The resource is intended to have students
The unit consists of four lesson plans
The lessons help students develop a number of skills.
Social inequality is a critical issue and an exploration of the relative merits of charity and justice in responding to that challenge is a good starting point in trying to determine how we are to respond. The resource introduces the issue with a number of activities that serve to illustrate the debate in terms of the impact our choices have on people in our communities.
The resource clearly favors justice over charity in responding to social inequalities and this is a view that has a right to be heard. What the resource does not do and what the teacher may have to do is to have students consider the challenges associated with the favored response.
The resource has relevance for those units of study dealing with the larger issues of human rights, government and civic responsibility, economic policy and building sustainable communities.
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
Principle | Rating | Explanation |
---|---|---|
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives | Satisfactory | The resource is designed to have students explore the relative merits of charity and justice in our response to poverty. The sponsors of the resource, the B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition, clearly favor an approach based on justice and the resource reflects this perspective. Teachers must therefore exercise responsibility in ensuring that both perspectives receive a fair critique and that any solution recognizes the complexity of the issue and the difficulties that may be associated with the proposed solutions. |
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives:
| ||
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions | Good | The lessons help students recognize the link between poverty and other social issues such as education, health, crime and social acceptance. A supplementary resource would be needed to investigate these links and others in greater depth than is the case here. |
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions: Effectively addresses the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the issue(s) being explored.
| ||
Respects Complexity | Satisfactory | The resource is somewhat introductory in introducing the relative merits of poverty and justice and additional resources/study are necessary to further explore the complexity of the issue and to investigate why the preferred solution has not been adopted more widely. |
Respects Complexity: The complexity of the problems/issues being discussed is respected. | ||
Acting on Learning | Good | Lesson 3 identifies a number of actions that may be taken collectively to address the problems of poverty and the concluding lesson outlines certain actions that students may take to raise awareness in their school and community. |
Acting on Learning: Learning moves from understanding issues to working towards positive change — in personal lifestyle, in school, in the community, or for the planet
| ||
Values Education | Very Good | Student consideration of the issue of poverty raises questions about the meaning of charity, fairness, justice, and equity. |
Values Education: Students are explicitly provided with opportunities to identify, clarify and express their own beliefs/values. | ||
Empathy & Respect for Humans | Very Good | The lessons raise student empathy for the poor but reject sympathy and charity as long term solutions in favor of structural and policy changes. |
Empathy & Respect for Humans: Empathy and respect are fostered for diverse groups of humans (including different genders, ethnic groups, sexual preferences, etc.). | ||
Personal Affinity with Earth | Poor/Not considered | The unit focuses on the human condition and is intended to raise awareness of the plight of the poor and to argue for action based on justice rather than charity. |
Personal Affinity with Earth: Encourages a personal affinity with -the natural world.
| ||
Locally-Focused Learning | Good | The unit is concerned with the issue of poverty in British Columbia and the illustrations offered and solutions proposed are largely local or provincial. While this represents a beginning in raising student awareness of the issue, teachers should consider extending the lesson with an examination of global poverty. |
Locally-Focused Learning: Includes learning experiences that take advantage of issues/elements within the local community.
| ||
Past, Present & Future | Good | The lessons make students aware of the current situation with respect to poverty and it argues for a future where poverty reduction is based on justice rather than charity. |
Past, Present & Future: Promotes an understanding of the past, a sense of the present, and a positive vision for the future. |
Principle | Rating | Explanation |
---|---|---|
Open-Ended Instruction | Satisfactory | The unit does argue for a particular answer to the challenges of poverty -justice rather than charity- and this answer deserves a hearing. The teacher is therefore left with the responsibility of having students recognize the difficulties attached to this preferred solution in order that they understand why it has not received the wide acceptance required. |
Open-Ended Instruction
: Lessons are structured so that multiple/complex answers are possible; students are not steered toward one 'right' answer. | ||
Integrated Learning | Good | The causes and consequences of poverty touch upon a variety of disciplines. What are the social factors that combine to make and keep people poor? What are the economic consequences for society when a significant element of the population is poor? What can government do to address the causes of poverty? What is the citizen's responsibility in the fight against poverty? |
Integrated Learning: Learning brings together content and skills from more than one subject area
| ||
Inquiry Learning | Satisfactory | The unit presents students with two questions for their consideration. How is wealth and income distributed in British Columbia and Canada and how can we ensure a more equitable distribution of that wealth? A series of lessons present students with some elementary data and situations designed to engage students in a consideration of these questions. |
Inquiry Learning: Learning is directed by questions, problems, or challenges that students work to address.
| ||
Differentiated Instruction | Good | The lessons include a variety of activities, including student visual representation of data, dilemma discussions, simulations, and video presentations. |
Differentiated Instruction: Activities address a range of student learning styles, abilities and readiness.
| ||
Experiential Learning | Good | The lessons are organized around student activities that are designed to engage them in a way that makes them active rather than passive learners and which will help them better internalize what they are learning. |
Experiential Learning: Authentic learning experiences are provided
| ||
Cooperative Learning | Satisfactory | Activities include pairing and sharing, small group investigations and presentations, and collective action. |
Cooperative Learning: Group and cooperative learning strategies are a priority.
| ||
Assessment & Evaluation | Satisfactory | The focus on student activities will yield significant opportunity for teachers to gauge student understanding and perspective of the causes and consequences of poverty. No summative evaluation is included. |
Assessment & Evaluation: Tools are provided that help students and teachers to capture formative and summative information about students' learning and performance. These tools may include reflection questions, checklists, rubrics, etc. | ||
Peer Teaching | Good | A number of the student activities rely upon small group presentations and accordingly allow students to engage and learn from each other. |
Peer Teaching: Provides opportunities for students to actively present their knowledge and skills to peers and/or act as teachers and mentors.
| ||
Case Studies | Good | Students are presented with a number of individual dilemmas that help them weight the merits of justice over charity. |
Case Studies: Relevant case studies are included. Case studies are thorough descriptions of real events from real situations that students use to explore concepts in an authentic context. | ||
Locus of Control | Satisfactory | Each of the lessons is tightly constructed with defined outcomes but may take the student investigation and discussion in unanticipated directions. |
Locus of Control: Meaningful opportunities are provided for students to choose elements of program content, the medium in which they wish to work, and/or to go deeper into a chosen issue. |