Do Prisons Make us Prisoners? PBL Unit
This unit was designed by Lillian Gharios for High School students
Name: Lillian Gharios
Grade Level: High School, ages 13-15.
Unit topic: Prisons and their Effects on Communities and Societies or Do Prisons Make Us Prisoners?
Curriculum Area or Areas to be Integrated: Research skills, Reading skills, Social skills, Connections between History and Social Studies.
Duration of the Unit: 6 weeks
Statement of the Problem to be Solved:
Prisons have existed for a really long time but in many places and in many different ways we still see injustice. Injustice is not only an issue that affects prisoners, but it affects communities and societies as a whole. Something needs to be done differently and it needs to take place now. We still see cases ranging from people being wrongfully imprisoned to criminals finishing their sentence and then committing a crime again. Many questions arise when thinking about the establishment of a prison. Through studying different systems, we must come to an understanding of whether or not there is a good way to run a prison or not. Is there anything prisons should be doing differently?
Problem: Who is the Criminal; The Prisoner or The Justice System?
Questions:
1) Why do people go to prison?
2) What determines who goes to prison and what their sentence is?
3) How does the fight for “Human Rights” fit into our unit on prisons and prisoners?
4) Why is it important for us, as ordinary citizens, to learn about different mental health issues even if we are not counselors, doctors, etc.?
5) Why is it important for us to use interviews as one of the methods of research in a unit about improving prisons?
6) How does Emotional intelligence fit in our conversation about prison development, prisoners conditions and societies?
7) What is the role of the justice system?
Entry Document
Please click on the link below to access the entry document video.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JGhADJpN5aNSV9_VUk3vTiiCqdQj76_H/view
Twenty-first century skills and standards:
1) Critical thinking and Problem Solving: apparent all throughout the PBL unit from my planned lessons to student’s independent work. The expected result from the project is
that students present something new and innovative and they will do that through several
weeks of research both electronic and hands-on research.
2) Communication and Collaboration: not only are students working in groups to
complete this project and will be graded for their team efforts and work, students will also have to present (their choice of presentation) where every member of the group is required to contribute and speak. This will help with their public speaking skills. For those who are nervous to present, I will provide an extra workshop on public speaking with tips on how to prepare beforehand to be less nervous and more confident (I have done public speaking in the past, so I am confident about teaching it and giving advice when needed). Students will also be required to share one thing from each presentation that they liked which will push them to listen to their classmates (also a very important skill to have!)
3) Information Literacy: to excel in these projects, students are required to show that they have used different sources with opposing opinions before coming to their own conclusions and suggestions. This is important because students need to learn that a) not all information out there is accurate, b) sometimes our own biases lead us to certain articles over others and we need to take an active role in making sure we learn about all different sides.
4) Flexibility and Adaptability: in my lesson plan #1, students will have to work in groups and those groups will be different than their groups for the entire project. This way they will have to be in a situation talking about a similar topic but to a different group to learn to be flexible and adapt to the circumstances that come up. I also require students to do some hands-on research (it doesn’t have to be complicated nor do they need to physically visit a prison or a criminal to do this,) which will mean talking to strangers which also requires a lot of flexibility and adaptability to a certain situation ie. coming up with a follow up question or not asking a certain question on their list after gauging the type of person they are talking to.
5) Intuitive and Self-Direction: while I give students a lot of information to guide them through this project, I do not and will not provide a step-by-step guide. They will be their own leaders and have to be responsible to succeed.
6) Social and Cross-Cultural Skill: students will be learning during the 4 lesson plans about different prisons from Norway to El Salvador. Furthermore, in lesson 1, students will have to research prisons in different countries and present them to their classmates as an initial list to help guide their choice (the prison they will choose to evaluate in their project). Our lesson on emotional intelligence and social awareness also has students thinking and putting themselves in other’s shoes which requires understanding of different backgrounds, cultures, health...etc that leads people to be a certain way, often times different than us. All this gives students a chance to spend time learning about different cultures in a specific prison system which not only sheds light on criminals but
on countries and their judicial systems, human rights and attitude towards citizens. It also
sheds light on the status of mental health awareness in different countries.
7) Leadership and Responsibility: one of my favorite skills to teach and be on the lookout
for! Because students will be working in groups, mostly independently, I will be observing each group's work. This allows me to see how the team members work together and how they keep themselves and each other on track. I love this because often it is the quiet or shy student who keeps the rest in check and on track and it’s so wonderful to see the influence of a few students on the work of the whole group.
8) Global Awareness: this is so important to me because our students are the future and they need to be globally aware to help the most number of people. I actually love what Dalia called it “Global Advocacy” and it is around that skill that my project is designed: to not only be aware of the issues that people face around the world but to actively think of alternatives and solutions to help better the lives of many.
9) Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy: this will not apply to all the students, but for those who take a financial approach to better the prisons will really work on this skill. For example, some students can research the cost of keeping someone in prison then the cost after prison when they have no skills to integrate back to society and have to rely on checks from the government to live. Compare that to the price of paying for a “school system” for the prison where prisoners are required every day to learn new sets of skills and behaviour so that they can integrate back to society once released. If it is cheaper, then isn’t that another motivation to better our systems and provide more to help instead of humiliating prisoners? I want students to be creative here so I won’t suggest this approach, but it would be so cool if a group takes that approach to make their argument even stronger!
10) Civic Literacy: to succeed in this project, an understanding of governments of different countries and their judicial system is required and will be covered during the lesson plans as outlined.
11) Health Literacy: students will have to understand different mental health issues and their connection to human behaviour to complete this project, as will be covered in lesson #2 as well. This also ties back to global awareness because through health literacy, students will be able to be more empathetic, and kind to those around them and try to see the world through the lens of others as well.
Content Standards:
Key Ideas and Details: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1
Craft and Structure: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY-RH.0-10.4
Text Types and Purposes: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.1
Test Types and Purposes: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2.D
Research to Build and Present Knowledge: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.0-10.7
Objectives:
1) Decision-making: students will understand the history of why prisons were both developed and run in a certain way with an attitude of humiliating prisoners.
I will understand the history of prisons well and how certain decisions were carried out/believed to be effective.
Students will be divided into groups of 5-6 and will be given a worksheet that has different words such as “torture methods,” “Iraqi prisons run by USA,” “prisons in Norway,” “Human Rights,” “Hisotry of Torture,” “Prison systems...” etc and will be asked to choose 2 of the terms and present what they know about them to the class. While they work, I will be spending some time with each group to further assess who has background knowledge and who doesn’t. For those who don’t, they will be required to join a 2 hours workshop that talks about the history of prisons and the changes that have taken or haven’t taken place in modern day.2) Hands-on research: students will analyze (with hands-on research where possible) different prisons with different approaches and cross analyze outcomes of each.
I will analyze different prisons through my research, including hands-on research. Before beginning their research, students will be required to submit answers to the following questions: a) how will you conduct your research? b) what will be your main source of information? c) If conducting interviews, a set of questions and follow up questions that will be asked.Then, in the second week of research, students will be required to meet with me, one-on- one, to present what they have found so far and how they plan to use that information to move along in their projects. This is a great way for me to see their progress, understand how I can be of more help to certain students and for them to get informal feedback and suggestions from me to make their research even stronger and more detailed.
3) Emotional Intelligent: students will demonstrate an understanding of mental health issues and their effects on one’s behaviour and decision-making process. Students will also evaluate the relationship between mental illness and crime, understanding that mental illness is not an excuse for crime, but it helps us better understand the people around us, no matter their background.
I will understand mental health and how it affects human’s decision -making process and behaviour, while analyzing the relationships between mental health and crime.
Class activity. First, students will be shown people with different facial expressions and will be asked to use one word to describe how that person is feeling. This helps me guage their level of emotional intelligence.Second, I will share true stories of people with the outcome for their actions and ask students the following questions: “how do you feel about what they did?” Followed by “do you think they got the outcome they deserved? Why?” This will help me understand whether students understand that the law is not straightforward, something people are dragged into crimes and that there is no one rule that fits all. Each case will be different
and should be looked at differently. Most importantly, it will help me see if my students try to put themselves in other people’s shoes and be understanding before making a decision about that person. That is an important life lesson and skills to have and also important to succeed in a project such as this one; broad and requires understanding of many different aspects of one’s life to develop a well-functioning prison system, ready to serve societies as a whole. Here, student’s with lower Emotional Intelligence will be led through several activities to increase their social awareness and emotional intelligence.
4) Real-life application: students will apply their knowledge from class and from their research to real life events including both professional and personal.
I will apply my knowledge learned from class and from my research to my personal life and professional life.
This objective can be reached more towards the end of the project when students are now using all their research and knowledge to create a final piece. Here, the pre-assessment will be done in a creative setting. I will take the class on a walk to the park and during our walk, each student will be asked to share one lesson they have learned through their research and how it applies to their personal lives. When possible, they will be asked to give an example from their personal lives, about any event that took place, and how what they have learned in this project so far changed how they look back at that event / how they would react differently in the future should something similar happen.5) Connect and understand the bigger picture: students will create a final product that reflects the basis of why PBL is important, while connecting lessons learned from their projects to their personal future and future of the world.
I will create a final product to showcase my work and research. In my final product, I will highlight the importance of PBL not only to the work we did in this project, but through connecting lessons learned from the project to the personal future and future of the world. Also, more towards the final weeks of the project, students will be asked to work in groups and present, creatively (through a song, a poem, etc.) what they learned from this PBL project, it’s importance and 3 lessons they learned that will help them with their personal goals and with making the world a better place.
Assessments:
- Pre-assessments: Please also refer to the “objectives” segment for details of each assessment.
- Formative assessments: for formative assessments, please refer to each unit plan at the end of this document as the formative assessments are integrated directly into each lesson plan.
- Summative assessment: students will be required to evaluate one prison of their choice and create a new prison system instead to make it better based on what they learn in class and on their research. They will have to present their findings and suggestions. Please
refer to appendix 1 for the rubric.
10. Clearly work out and share your unit’s essential questions.
Should prisoners have rights?
Should the term “human rights” also apply to prisoners?
Should they be treated with basic dignity and respect?
Are prisoners always lawfully accused?
Have justice systems contributed to decreasing criminality?
Have prisoners contributed to more criminals?
Should governments invest in programs that help integrate prisoners back to society? Should governments invest in teaching prisoners skills while in prison, as one way to integrate them back to society?
13. Plan your anticipated sequence of instruction for the unit. List the concepts in the order you want to teach them.
Please refer to the end of this document, Appendix 2, for all detailed lesson plans, arranged in order of instruction.
14. What will you have to differentiate? Which students will need a different way of learning the information?
Please refer to the end of this document, Appendix 2 which includes all the lesson plans. Those plans detail different ways of differentiation that will help me decide which students will need different ways to learn the information. The lesson plans also indicate how I’ll teach those students differently.
15. What special needs of students have to be addressed?
- Sensitivity to topic at hand.
- If it is a totally new concept, integrating them and helping them learn the new information to make sure they don’t feel “excluded.”
- Interest; some students might really not be interested in thinking about prisons.
- Hard-core belief; some students might have a set belief that all criminals are bad and we shouldn't be thinking about rights for them or integration because they deserve to be in jail for committing crime. Concepts such that some people are wrongfully accused...etc are so foreign for them so might need time to get them to listen to the “other side.”
- Scared of talking about such a topic in fear of being misunderstood, for example, they might express something that might make them sound like they are defending killers...etc.
- Slow readers; will help them go through the assigned article/study that they need to read and understand. Will help them by teaching them different reading methods that can help them read effectively but faster.
- Quiet/shy students; students who usually don’t participate and like working alone might have
difficulties working on a whole project with a group. I will be listening to groups work in order to ensure that everyone is participating, has a role and no one is being excluded.
16. What potential problems might come up?
- Students might interview a prisoner who gets upset or triggered by a certain question.
- Parents and others misunderstanding the project and thinking that we are just trying to defend all criminals despite their crimes (this happens more often than we think and it can be discourgaing).
17. What instructional tools do you need?
- Laptop
- Headphones
- Good internet connection - Google classroom
- Mural
- ZOOM
18. What vocabulary do you have to teach?
- Human Rights - Prisons
- Jails
- Prisoners
- Criminal
- Crime
- Sentence
- Reduced Sentence - Prisons conditions - Legal vs. illegal
- Parol
- Empathy
- Compassion
- Emotional Intelligence - Mental Health
19. If you are working on a PBL students will have to make a final presentation. Plan your audience.
I am so excited for this part! It is always so fun to watch students present their work after a lot of re-search, interviews, group work...etc.
The audience will be as follows:
- Students will be allowed to invite any friends!
- Parents and siblings (of appropriate age - young children are not recommended to join, given
the topic in hand).
- Prisoners and anyone students interviewed as part of their research.
- Our guest speakers.
- Dean and headmistresses of the school.
- Other teachers in the school (and they can invite their students if they think they can learn something/ it ties to something they are talking about/ learning in their classes).
Appendix 1
Summative Assessment Rubric
123 Criteria Emerging Proficient Breakthrough
Inquisition and Research
Students generated minimal questions to inquire more about the topic before completing the PBL Project.
Students just completed it based on their opinion and already given information.
No hands on research conducted.
Students gather new information but limited inquiring takes place. Deeper questions were not asked to dig in more into the problem, it’s history and its causes. Minimal or unrelated hands on research conducted.
Students dug into deeper questions and inquired about many different aspects relating to the topic; from the past to today. Data from hands on research and other types of research were clearly gathered to make a strong case.
Understanding of the content learned
Students demonstrated low understanding of the content of the work.
No effort to gain more knowledge and skills from the project.
Students demonstrated basic understanding of the content of the work and have put minimal effort to gain more knowledge and skill throughout the work.
Students demonstrated a deep understanding of the content of the work and have put extraordinary effort into gaining more knowledge and skill throughout the work.
Social Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
Students have not shown any social awareness, emotional intelligence or an understanding of mental health issues when proposing a new prison system.
Students have shown minimal understanding of the importance of social awareness,emotional intelligence and understanding of mental health issues when making decisions on how to improve a system of a prison.
Students have shown a deep and extraordinary understanding of the importance of being socially aware and emotionally intelligent, as well as understanding mental health issues, when making decisions that affect individuals, communities, societies and countries as a whole.
Communication
Students rarely collaborated well together and instead divided the tasks such that they can work individually and then assemble the final result.
Students did not ask for teacher help clearly when needed and did not ask
Students collaborated with each other to complete the work; however the majority of the work was done individually/ divided within the people in the group.
Students collaborated well together and communicated clearly their expectations of each other.
The majority of the work was completed hand-in-hand where students work effectively together to produce the final outcome.
Students asked deep and meaningful questions throughout the work, ensuring more complex and precise work.
questions to help guide their work and produce better results.
Problem Solving
Students faced some issues as a group and instead of working to solve them; they ignored problems and worked more individually.
Students did not approach a given problem with an open- mind to learn more about the topic in general and dig deeper into the question. Solution proposed was not elaborate- students did not demonstrate thorough conducted research before proposing a solution.
Students faced some issues as a group but no more than 50% of the students worked on finding a solution so as to work more effectively as a group.
Students did minimal research outside material used and learned in class before proposing a solution.
Students faced some issues as a group but they found solutions to those issues. They continued to work in collaboration.
Students researched the topic well and used their findings to produce a well- developed project with a proposed solution that has clearly been researched well.
Presentation of Information
Students' choice of presentation was hard to follow, had many grammatical mistakes and did not represent the work and proposed solution well.
Less than 50% of students in the group spoke/ were involved in presenting the group’s findings.
Students' choice of presentation was hard to follow, with some grammatical mistakes. Student’s choice of presentation was not clear in showing their work and proposing the solution. Materials used do not help convey the message.
Not all students in the group spoke/ were involved in presenting the group’s findings.
Student’s choice of presentation was clear and easy to follow. There are very minimal grammatical mistakes. Student’s choice of presentation and materials used showed their work and proposed solutions really well.
All students in the group spoke/ were involved in presenting the group’s findings.
Future application and takeaways / Personal Application
Students did not include a section on what they learned throughout this project and life skills gained.
Students included a section on what they learned throughout the project with minimal vision for the future (lessons learned that are helpful for one’s development and life skills).
Students included a section on what they learned with clear life skills gained that will serve students well today and in their future development.
Appendix 2
All Lessons Plans (four in total)
Daily Lesson Plan #1A+#1B
What is the concept you are teaching today?
History of prisons. Students will learn about how jails used to be run in the past and how they are run now. Class will be divided into two groups, one will study prisons in the past and one prisons today. Of course, it is important to understand there is no one set rule here as it depends on many things like the country but a general idea will be important to understand. For example, torture used to be acceptable but now becomes illegal.
What is your objective or objectives?
- Students will identify general characteristics of prisons in the past
- Students will identify changes - legal vs. illegal
- Students will understand different reasons for change
- Students will understand what makes a prison system good vs. bad
- Students will analyze how the establishment of prisons do not only affect prisoners but the country as a whole (sometimes even the world).
Entry point:
I am reaching out to the people Randa (from class) referred me to. I believe they are her neighbours who work with prisoners in Jordan. They work with them while they are in jail and after. If foreigners, they help them go back to their country. I will ask them to join our class to talk about what they do, what they have learned, obstacles they have faced and what in the system works well and what needs changing in their opinion (this will be taking place during the first lesson of lesson #1).
Sequence of instruction:
- Entry point followed by class discussions and questions.
- Next, as a class, students will come up with two lists: a) what makes a prison good, b) what makes a prison bad.
- 2 minutes lecture from teacher: understanding that the above list they made is a flexible one ( which is important because they will also need to learn that many of what makes something good or bad depends on the country...etc) but in this context we are just looking for some uniformed universal language to begin the discussion and the group work they will be doing next.
- Class will be divided into two groups, one will study prisons in the past and one will study prisons today, highlighting what makes a prison better than another (this group work and debate will take place during the second lesson of lesson #1 - as stated above Lesson #1 will be conducted in two parts A and B so as to not rush anything and keep students engaged and excited!)
- Debate (see brain-compatible strategies).
- Each group will then present their findings, ending the discussion by finding similarities and
differences both within the past and present and intercrossed between the two periods of times. - Next, groups will be changed and made into smaller groups. New groups will spend about 30 minutes looking up specific prisons (with different systems) and present to the class on those prisons and what makes them stand out (whether it is good or bad). This will be helpful later when they need to choose one prison in particular to evaluate, improve and work on for their projects.
- Teacher will show a comparison between prisons in Norway (positively run with human rights granted to prisoners and with integration back to society in mind) and prisons based in Jordan or the US prisons that were based in Iraq (poorly run, abuse and random letting go of criminals who end up committing crimes again, like killing) - what each led to, how each affect societies, their countries and the world as a whole.
- Class understanding, mini-workshops if needed (see differentiated activities). - End with reflection.
Brain-compatible strategies:
Debate: After students are divided into 2 groups and research “good” and “bad” prisons, they will have to present the information to each other through a debate, where each side justify the different ways their prisons are run while conveying the goal of their work as a group: researching different prisons to not only highlight similarities and differences, but to also show what works and what doesn’t work.
Differentiated activities:
The lecture by the teacher on Norway, USA, Iraq...etc will end with time to spare before the end of class. Students will be asked to show understanding through thumbs-up, halfway and thumbs down. This will determine mini-workshops for those who need extra help. If ended up being needed, the rest of the students will be given some more advanced work to do while I spend some time in the mini-workshop.
Best practices:
Similarities and Differences: I think the debate in itself will be a best practice as well as they will be providing similarities and differences which is an incredible way for students to retain information.
Use flexible groupings:
New groups (please refer to sequence of instruction) who will be working on finding specific prisons, will be grouped based on interest so as to not make those who are not very interested feel left out when doing the work, as those who are more interested or confident will take over the group work. Determination of interest will be based on the debate that students have beforehand, where students define “good” and “bad” prisons, in groups.
Twenty-first-century skills:
Critical thinking and problem solving
Communication and collaboration
Information Literacy (since they will do group research, they will need to differentiate between
the information they find and know what to use...etc) Productivity and Accountability
Leadership and Responsibility
Global Awareness
Civic Literacy
Determine the rigor:
Why is it important to understand prisons in the past in order to analyze prisons today? What are the consequences of prisons being run poorly?
In what ways do prison systems affect communities, societies and countries as a whole?
Formative assessment:
Exit slips using Google Classroom’s Question tool
Practice:
Both group work (mentioned above) require teamwork, adaptability and problem solving skills in order to complete.
Reflection:
In groups of 3, students will be asked to discuss what they learned in class today and why is it important. During their discussions, I will go around and listen to what students have to say.
Personal reflection:
N/A at the moment, till I teach the course :)
Daily Lesson Plan #2
Parts A and B
Lesson 2A
What is the concept you are teaching today?
I simply want to teach students how to be good people; people who are kind, caring, compassionate and understanding. While this is vital to complete this unit, it is even more vital to have as life skills which is why I am so compassionate about teaching them. I also want to teach them about Mental Health; not only its importance but different factors that can lead to poor mental health.
What is your objective or objectives?
- Students will learn the importance of being kind.
- Students will learn to understand other people even if they did something wrong (e.g. murderers).
- Students will observe that understanding and listening does not mean justification.
- Students will understand what leads to certain mental health conditions e.g. upbringing, environment, abuse, bullying...etc.
- Mental illnesses. What they can do to people. How they can be helped. How different mental health issues manifest in different humans.
Entry point:
First, watching this short video on kindness, understanding, compassion and the fact that we do not know what the person across from us is going through: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYrGht7TnlE (WARNING: this is a sad video Dr. Joan & Sherrye, so it is okay if you do not want to watch it. It involves the death of someone’s son and I know for many this can be a sensitive topic). I will give the same warning for my students and allow them to ask me not to play it if they prefer (in case someone has lost a sibling or a close friend, I do not want to trigger anything for them).
Following by watching the following video explaining Mental Health in a friendly and encouraging tone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxIDKZHW3-E
Sequence of instruction:
- Entry point during which students work on their worksheet - individual work (see differentiated activities).
- A counselor will join that class and talk to us about mental illnesses and how we can all play a part in making people’s days better with small and simple actions.
- Will study the case of the Unabomber - educated and intelligent and a criminal. If we look at his childhood and adulthood, many instances show why and how he can be mentally ill // storytelling time (see brain-compatible strategy).
- Students, in groups of 4, will create a song expressing what they have learned today. The song should be addressed to a group of students younger than them. In that sense, they will need to explain mental health in simple yet profound and understood language.
- Reflection to end class with.
Brain-compatible strategies:
Storytelling - I will be telling students the story of the Unabomber before we get into a deeper discussion of what we can learn from his story.
Differentiated activities:
After watching the video on Mental Health, students will be given a worksheet to work on individually. In the middle of the worksheet, it will say “While I was watching the video, I was thinking,” with spaces for up to 8 responses. This will help me differentiate by readiness and interest as it will show me whether they analyzed what is said in the video, simply re-stated what is said or included things like “I was thinking what Mental Health” means. Based on this, I will create mini-workshops for this who need extra help and/or give more work to those who are advancing.
Best practices:
Cooperative learning: Students will be required to write a song, in groups of 4, to explain what Mental Health is, to a group of younger students (to encourage use of simple yet profound and understood language).
Use flexible groupings:
To write the song about Mental Health, students will be required to work in groups of 4. Grouping will take place as follows: students will go to the corner that corresponds to the answer to the following question: the most important quality in a person for me, is: Corner 1 = Honesty
Corner 2 = Compassion Corner 3 = Good listening skills Corner 4 = Confidence
Twenty-first-century skills:
Communication and Collaboration Initiative and Self-Direction Productivity and Accountability Global Awareness
Creativity
Determine the rigor:
What does “Mental Health” mean? Is it shameful?
Why do we keep going back to the importance of “kindness,” even when talking about prisons? Why are we talking more about “Mental Health” today than ever before?
How can “Mental Health,” “kindness,” and “prisons” fit into one subject and one unit?
Formative assessment:
One minute writing exercise to respond to the following question: “what are three things you learned about today, two things you want to learn more about and one thing you do not understand?”
Practice:
Their group work of writing a song (mentioned above) requires the application of different 21st century skills that we are working on! It is also hands-on and fun which is important for engaging students :)
Reflection:
Whole class discussion at the end: students will share one thing they learned in class, why it is important and how it fits into their world views and goals.
Personal reflection:
N/A at the moment, until I am teaching the course :)
PLEASE scroll down for Lesson 2B
Daily Lesson Plan
Lesson 2B
What is the concept you are teaching today?
As a sub-lesson, I want to dig deeper into the importance of kindness, compassion and understanding. Those skills will not only serve them well in life but also it will result in better, more honest and open interviews for this project. This makes the work more accurate, interesting and easier to have passion towards.
What is your objective or objectives?
- Students will learn the importance of giving benefit of the doubt - Students will understand that we do not know the full story
- Students will grow through willingness to listen
- Students will grow through willingness to not cast judgment
- Students will start practicing social awareness and emotional intelligence to gain as life skills
Entry point:
I will summarize the following study and then give them time to read it as it is a unique and important study:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/570579
Sequence of instruction:
- Entry point.
- During entry point, students will complete a worksheet (see differentiated activities).
- Short lecture:
a) importance of understanding that we do not know everyone’s story. Be patient, be loving, be kind and give the benefit of the doubt. Social awareness and emotional intelligence.
b) How we are treated and treat others in the past in many ways affects how we turn out as adults (for example, bullying).
- Activity: I will act out different scenes and have students write down 5 words for each scene to describe me. Then in one sentence, describe what they would do if they were the person having to deal with me in each particular scenario.
Scene #1 I am drunk.
Scene #2 I am always patient with my family but one day I got so impatient that I ignored my mother when she asked me for a favor.
Scene #3 A friend tells me a secret and after we get into a fight, I tell my new group of friends their secret.
Scene #4 I am a student who is very shy and has no friends. I don’t even try to make friends, just alone always.
- Note taking exercise (See best practices).
- End class with reflection.
Brain-compatible strategies:
Role-playing: I will do role-playing and student’s will have to react to my different scenes (please see sequence of instruction for more details).
Differentiated activities:
After reading the article, students will be asked to fill in a worksheet, individually. They will be given 2 copies of the worksheet, without an explanation as to why. The worksheet will basically be a letter where students tell me what they were thinking when reading the article and what they learned from it. Informal work yet very informative for me as a teacher! After, we will have a class discussion about the article and students will be given a second chance to write me a letter on the worksheet. This way students who needed more time or didn’t fully understand the article have a chance as well. Then they will have a choice of which worksheet to hand in, the first or second (this won’t be given a grade but will help me understand their level of understanding).
Best practices:
Note taking: students will be asked to take notes during class, especially on the responses of their classmates on the different scenes I am acting out. I am positive students will have different reactions and responses to each scene and to really teach the skill of listening and trying to understand even if you disagree, students taking notes on what their classmates say, whether they agree or disagree, is a good way to start and definitely ties to the overall goals and takeaways of the lesson. Kill two birds with one stone (reinforcing the objectives of the class while using best practice for better results!)
Use flexible groupings:
Since this will be a shorter class, as it is a sub-section continuation of lesson 2A, I will not be grouping students especially because I believe that the plan I have of them working individually to respond to my different acting scenes. I don’t want to force a group work just to fill in this space, especially because there is group work in Lesson 2A and in the rest of the lessons as well.
Twenty-first-century skills:
Creativity and Innovation Information Literacy
Initiative and Self-Direction Productivity and Accountability Global Awareness
Global Citizenship
Determine the rigor:
How is “Emotional Intelligence” a crucial lifelong skill?
Why is it crucial to develop personal skills of compassion, kindness, emotional intelligence and understanding before getting into topics that affect people’s lives?
Formative assessment:
Interview assessment - I’ll do a one minute interview with each student, during which the rest of the students will be working in pairs telling each other a) one thing they learned today, b) how what they learned will benefit them in the future.
Practice:
The class activity where I act out different scenes will require students to really use their emotional, creative, compassion and global awareness skills to give responses that reflect the use of those skills and the ability to understand and empathize with others. It also requires some problem-solving skills to think about how they would approach each scenario, if they were to face something similar.
Reflection:
At the end of class, students will be asked to share 3 words to describe the skills they gained in class today. They will also be asked to share 1 skill they want to develop/work on and how they plan to work on it.
Personal reflection:
N/A at the moment, until I teach the course :)
Daily Lesson Plan #3
What is the concept you are teaching today?
I want to teach students about the life of prisoners after prison. The fact that there are many barriers that await them, even though we would define the end of their sentence as “freedom,” to most, it is “difficulties;” difficulties that they either have never faced or haven’t faced for a good amount of time.
What is your objective or objectives?
- To understand that integration back into society is very difficult for prisoners - what should we do?
- Understanding the difficulties that ex-prisoners face once they leave prison and what they go through to go back to life outside a prison such as new environments, technology and finding family after many years...etc.
Entry point:
Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrH6UMYAVsk
Sequence of instruction:
- Lecture: Life through the eyes of a prisoner. What happens once they are released from prison?
a) In the USA, in some states, ex-prisoners lose voting rights.
b) In many countries, going to jail immediately goes on your record. Therefore, it becomes next to impossible to be hired → integration back into society.
c) Leaves with absolutely nothing. What is next?
- Students will help me set more objectives (see best practices). - Students will journal (see differentiated activities).
- Students will work in groups (see use flexible groupings).
- Reflection to end class with!
Brain-compatible strategies:
Journal writing: 10-15 minutes in class for students to journal about the following: “Imagine you are a prisoner, and your sentence will be over in a week. Write about everything you will be feeling, what you will expect, what you think will disappoint you and anything else that you can think of/you think will be significant.” I think this will also be a good way to engage students and make them interested in what we are learning in class, since they will keep wondering whether or not they wrote things that are applicable to the lives of real prisoners.
Differentiated activities:
I will use their journal writing from my “brain-compatible strategy” to differentiate. Depending on their journal writings, I would be able to tell whether they are just re-stating already known information, understood it or actually analyzed it on a higher level. This will then lead to me creating mini-workshops for those who need extra guidance and/or give more work to those who are excelling.
Best practices:
Setting objectives: while this lesson already has objectives, it is not a heavy class (on purpose, to allow space for students to ask questions if any come up from the 3 lessons already covered before this). First, I will list my objectives to the students at the beginning and discuss them (ask them what they think each objective means...etc), then I will give them 5 minutes to work as a whole class to decide on one or two more objectives for today that they want to add to our already existing objectives. This will shed light on what they feel hesitant around/ need more help on and/or what they are interested in and want to dig deeper on. This will be fun for me too- to plan part of a lesson during a lesson, after they give me their objectives!
Use flexible groupings:
Students will then be asked to work in groups of 3 to share what they wrote in their journals. Grouping will take place based on the formative assessment, making groups a mix of students who really understood the lesson well and who need a little more help. That way, they can learn from each other and help each other gain a deeper understanding of the lesson.
Twenty-first-century skills:
Critical Thinking
Communication and Collaboration Leadership and Responsibility Global Awareness
Determine the rigor:
Why do prisoners face barriers post-prison?
Should there be more governmental services and aid provided for prisoners post-prison?
Is there one person or system to blame for the barriers prisoners face? Or several? If so, why?
Formative assessment:
- Stop and Go - will be used throughout the lesson and not just at the end, using red and green cards. Here, I will take note on how many times students used red vs. green cards to help me with grouping them later.
Practice:
To complete the journal writing in class activity, students will need to use their problem-solving skills as well as be empathetic to be themselves in someone else’s shoes.
Reflection:
At the end of class, students will be asked to write down what they have learned in class today and why they think it is important.
Personal reflection:
N/A at the moment, but so excited to teach this unit! :)
Daily Lesson Plan #4
What is the concept you are teaching today?
I am teaching students how to give credits where it belongs. I don’t want to phrase it as “consequences of plagiarism,” instead, I want them to understand fundamentally why plagiarism is not good and how it is unfair to those who spent a lot of time, effort and sometimes even money, for their work, it is only fair to acknowledge their work, especially when it contributes to your work. Next, I want students to learn how to conduct well-thought and planned interviews that show emotional and social awareness of others' situations.
What is your objective or objectives?
- Students will understand the meaning of plagiarism and the different ways to avoid it.
- Students will learn to conduct Emotionally Intelligent and Socially Aware interviews and hands on research.
- Students will learn different appropriate choices of research methods for best outcomes.
Entry point:
- Short, just to learn how to conduct interviews, do hand on research and avoiding plagiarism. Learn about plagiarism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdOYE-FLNuo
5 minutes class time to explore the following website which will help with their research research:https://www.nfer.ac.uk/
Sequence of instruction:
- Begin with both entry points
- Teacher demo on finding a source to use and then citing it. And on how to cite people students conduct interviews with.
- 15 minutes: teacher presents on appropriate interview questions, how to conduct one and ask follow up questions.
- Give time for students to say how they would like to conduct their hands on research for this project and class discussion about the best ways to do that.
- Followed by playing the game by Lycoming College as a fun and informative activity to switch things around!
- Class activity (see differentiated activities).
- Individual work followed by group worked (see best practices).
- Time for group A, B and C work created based on differentiation. Group A to be led by teacher (see flexible groupings).
- Reflection to end class with.
Brain-compatible strategies:
Game: Play the following game by Lycoming College - it’s interactive, fun and informational! I love it!
https://www.lycoming.edu/library/plagiarism-game/
Differentiated activities:
I will create a presentation with different citations (both right and wrong) and different statement about plagiarism such as “it is not easy for a teacher to catch plagiarised work therefore it is not worth worrying about” or “getting an older student who already took this class to give me answer is not plagiarism because it was help from a student not from the internet.” And have students write on a piece of paper whether the statement is TRUE or FALSE. If they say false, they will need to briefly explain why. This too will help me differentiate, allowing me to create mini- workshops for those who need extra help and/or give extra work for those who are ahead of the game and need an extra challenge.
Best practices:
Generating and testing hypothesis: students will be asked to come up with a list, individually, of what they think would be a good idea to do in an interview and what they think will go poorly in an interview. For example, “OMG, I cannot believe you stole bread!” is not a good way to interview prisoners (and would mean I taught them nothing about compassion and trying to understand people!). Then, they will test their hypothesis by working in pairs and taking turns to interview each other, noting what went well and what did not. After, one minute reflection writing time on how testing their hypothesis went and if they said for example something was a good idea but in the interview, it gave a negative reaction, why they think that happened. Do they see the side of the “other?” Or are they still convinced it’s a good idea?
Use flexible groupings:
Based on the differentiated activity, I will group the students into three groups. Group A will be the students who join my mini-workshop. Group 2 will be students who are getting there but still need a little more work (specific material will be prepared for them). Group C will be the students who are excelling and need more of a challenge that I will give them to work on during my time conducting the mini-workshops.
Twenty-first-century skills:
Communication and Collaboration
Information Literacy
ICT Literacy (in terms of using online information reasonably by citation).
Determine the rigor:
Why is it not a good idea to take someone else’s work and claim it as your own? How does the use of different verbal and body language affect interview outcomes?
How are social awareness and emotional intelligence crucial skills for conclusive, honest and open interviews?
Connect social awareness and emotional intelligence to your life today. Think about how practicing those skills and developing them in yourself will change your life to the better, both short-term and long-term.
Does interviewing a criminal/an ex-criminal automatically make the interviewer a supporter of that criminal’s actions?
Formative assessment:
- think, pair and share exercise with a partner
Practice:
Their individual and group work with hypothesis is hands-on and active work especially when sharing their work with a partner and definitely needs problem-solving skills to complete at a high level!
Reflection:
At the end of class, students will be asked to write for one minute what they learned during class, why it is important and what is one thing they heard during class that fascinated them!
Personal reflection:
N/A at the moment but I CANNOT wait to teach and facilitate all this! :)