Gandhi’s glasses

Author(s): Students in Model Schools for Inner Cities, Cluster A, Toronto, Ontario

Links:
Amazon: N/A
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Available at https://bit.ly/2SB6yr2
(Toronto District School Board)

Social Justice focus: Justice for all

Synopsis: Gandhi’s Glasses is a story about a little girl named Asha who is empowered to be the change she wants to see in the world after she learns about Mahatma Gandhi and finds a pair of shiny gold glasses that help her see the world differently.

Lesson Plan: Laura Dusmet

Primary/Junior/Intermediate Lesson Plan (ABBREVIATED TEMPLATE)

Consecutive and Concurrent Programs

Unit/Topic: Language arts – Social Justice and My impact through action

Grade: 5

Lesson: What is the focus of this lesson in relation to the unit?

This lesson focuses on oral communication, and visual arts. It is addressing different points of view and asking students to communicate their thoughts clearly to express their relation to the story and how they themselves can improve on their impacts to society. This also sees that students understand how others might be feeling in these situations.

Curriculum Areas: What are possible connections to other curricular areas?

Science Interactions in the environment), Social Studies (Environmental impact), Health and Physical Education (Safety online), Visual Arts.

Curriculum Expectations: What Overall and Specific Expectations will be addressed?

Overall Expectations:

Oral Communication:

1. listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes;

2. use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes;

Visual Arts:

D1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process (see pages 19–22) to produce a variety of two- and three-dimensional art works, using elements, principles, and techniques of visual arts to communicate feelings, ideas, and understandings;

Specific Expectations:

Oral Communication:

1.2 demonstrate an understanding of appropriate listening behaviour by adapting active listening strategies to suit a wide variety of situations, including work in groups

1.4 demonstrate an understanding of the information and ideas in oral texts by summarizing important ideas and citing a variety of supporting details

1.5 make inferences about oral texts using stated and implied ideas in the texts as evidence

1.6 extend understanding of oral texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights; to other texts, including print and visual texts; and to the world around them

1.8 identify the point of view presented in oral texts and ask questions to identify missing or possible alternative points of view

1.9 identify a range of presentation strategies used in oral texts and analyse their effect on the audience

2.3 communicate orally in a clear, coherent manner, presenting ideas, opinions, and information in a readily understandable form

2.4 use appropriate words and phrases from the full range of their vocabulary, including inclusive and non-discriminatory language, and stylistic devices suited to the purpose, to communicate their meaning accurately and engage the interest of their audience

2.7 use a variety of appropriate visual aids

Visual Arts:

D1.2 demonstrate an understanding of composition, using selected principles of design to create narrative art works or art works on a theme or topic

D1.3 use elements of design in art works to communicate ideas, messages, and understandings

Learning Goal(s): What are students expected to know, do and understand? We are learning to….

We are learning to recognize how our actions impact the everyday lives of others

We are learning to understand that being a bystander is just as bad as committing the crime

We are learning the value in standing up for what we believe is right

Success Criteria: How will students know they have met the learning goal? I can….

I can take initiative when I see litter on the ground

I can stand up for people when they are being mistreated (so long as I am not in harm’s way)

I will help others instead of standing aside

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MODIFICATIONS/ACCOMMODATIONS:

How will I meet the needs of my students? Have I addressed any IEPs?

For students that read slowly/ are visual learners I have provided the pictures from the story to help remind them what they heard

For students that speaking in from of the class/have anxiety I have provided options for them as to how they can present their information and drawings

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Minds-on: How will I connect to prior and future learning? How will I engage students and set the context for learning?

We will talk about the word ‘Bystanders’

What do you think of when you think of this word? Is it positive or negative? How does it make you feel and why?

Minutes: How much time will I allocate? 15 minutes

Task: What will I be doing? What will students be doing?

Reading of Gandhi’s Glasses (first half)

How did these situations make you feel? Would you have done anything different?

Assessment: What is the Nature and Purpose of assessment?

Making sure that students understand the value of not being a bystander and acting out to the right thing – assessment will happen through assessing the classes’ discussion.

Action: How will I introduce new learning / reinforce prior learning / practice learning / scaffold learning?

Minutes: How much time will I allocate? 15-30 minutes

Task: What will I be doing? What will students be doing?

Students take a situation of Asha’s where she walked away

They will create a list of who’s there and how do they feel

They are drawing a solution to the problem to create a visual to explain what went wrong and how it could be done better.

The students will then develop their own stance on the issue and then we will discuss the issues as a class.

Consolidation How will I reflect on the learning goal? How will I have students reflect on the learning goal?

Reading of second half of Gandhi’s Glasses

Remember how we talked about how we feel about the word bystander?

Now that you’ve considered it from different perspectives and we’ve read this cool book, what does it mean to you now? Has it made you revaluate how you see it?

Minutes: How much time will I allocate? 10 minutes

Task: What will I be doing? What will students be doing?

Can you come up with a situation that you can think of where you walked away instead of doing something? What could you have done instead?

Assessment: What is the Nature and Purpose of assessment?

Assessment will be the chart paper that students hand in of the drawing and the written component from the handout.

________________________________________________________________MATERIALS: What resources and materials do I need? Where can I find them? In a perfect world what other resources might I need?

Chart paper

Markers

Gandhi’s Glasses (the book)

Work sheet (1 per group) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z2k-1fdQrUugZdqWMHX4109f2yriIrmI_5VCFzQ4Us4/edit?usp=sharing)

Photos of pages from the book for each group

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REFLECTION: Questions to determine the success of your lesson:

• Were my students successful in meeting the learning goals and success criteria? How do I know?
• Did my instructional decisions meet the needs of all students? If not, what are my next steps?
• What worked well and why?
• What will I do differently in the future when teaching this lesson? For the subsequent lesson?
• What are the next steps for my professional learning?

Resources:

Lynch, M. January 9th, 2019. Teaching Social Justice in your Classroom. January 16th/2020, from https://www.theedadvocate.org/teaching-social-justice-in-your-classroom/

Anecdotal Checklist