Globalization and Citizenship

Rooms 20 & 21 have been learning about globalization, quality of life, rights and freedom and citizenship. Students have been learning that citizenship means a feeling of responsibility towards others and helping them. They have been exploring organizations, different countries and completing different critical thinking tasks to understand and appreciate their rights and freedoms as Canadian citizens. Below is the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child in pdf form.

UN Rights of the Child Poster
UN Sustainable Development Goals: this is what the organization believes will help end poverty

This document has been a huge part of our class discussions. The significance of this document has been important in their learning about citizenship because students have been learning that there are people in the world, and even within our country, who do not have the same quality of life, rights and freedoms as they do (inequality).

Students studied different international organizations for their own citizenship projects. An example of one was from an international organization called Plan International. Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children's rights and equality for girls.
Plan International
https://plancanada.ca/because-i-am-a-girl



To illustrate this point, students completed the Marshmallow Challenge. Below is the video explaining the challenge itself and its purpose.



Students engaged in this team building challenge, but were faced with limitations and restrictions depending on what group they were put in. 
Group 1: have instructions on how to build a well constructed tower in English, hints on how to build a successful tower, all the materials at their desk, best and extra supplies at their disposal, and lots of help from the teachers and EA
Group 2: have instructions in English, good supplies, materials at their desk, only allowed two hints from adult supports
Group 3: Given basic supplies, no instructions, all materials at their desk
Group 4: no instructions or hints, must walk to get supplies and are limited in terms of how many items they can carry back to their table to complete the challenge
Group 5: have to complete another task that will take 10 minutes before they even start their tower
Group 6: unreadable instructions (in French), no hints/help, lack of materials

So what have we learned? How do we continue to discuss citizenship? How do we talk about the inequalities that we see? Below are some video prompts to help you engage in those conversations. There are also discussion questions below to help facilitate the conversations.

 < - What Does Education Mean to You? 














<- Two girls, two different lives.













How do you turn a life around? ->










Discussion Questions 
1. What is empathy? How do you show someone you care?
2. What is responsibility? How do you show responsibility at home and at school? 
3. Do your rights and freedoms change as you become an adult?
4.Why is it important to learn responsibility and empathy in order to be a good citizen?
5. How does showing citizenship increase equality and opportunity for others?
7. Who do you know is a citizen that has made a difference? (i.e Terry Fox, Malala Yousafzai, Christian and the Buddy Bench idea, etc)
8. What are some of the local organizations that help others? How do they make a difference?
9.  What are the difference between a right, want and need? Are there similarities between them? 
10. What are you thankful and grateful for? How do you show appreciation?