by contributing to a podcast or a magazine (see at the top) or by creating a video demonstrating their work towards the ISTE Standard for Students 6. Creative Communicator.
Students worked in publishing groups online to support each other, gain help where needed and provide feedback to each other. These publications were then shared with the wider school community.
