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All Are Welcome / Be an Upstander

 

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Curriculum Level: K-5

By Laurie Newhouse from Dillard Drive Magnet Elementary

OVERVIEW OF LESSON: After learning their rights and responsibilities, students will practice them by becoming upstanders who show respect through their actions and words by creating banners and posters to demonstrate “All are welcome” and by building a caring school community.

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: First Grade

SUBJECTS: Social Studies / ELA

CORRESPONDING NATIONAL AND/OR STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA STANDARDS:

Social Studies:

1.C&G.1: Students will understand how people engage with and participate in the community.

1.C&G.1.4: Students will compare various processes or strategies people can use to improve communities.

1.C&G.1.3: Students will identify the differences between rights and responsibilities of citizens in various communities.

ELA:

SL.1.1: Students will participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in larger groups.

SL.1.2: Students will ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud and information presented through other media.

Related ELA Standards:

RL.1.1: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

RL 1.7: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: 

  • How am I unique?
  • What are rights?
  • What are my responsibilities?
  • How can I have an impact on my community?

LESSON OBJECTIVES:

  1. Students will be able to express what makes them unique.
  2. Students will be able to identify rights and responsibilities as citizens of a community.
  3. Students will be able to recognize that as a child they have the right of education.
  4. Students will be able to recognize that as a citizen they have the right to be treated with equality and respect.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE EDUCATOR or RESOURCES TO EXPLORE FURTHER: 

All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold (Read Aloud)

#WorldChildrensDay: What are child rights and why are they important?, video

Understand Goal 4: Quality Education, video

Understand Goal 10: Reduce Inequalities, video.

Be an Upstander – Prevent Bullying: A NED Short, video

SPECIFIC STUDENT STRATEGIES & ACTIVITIES: 

Day 1

  1. All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold Show the cover and have students share what they see. Students follow the Turn & Talk technique (T&T) to answer the question: Are all characters the same?  How are they different?
  2. The teacher reads the book and asks questions before, during and after reading:

Before reading: 

1. What do you notice on the cover of the book? 

2. What do you wonder about these children?

3. What does welcome mean?

During reading:

  1. What do you notice about the characters in the story?
  2. Why do you think there are a dozen different kinds of bread?
  3. Why are the children holding hands around a map in the picture?
  4. What does it mean when the author says, “We are all a part of a community, our strength is our diversity”?
  5. How does the author make it clear that the characters feel welcome and are welcoming in the story?
  6. What is happening at the end of the story? Why is this important?

After reading:

  1. Why do you think the author says, “All are welcome here throughout the story”?
  2. Have you ever felt unwelcome?
  3. Describe how our differences make our classroom community strong?
  4. What connections can you make from the story?  How could you make others in your own school community feel welcome?
  • What makes the children in the story special?
  • What makes you special? The teacher asks the children Turn and Talk.

3. Students identify what makes them special and complete activity (I am Important, I am Special) For this activity, on a piece of blank paper the student will draw a self-portrait. The student will copy the sentence: I am special because __________. This activity will take about 20 minutes. 

Day 2

  1. The teacher explains what different/equal/similar means.  The teacher will ask the class: Are we all the same in our classroom? And the class will answer it with the T & T strategy, which they will then share with the whole group.

Students will work in pairs using a Venn diagram where they will have to identify differences and similarities with their partner.

  1. Watch video Understand Goal 10: Reduce Inequalities. Students watch the “Reduce Inequalities” video. 

The teacher will pause the video at each of the inequalities mentioned in the video (voting, religious practices, money) and discuss what it means with the students. The teacher will discuss in the video that it mentions because of Malala’s voice and actions, girls were able to learn. By celebrating diversity, we can help reduce inequalities and help make the world a better place.  

  1. Teacher will lead a discussion around the following questions:
    What would the world be like if all those people were exactly alike and liked the same things?

Imagine that we all wanted to work in the same job (and that there were only journalists or cooks) or that we all liked the same soccer team… would soccer exist if we were all on the same team? What does a group gain when its members know how to do different things or have different interests?

Day 3

  1. The teacher retells the book, All Are Welcome
  2. Watch Understand Goal 4: Quality Education. The class watches and reflects on the video Understanding SDG 4. The teacher will discuss with the class what students need to have quality education.

 The teacher can discuss things such as  

  1. Students need good teachers.
  2. Students need books and materials.
  3. Students need access to technology.
  4. Students need rules to help everyone learn and be safe.

To have quality education, students have rights and responsibilities in school.

  1. The goal for today is to tie in the book, All Are Welcome with rights and responsibilities. The teacher will define the words rights and responsibilities for the students. The words rights and responsibilities will be written at the top of a piece of chart paper. The teacher will guide the students to coming up with a list of rights and responsibilities and write them on the chart paper.

Right: A right is something everyone should have or be able to do in a community.

Responsibility: A responsibility is something a person takes charge of doing in a community.

  1. The teacher will ask the class: Is making other students feel welcome at our school a right or a responsibility?

The student will copy the sentence frame off the board and fill in the blanks with a written response.

Making all students feel welcome at school is a __________ because ______________.

The students will turn and talk and discuss their answer with a partner.

Day 4

The teacher asks the class: How can we make our classroom/school community a place where everyone feels welcome? Together with the students, the teacher brainstorms how to make everyone feel WELCOME. Make a classroom/school banner together. Explore what being an upstander means with your students. Encourage everyone to be an upstander. Watch Be an Upstander – Prevent Bullying: A NED Short (Be an Upstander: Explore what being an upstander means with your students. The whole class completes posters and/or makes a banner that encourages being an upstander.

Day 5

Arrange a day for all of the first grade students to meet in the cafeteria. A special guest (the Assistant Principal) reads the book, All Are Welcome to all the first graders. The first graders recite the Upstander pledge. They sing a song about shaking hands, holding hands, and giving high 5s to each other. They hang their posters and banners around the school building for all to see.

ASSESSMENT: Banners and Posters will be used to assess learning as well as the written response on rights and responsibilities.

LEARNING EXTENSIONS:

The school principal can come into the classrooms and brainstorm with students how we can make everyone feel welcome and feel like they belong.

The class can invite middle school students to the school to talk about their experiences with feeling welcome.

MATERIALS: paper, crayons, and markers.

REFERENCES: 

Brightly Storytime. (Jan 2019) All Are Welcome Read Aloud Picture Book. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwS3FOn4-Ow

Participate, Inc. (2019). Understand Goal 4: Quality Education. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wy1hwZgHdA

Participate, Inc. (2019). Understand Goal 10: Reduce Inequalities. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DlQq2xLw_0

Penfold, A. (2018). All Are Welcome. Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House’s Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

The Ned Shows. (22 Oct 2013). Be an Upstander – Prevent Bullying. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeqQCyQOCPg

World View, a public service program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, equips K-12 and community college educators with global knowledge, best practices and resources to prepare students to engage in our interconnected and diverse world.

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