My Boldly Braiding Individual Unit Plan!

Kate Daly

SCG 439
Professor Lavie Raven

12 October 2012

“Homeward Bound”

Brainstorm:

1)    Cause- Abused and neglected animals

2)    Tool-Ceramic bowls

3)    Art Form- Photography

Objective/Purpose:

For this unit, my objective is to create awareness of the problems domestic animals face when they are neglected and what students can do to raise money and awareness for these animals. The students will also learn how to research charities and how said charities actually distribute their finances.

Project Title:

“Homeward Bound”

Background/Justification:

Despite the often-public outcry that animals be treated with respect and care, tens of thousands of cats, dogs, and other domestic animals are found dead or on the brink of death from abuse and neglect. In recent years, television shows and news stations have brought abuse to our attention, such as through programming about dog fighting rings, animal “cops” and caseworkers, and the Michael Vick case. Although many people want to help these animals, many charitable organizations divvy up their finances to only donate a small portion of their profits to the actual cause. Students need to look at these charities with a critical eye, identifying what red flags are present and how to avoid them.

Skills:

    Students will read Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? by Gary L. Francione.

    Students will learn how to identify bias and presentation in advertising and organizational groups.

    CC. K-12.W.R.2 Text Types and Purposes: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content (From Common Core.)

    CC. K-12.W.R.7 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation (From Common Core.)

    CC. K-12.R.R.8 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence (From Common Core.)

    Students will be given ceramic pet bowls to paint to donate to an animal shelter. They will likely donate the bowls to P.A.W.S. Chicago as we will be taking a field trip to this shelter in the last week of the unit.

    Students will create a project based on photographs they take themselves that reflect what they’ve learned throughout the unit.

Content:

This unit is designed mostly for an English/Language Arts classroom, as we will be doing quite a bit of reading, critical analyses of texts, and writing proposals and response papers based on research they gather. However, this unit could work for a number of other content areas as well.

            Social Science/History:

            -History of animal rights. When did animals start becoming domesticated?

            -Evolution of advertising, which could coincide with the evolution of

              media (TV, radio, Internet, etc.)

           

            Mathematics:

            -Percentages and amounts that charities receive and how they spend it.

            -The value of your money: how much do you need to donate to make a

              difference?

            World Language/ESL:

            -How do animal laws compare in America to other countries? How can

              you write a proposal in that language to help homeless pets?

Community Building Assets:

Students will learn how to create awareness for a cause in their community by presenting factual information as well as creating an impact through emotion and personal story.  Students will also learn what other plights are affecting their community through research of charities and learn how they can help these groups through volunteering (meaning, money is not the only way one can help a charity.)

Other Expertise:

A speaker who works for P.A.W.S. Chicago will give a talk on how students can help animals in the city and what are the biggest issues a charitable organization face. If possible, we will also take a field trip to the P.A.W.S. shelter (1997 North Clybourn Avenue, Chicago IL 60614) to see the inner workings of a shelter and how those who volunteer or work there go about their days.

Materials:

    Drawing/Poster board

    Disposable cameras

    Markers

    Colored pencils, pens

    Glue sticks

    Ceramic pet bowls (one for each student)

    Ceramic paint (for the outside of the bowl)

    Paintbrushes

    Journals (for written reflection)

    Computers with Internet access

Student Activities:

At the beginning of each class, students will take five minutes to write in their journals about the readings, projects, or whatever we are currently working on. This is an informal reflection that will be their bell ringer for the day.

Week One

    Background for the students: A brief history of animal rights in America in the 20^th and 21^st century. How have these rights shaped the laws? What do these laws mean for domestic animals?

    Activity: Students will get into groups to discuss ethical dilemmas involving animal rights. For example, students will be given scenarios such as, “You’re walking home from school and you see a dog being dragged along by a leash and choke collar. The dog seems to be in pain but the owner is on their phone and isn’t paying attention. What would you do and why?” Students will present their answers to the class and we will discuss the impact of these issues in our everyday lives.

    We will begin reading excerpts from Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? and online supplemental materials to offer different views. Students will begin to learn about the importance of bias and presentation in books and online resources.

    Students will find one website that is presented “improperly” and one website that is presented “properly” and explain the differences between each one.

Week Two

    Students will continue to research bias in websites and books and will begin to learn about charities.

    Activity: Students will be assigned a recognizable/famous charity and will have to fill out a worksheet with such questions as “What percentage of collected money goes towards the cause?” This will help them start to identify how charities can advertise or present themselves as being more charitable than they really are.

    We will continue to read some excerpts from our book and begin to tie this into the idea of which charities we should look into.

    Hopefully we will have a guest speaker come in from P.A.W.S. Chicago to discuss the importance of animal shelters and what they do for our community.

    Activity: Students will make ceramic pet bowls to donate to P.A.W.S. and write a short letter to the shelter to express what they’ve learned about homeless pets and how they feel these bowls will help the organization.

Week Three

    We will take a field trip to P.A.W.S. Chicago to see the conditions of the shelter and learn some more facts about what it’s like for a homeless pet in a good shelter. We will also learn what it’s like for a homeless pet in a less desirable shelter.

    Activity: Students will get to create poster boards with disposable cameras and art supplies. Each student will pick an animal charity in Chicago to research and create an “advertisement” for this shelter/charity. If possible, students will notify these charities of their work and send them a copy of the poster!

    Wrap Up: Students will reflect on their ideas of animal rights and the state of animal shelters and organizations in Chicago. We will discuss as a group how this unit made them feel. What did they learn that surprised them? How can they continue to help their community through these organizations or through other causes?

Resources:

    http://www.pawschicago.org/

    http://www.charitynavigator.org/ (A website that critically and objectively analyzes various charities and their effectiveness.)

Evaluation/Assessment:

Students will be graded based on their reflections/journal entries, class participation, group and individual activities, their poster board advertisements, and various questions based on their readings.

Reflection:
N/A

Reading Response: Sundem, Chapters 3 and 4

Sundem, Chapter 3: Kids Helping Others


           Chapter 3 of Sundem's book focuses on students tackling real life situations and issues in order to help others. These issues ranged from a student predicting a tsunami because of her previous knowledge about tsunamis from school, to a student raising awareness in Taiwan for the safety of workers. Each story was inspirational in its own way, but they all had one thing in common: the students took the initiative to make a difference. None of the students had to do what they did, it was all voluntary and their decision. What struck me was the inspiration these students gave to other members of their school, community, and even the country. Each one of them gained attention from news publications and organizations, prompting others to take notice and often pitch in with said cause. These stories are all relatively recent as well, meaning that the work these students did is still making an impact and inspiring others (such as ourselves, as we are reading this book!)

          Something that stood out to me was the story of Ryan Hreljac. To refresh, Ryan wanted to raise money to help Africa dig wells to get clean water to its people. Ryan raised $75 through chores and work his parents gave him so he could build a well for a town. When Ryan learned this wasn't nearly enough money, he didn't give up. "His parents were sad that Ryan would have to learn a difficult lesson-that sometimes even though you try your hardest, some things are still impossible." This is how many people would have viewed this situation, and I'm sure how many of us in this class have looked at something before. Perhaps it was because of his adolescence that he was able to look at this as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. His persistence paid off and he was able to raise thousands of dollars to help the cause, and he was able to do so through the help of countless people who also donated and spread awareness.

         Reading this chapter, I kept thinking one thing: How can I integrate stories like this into my classroom to spark motivation and inspiration? What can I do to make this a reality? I think that as educators, it's crucial to integrate social justice and change into our curriculum. This can be through any content area. If you're a math teacher, invite students to create proposals to save homeless pets in your area through the use of percentages, graphs, and financial goals. If you're a music teacher, organize a concert for the community to help raise money for schools with a lack of funding and musical instruments. I think that the possibilities are endless for teachers and students, and to me, one of the most important things is to be active yourself, as their teacher. Help them, get involved, and don't leave everything to them. It shouldn't feel like a chore or a boring assignment, it should be a great way to demonstrate real-world skill for the sake of bettering the community.

Critical Thinking Questions: (feel free to answer one or more)

1. How can you motivate students who would otherwise pass on an opportunity to get involved with their community? What can you do to get "lackluster" students excited about such a task?

2. What skills can charity and donation give to students? How do you make a project based on social justice while still reaching the common core standards?

3. How could you relate personally to this type of unit? What could you do to show your students that you too care about the cause and aren't just acting as a teacher?


Sundem, Chapter 4: Kids Overcoming Challenges


       Similarly to the third chapter, Chapter 4 discusses children tackling real-life issues, but this time due to personal tragedies or shortcomings. Each story began with a child having to overcome adversity, and none of these adversities were easy to overcome. One of the children even lost her life to the cancer she'd been battling since birth. But again, none of these children had to fight against their condition, they could have simply given in to the negative outcomes. Yet it was impossible for them to do so. Why? Maybe it was because they were simply unwilling to accept a less than amazing life. Maybe it was because each of them had a good support system throughout their lives, whether it was parents, school, or doctors. Whatever the reason, these children were unwilling to let anything get them down, and it inspired millions.

        The students in Chapter 4 are the type of children that inspired the stories in Chapter 3 to do something to help their community. They took matters into their own hands and were unable to accept "no" as an answer. To me, the story of the two children in America with physical disabilities served as motivation for a unit. If students in my classroom had to try to go through their day without an arm or leg, how would they do it? I could have students while in class hold their arm to their side or keep their leg behind them to see what they took for granted only moments before. Then, after this first class, I could introduce the idea of overcoming adversity in a number of different ways, such as teaching them about suffrage, the Civil Rights Movement, and same-sex marriage today. I feel as if these ideas would easily translate into most content areas as well. For example, if you were discussing workers' rights, you could compare the amount of money workers throughout different countries make per hour, then discuss what would be a fair amount for each country and how each country could reach this amount reasonably. This would require students to really think outside the box and research these issues thoroughly.

        Critical Thinking Questions: (again, feel free to answer one or more)

1. How could you push the envelope with "kids overcoming challenges"? In other words, what topics could you address that would make your students really think about the issue, not just brush it aside?

2. Think of an issue that you've personally struggled with, whether it's been something you suffered from or something that affected a loved one. How could you turn this into a unit in your content area?