Be the change
Learning Sequence 5
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Introduction
This week, students will focus heavily on conducting serious and important research. Your students must understand the importance of fact-checking and researching statistics from various sources.
Once your class has conducted the research, we will then help them structure these facts into a concise argument or article, that will then be sent via email to various news outlets in the hope that they will run the story. The story will be based on the change that your students, your school, and your community are making to save the world.
This week is all about focusing on some of the most important essential skills such as determination perseverance and student voice.
This week we will work on conducting serious research and finding facts and statistics that will help us make our research more meaningful and accurate.
During this learning sequence, we would like you and your team to conduct some serious research online to find out some of the statistics around the chosen SDG for example;
How many people around the world suffer from poverty?
How many women are in leadership positions in Parliament?
What number of billionaires are females?
How much plastic pollution (tonnes) is there in the Atlantic?
These are all the kinds of questions that we are going to be answering this week. When we have numbers and statistics included in our research they help to validate our opinion and make people listen.
Once we have the facts, we are going to reach out to news outlets and try to get famous journalists to run our stories and tell the world exactly what’s going on in our school and what we can do about it.
This week is about giving you a voice.
Weekly Keywords
Introduce the spelling word list and choose from this list of tasks that can be repeated and expanded upon if necessary.
Copy the words into a spelling list/Vocabulary book for later reference.
Put each of the new words into a sentence and underline the new vocabulary in red pencil
Place the words in alphabetical order in a list.
Use a dictionary to define each of the words and place them into a vocabulary book.
Try to represent each of the words using a picture or a symbol and play the guessing game. (which image is matched to which word)
Write a paragraph containing all of the new vocabulary.
Make a vocabulary wall containing all of the new words.
Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for the words and create a synonym list.
These words will help you during this week’s lesson. You may already know some of these words however practice makes perfect!
First, read the words and then try to define them as simply as possible.
An example has been completed for you. You can write these into your books, and draw a picture to match or simply complete the task card.
Watch and Discuss - ‘Weekly Warm-Up Activity'
Each week we will read the book ‘Be the Change’ together as a class and answer a series of comprehension questions based on the changemaker we have just talked about.
The questions will be in the form of literal, inferential and applied questions with added research questions for children to conduct further research once the lesson is completed.
This will give the children insights into how. Changemakers in history have engaged with the world when attempting to make significant differences in the lives of the people, animals, insects and organisms on this planet to make it a better place.
Please read pages ten and eleven based on the life of Oprah Winfrey and answer the following questions.
1. What do you think Oprah Winfrey grew up with her grandmother?
2. Where did Oprah Winfrey prove that she was a gifted speaker?
3. What does it mean when you win a scholarship?
4. What happened to Oprah Winfrey when she was 19? That changed history forever.
5. What was it that launched Oprah Winfrey into stardom?
6. How many viewers watched her show every day?
7. What organisation did she start, and what important work did it do?
8. What does Oprah Winfrey’s story tell us about some of the skills that we may have as children?
9. What can we learn from this story about Oprah Winfrey?
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Conducting Research
As teachers, we want to develop a culture of gathering well-informed knowledge before children commit to putting pen to paper. This resource is all about researching the facts behind your children’s chosen SDG.
This resource will allow children to generate compelling questions that will lead to interesting answers which then require the students to gather research and statistics from several sources. These well-researched facts will allow our students to compose an article that a newspaper or news outlet may wish to pick up and run.
If the article is good enough, persuasive enough, and includes the details behind the story, the reward will be that a newspaper or news outlet will pick up the story and run with it.
Before we can even start to think about sending our news articles to newspapers or news outlets on television, we first need to understand and know the true facts behind the story we are trying to tell.
In your group or team, we want you to think about a series of questions that will get you statistics or numbers around the kind of story you are trying to tell.
For example, if you are on the climate change team, you may want to research how much the temperature on Earth has increased over the last ten years.
If you are on the life on land team, you may want to ask questions around how many forests in the Amazon Rainforest have been removed since you have been alive?
If you are on the gender equality team, you may want to start thinking about how many females are in power in government in different countries on Earth.
These kinds of facts, numbers and statistics help people to believe your story and are persuaded more to read it.
Use my task card to help record your researched statistics.
Write an Article
Now your students have gathered the statistics and the details behind their story, It is time for them to compose an article, which they will then distribute.
Ask your students to follow the template called ‘collecting the facts’, and then use my example to compose their own article, which they will then send out to various news outlets locally, nationally, and even internationally.
A couple of gripping photos may help their story get noticed!
Now I’m going to ask you to use the statistics you have just gathered to create an article which you will send to several newspapers and television news shows in the hope that they will run your story and tell the world about the mission you are on.
The article you’re going to be writing is going to be short and snappy but will include several interesting facts and also a story about what your community is doing in an attempt to save the world.
You may even want to include a photograph or two.
This is a good news story and newspapers should be very, very happy to run this in their local publication.
Your job is to write it and then send it.
Remember, the more people you send it to, the more chance you have of success!!
Sending Your Article
Alongside your students, breakdown the make up of the perfect article and allow them to understand all of the different sections which will make an article ready to send out to the world.
Use the task card as a guideline and the checklist provided and understand the format of an article together by breaking it down and understanding each paragraph and its specific role.
The students must then research a list of publications, news outlets and journalists within the local and international area, and then send their articles far and wide to attempt to have them re- published in other press releases.The success of their article will be if the republishing takes place.
Your first job is to conduct research around as many newspapers, locally and internationally in your area and gather the contact details of the major journalists within those organisations.
Once you have gathered all of the contact details, it is then time to send your article off into the world in the hope that somebody will pick it up and hold an interview with you about the story that you have written.
You may wish to send your article in written form in an envelope or as an email. This will be determined by your teacher and your access to technology.
Remember, send it to as many people as possible. That way there is more chance that somebody will run your story. You only need one person to say YES and the story is a success!
Send Your Story to Upschool
Alongside your students, breakdown the make up of the perfect article and allow them to understand all of the different sections which will make an article ready to send out to the world.
Use the task card as a guideline and the checklist provided and understand the format of an article together by breaking it down and understanding each paragraph and its specific role.
The students must then research a list of publications, news outlets and journalists within the local and international area, and then send their articles far and wide to attempt to have them re- published in other press releases. The success of their article will be if the republishing takes place.
We would love to hear the story about how your community is trying to change the world. If you want to have a chance of having your story published on our website, then please click the link and send your full story to us.
Remember to check the spelling and the grammar before sending it and make sure you have your teacher’s permission. If you are attaching a picture, make sure that you have everyone’s permission before submitting it.
If your story is good enough, it may feature on our website!
Submit the article at: https://upschool.co//dear-world/
SDG 7 and 8 - Weekly Round-Up!
This fun quiz will allow your students to think collectively about the natural environment and sustainability within our world.
Show the children the questions Aligned with sustainability goal numbers three and four and each week we will add this quiz to the learning sequence to build more knowledge around this topic.
This should be a fun activity with no pressure around points, scores, rankings or percentages.
The teacher is now going to show you a series of questions on the Interactive whiteboard at the front of the classroom. Your job is to try to answer the questions correctly. You can talk to the people around you to help you answer the questions.
Test your knowledge and have some fun as you try to answer these questions collectively with the people on your table or in your group. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you get anything wrong, this is purely for fun and to gain more knowledge about sustainability and protecting the environment.
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Closing Video
This week you have conducted thorough and detailed research from a variety of sources, so well done to you for being a researcher.
Now that you understand the importance of gathering the facts behind the story, it is important that if you see something in the future which needs action to be taken, you can conduct thorough research, populate an article and send it as far and wide as possible, hoping that change will actually take place.
You are now a changemaker.
Ongoing Follow-Up Activities
Extension Activity - Buddy Program Week 5
This week the buddy program will see your young leaders teach our younger children how to conduct research. The focus for this week will be the importance of generating good quality questions and using a variety of sources to understand the true answers.
Leadership doesn’t get better than this!
Now that you understand the importance of understanding the facts behind a story, it is time to pass on this knowledge to the younger children in your school.
This week’s mentorship Buddy Programme will involve you explaining who Oprah Winfrey is and what we can learn from her story.
Finally, this week you will help your buddy conduct their very own research on the SDG they have chosen. You will assist them in gathering crucial information by generating questions that can be researched. If your buddy wants to write an article and post it too, then let them give it a try!
Well done!
Extension Activity #2 - Growing Some Vegetables
This activity allows children to start thinking about the process of growing their very own vegetables in the garden and the difficulties they face when doing so.
The children will use their research and organisational skills to find out which vegetables are appropriate for your climate and season and how they can be grown.
Thai process can take a long time but patience and planning go hand in hand when it comes to harvesting any kind of food.
During this extension activity, we’re going to ask you to grow some vegetables.
Many people around the world buy their food from a supermarket, but we often forget that we can grow our own from seeds or even from the vegetables that we have sitting inside our fridge. For example, if you have an old potato in your fridge, just by putting it into the ground, it will grow several more potatoes very, very quickly that you can eat!
You will need to research which vegetables are going to grow in your local area, and then start working out how to start the growing process. You may need seeds.
Then come together and start to plant them in gardens in your house or around your school in planting boxes.
When the vegetables are fully grown, it will be then time to harvest these and use them to make food or even sell them to your community to raise money for your dedicated charity.
Watch this video on quick ways you might want to get started by growing your very own vegetable garden.