Educational tools

Full title: Educação para a Cidadania Global. Uma proposta de articulação para o 2º Ciclo do Ensino Basico. [Global Citizenship Education. A proposal to articulate it in the 2nd cycle of Basic Education]

Problem-based learning, Input-orientation, Debate activity or competition, etc.

A manual that provides a set of lesson plans and teaching units to integrate GCE topics in the formal curriculum of 4 subjects: Natural Sciences; History and Geography; Mathematics; Portoguese langauge.

Brainstorm with the students on what kind of work they have already done in their lives and what do they consider under the word  “work”. Discuss with them other question connected with working and also the question if they think that it is common that children of their age living in another part of world do regular work instead of going to school. Let them to imagine themselves in that situation. Then the children are asked to put themselves into another role (they choose one card with description of their new personality, name, age and its life). Ask all the children the same questions as How does your house look like etc. – it will help them realize important facts. Tell students that you are now going to read out the statements describing various situations or events. Every time they agree with the statement, they should take one step forward. If they don‘t agree, they should remain in place. After that make evaluation and reflection. Try to ask questions to guide the students towards expressing the causes of a particular child’s situation or his/her family‘s situation and its consequences.

The pupils are at the beginning shown four different pictures of tomatoes with short text describing place of origin, the shop/ farmer, price. They are asked to decide what kind of tomato would they choose and why. Later they discuss by each picture the reasons why  they would or wouldn´t choose it. The teacher take notes of pupil´s decision and argumentation which helps him to decide in which way he/she should plan next lessons influencing to more responsible attitudes.

The lesson starts with question of quite personal character – what makes you happy in your life? and the whole class share the answers together. Other questions follow e.g. did it happen to you anytime that someone wanted to make you happy but you didn't like it? etc. and everybody answers for themselves and later share in small groups with others. After that, they are introduced the book “The Possum that didn't” and the teachers leads them through the reading (controlled reading/reading with prediction). Teachers divides the book into 3 or 4 parts and discuss with pupils the content and what might follow and why. The reflexion part is done by the method RAFT – pupils choose the Role, Address, Form, Topic and write the text which reflects what they take from the story.

> A version in Czech is also available here

At the beginning the pupils brainstorm their ideas connected with the word water and then they think over the connections among water and products we use. In small groups they are given cut-out cards with different products. Common task will be to put the cards in the order depending on how much water they think is used to make the products (from the most water intensive to the least). In a class discussion pupils guess how much water is used within the process of production and in next step they are given mathematical task to calculate exactly how much water is needed for production of e. g.1 kg of rice. They also read the information about the product, conditions for planting and place of origin. In the end of the lesson pupils discuss the meaining of the term “virtual water” and why it is important, what are the impacts and consequences for our decision making process about consumption.

An animated film called "Crossroads" is used as a stimulus. Students subsequently reflect by answering questions like: What can a signpost symbolize? What do the symbols on signs mean? Do we know how they originated? Why are some ways land bounded? What can it mean?

Knowledge is developed by explaining the symbols of different religions. Students cites examples of religious discourses, they bring to the lives of citizens "frictions" and conflicts. Attitudes are developed by students' suggestions, what should be in the section on freedom of thought, conscience and religion, later comparing with the wording in paragraph Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

At the end, students answer questions: Why is "public" debate important, even if results are not taken into account? In the film finally all meet in one room. How does it compare to the situation of today's world, conflicts and human rights issues?

Students select one of those questions and write what is coming to their mind. Variation: Students formulate a question on the topic of religion or belief, for which they want to know the answer from classmates.

Children are organised in 5 groups. Each group has to make a fruit salad. Each group has 5 pieces of one type of fruit, which is different from the types of fruit of other groups. The winners are the groups that make a salad with more types of fruits. To achieve that they need to develop a strategy and to talk to others. After this activity a debate is done about the benefits of diversity used in the salad and by analogy, the advantages of diversity in the world.

This activity can be found in: “Articulando a Educação para a Cidadania Global com o ensino pré-escolar e o 1ºCEB”

The educational tool consists of 5 activities for elementary schools on: migration, human rights, globalization and its consequences, water resources and their limitazioni; preservation of nature.
 
Some details about the migration activity:
Pupils have the task to help a girl decide whether she should migrate or not out of her country.
They work in groups, each group is given 26 statements. The following tasks are assigned to them:
1) Divide statements in 2 pile - reasons for staying and reasons for leaving
2) Keep aside those statements on which is hard to decide.
3) Order statements in favour of staying starting from the most important one down
4) Order statements in favour of leaving starting from the most important one down
5) Decide what advise to give to the girl

After the work in the groups, they present their decisions to each other and discussion and evaluation take place.

Resource material „Hand Puppets tell African Children Stories” and “Methodological guidelines for planning and implementing workshops” are aimed to intoduce children in Latvia with cultural heritage of Africa and motivate children in Latvia to get to know more about Africa where strong spoken word traditions are preserved. These materials provide the opportunity to read and experience African children stories from Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria. African children stories teach tolerance, honesty, friendship, diversity of life by revealing interaction between environment, nature and human, as well as fight between the good and evil. Stories magically work on imagination, mind and feelings and motivate children to discover wisdom of life, analyze and make their own opinions. Stories not only raise awareness about cultural diversity, they also stimulate development of children’s psychological, social, physical, creative competences.
By creating inclusive and encouraging environment which is enriched with possibilities to discover cultural diversity, this material helps children to understand themselves and others, to discuss, analyze and formulate questions about diversity.
Resource material “Hand Puppets tell African Children Stories” consists of children stories from Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria, it also provides instruction on how to make simple hand puppets using socks, gloves and paper.
Complementary material “Methodological guidelines for planning and implementing workshops” provides ideas and suggestions how to plan and implement the resource material “Hand Puppets tell African Children Stories” in preschools and primary schools in order to promote intercultural communication and learning. Material provides ideas how to organize following workshops: 1) 2h workshop where children talk about Africa, specifically Mozambique, Kenya and Nigeria, read children stories, prepare puppets and perform short hand puppet theater performances; 2) various ideas to organize Africa week in preschool and primary school setting; 3) workshops for children and parents; 4) open-air events which are available for public.

Material is created to promote sustainable development topics in all subjects. 
Completing curriculum tasks, it is essential to push children's cognitive activities from known to the unknown, from the simplest to the most complex.
• World learning nominations; simple classification of skills and social behavior techniques and forms of learning: what is good, what bad, what to do and what not;
• To use perception skills and knowledge in certain situations as in samples; the understanding of basic principles;
• Understanding of the environment as a whole; use the gained skills for new unknown situations; the ability to analyze, synthesize, justify and defend their views. Moving towards the formation of behavior patterns in children that characterizes the children’s ability to analyze what is happening, solve problems, express assumptions and create their own ideas, forming a positive attitude.