Global Awareness Assignment

For the global awareness assignment, I chose to involve my students in learning about cultures and the world around them, with the use of pen pals and studying different children from other cultures. The website I chose was from PBS Kids and is based on the popular television show Arthur. On this website, there are several different thirty minute shows that show diversity and ways to connect with it. There is a particular show, “Arthur: Los Vecinos”, which is about a family that moves to the US from Ecuador. The students must compare how the lives of the family on the show are different from their own. Also on this site were several lessons and activities for the children to partake in.

After the video, children will independently read the interview of a child from Ecuador and create their own interviewing questions. Children will research children from other countries using bibliographies listed on this website and complete ways in which they are alike and different. Students will also research the countries’ flag, location, and language mainly spoken.

So students are able to research and have a better understanding of the country they previously researched, I will require them to find their own pen-pal at http://www.epals.com/. By taking part in this pen-pal experience, students will be able to dive deeper into their exploration of different countries around the world. I will also make the language arts connection to the story Dear Juno by Soyung Pak. This story is part of our 2^nd grade Treasures reading curriculum. This story is about a boy who is pen-pals with his grandmother in Korea. In this story, the grandmother writes the letter in Korean and the little boy needs it translated in English. They also use pictures and objects to help get to know each other. I want my students to choose any country, but they must also keep in mind the ways they’ll need to communicate just as Juno did in the story.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Christopher Terranova on April 17, 2014 at 12:57pm

I like how you combined the PBS resources with the ePals resources for your assignment. PBS will allow the students to understand what global awareness is and how to effectively use it. And your ePals section will allow your students to apply their new found knowledge that will hopefully create better retention of the knowledge and skills for your students. I personally had a pen pal for school when I was elemetary school and I really enjoyed getting to know them and their background. Good luck with your assignment I hope your students enjoy it!

Permalink Reply by Kristin Nicole Martin on April 17, 2014 at 3:57pm

This is such an interesting assignment! I really enjoyed working with PBS Kids and had no idea that they still use the show characters from Arthur. Your kids would love to read about Ecuador children. I think reading about first hand experience can be the most influential, and fun! Finding a pen-pal will be super exciting for them too. Awesome lesson.

Permalink Reply by Laura Marsh on April 19, 2014 at 8:22am

Your lesson sounds wonderful! I like that you incorporated a show that students can relate with to help them better understand diversity. I also used epals to allow my students to make connections with others around the world. I do think that they will need a lot of help using the computer, do you feel this way with your second graders? I also incorporated two different stories from our Treasures reading curriculum that focuses on how children around the world help their parents and have different responsibilities. The stories also focus on kids traveling to school and the differences among their schooling. I think this is a great way to build background knowledge.

Permalink Reply by Laura Bossert on April 20, 2014 at 9:42am

This is a great idea for the project! I really like using PBS resources because they are fun, interactive, and really tailored to student ability level and interest. I also think it was a great idea to use PBS kids and ePals. I used ePals and I can already predict the level of interest my students will have in the classroom being able to "pen-pal" with someone from another country. Nice ideas!

Permalink Reply by Kimberly Yancy-Jackson on April 20, 2014 at 8:17pm

Dear Juno is a wonderful story, it is perfect for your topic. I always like to bring rich literature into my lessons, this helps students connect the text to themselves and to the world. It is great that you are using epals as a follow-up activity to make the lesson real ( so to speak). Often times we give students information and they never have a chance to apply it in the real world. Your lesson seems to provide that kind of opportunity. I believe this makes learning more meaningful and students retain what they have learned when it is meaningful.

Permalink Reply by James Wheatley on April 21, 2014 at 8:16am

This sounds great. I never thought about epals before, but this could definitely be beneficial for earlier grade levels. This most likely has saved a huge amount of headache for educators who have tried to deal with pen pals over the years. It's great that you are making them have pen-pals from a completely different culture, just making sure that they use proper ways of communicating. This is important in a society that rarely focuses on this aspect when you meet individuals from another culture. Nice job.

Permalink Reply by Lindsey Lee Smith on April 27, 2014 at 7:14pm

I love how you incorporated Dear Juno (one of my favorite stories) into your lesson with ePals. It's awesome that you're making them aware of how to communicate with others from another country. I think they will genuinely enjoy getting to know their penpals and their background. I know that having a penpal in school really built the desire in me to travel and see other places. It sounds like a great lesson and one that your students will thoroughly enjoy! :)

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