Standards Based Global Education
Thinking "Outside the Box"
I have enjoyed globalizing my 7th grade United States History classes. In most of my classes, the students are all classified (self-contained) so I have to keep in mind the complexity of global connections or extensions I utilize. However, the students have enjoyed learning that what happens in America also relates to other places around the globe and vice versa.
Adaptation #1: Finding Global Content
Even teaching American history, I was able to find global themes that students could explore. Here is one example: While studying the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, students had the opportunity to investigate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a modern-era document. The site Youth for Human Rights offers links to 30 videos which portray each of the 30 Rights in the Declaration. Students chose 3 to compare and contrast with the United States Bill of Rights.
Adaptation #2: Starting to Think Globally
Whenever I assign current events, I disseminate articles that have global themes, so students read about topics in other countries and then have to analyze how this situation does or could impact them here in the US. Using periodicals like UpFront magazine for high school students while Junior Scholastic or Time for Kids are super for middle schoolers. Both have links to outside websites which have videos and other related tools and links.
Adaptation #3: Out of Class Opportunities
My school, though diverse in population, did not have any type of global issues club…..so I created one, called O Ambassadors, which received seed money from Oprah's Angel Foundation. I applied for the grant which funded all of our start-up costs. Utilizing the website of an organization called Free the Children students have access to videos, print materials and a very cool website. We meet regularly after school and the group is now active in two schools, our high school and middle school, and has raised student awareness and activism about issues such as refugees, human impact of famine and drought, child trafficking and labor, child soldiering, gender inequality and education. In addition, we have taken offsite trips to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC and student conferences at Kean University and Brookdale Community College, both in NJ.
Adaptation #4: Taking Action
Just as I found funds to create a global action club, I encourage the students to raise funds and school awareness for the issues we learn about. Over the course of the last 4 years, our two global action clubs have raise nearly $20,000 which has been designated for various projects implemented by Free the Children. The students studied the issues first, then decided how they wanted to donate their fundraising profits. Similarly, I posted a wishlist on www.donorschoose.org and received a grant of $1000 to fund a Global Human Rights collection in our school library. Any student may borrow these books, so it impacts the entire school.
Developing Global Education Unit Plans or Lessons
One major component of the Online Global Education Course (TGC) was to develop a Global Competencies Unit Plan. For most of the teachers, this was not difficult. In my case, it was more challenging because I teach United States History and also teach mainstream in-class support classes. This means collaborating with a co-teacher. I was fortunate to work with a teacher who welcomed these lessons and also implemented some in the classes I did not teach with her. All of the teachers in the TGC program with me decided to share our plans so that other teachers may be inspired to expand their lessons globally.
For more ideas about designing and implementing global lessons, go to the linked documents folder then click on the appropriate content area :
Click below to learn how I modified lessons to make them global:
One major component of the Online Global Education Course (TGC) was to develop a Global Competencies Unit Plan. For most of the teachers, this was not difficult. In my case, it was more challenging because I teach United States History and also teach mainstream in-class support classes. This means collaborating with a co-teacher. I was fortunate to work with a teacher who welcomed these lessons and also implemented some in the classes I did not teach with her. All of the teachers in the TGC program with me decided to share our plans so that other teachers may be inspired to expand their lessons globally.
For more ideas about designing and implementing global lessons, go to the linked documents folder then click on the appropriate content area :
Click below to learn how I modified lessons to make them global:
standards_based_global_education_updates_revised.docx | |
File Size: | 45 kb |
File Type: | docx |