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INTRODUCTION
TO MYSELF AND OTHERS
The activities
here are divided into those for primary grades (Part 1) and intermediate
grades, (Part 4). Parts 2 and 3 provide connecting links with activities
that can be used at practically all grade levels. You can best decide which
materials fit your needs and the learning readiness of your students.
All the materials have been tested in classrooms in various parts of the
country. The development process has reflected the reactions of teachers
and students and appropriate changes have been made. We have included here
only those activities that have proved engaging for children while also
providing important learning experiences.
Much of that learning will be familiar, and development of basic skills
is always an aim. The goals of this material areöto provide experiences
that will better prepare children for the kind of society and world they
will be living in.
Children will:
- become aware
of interconnections between themselves and others
- develop a positive
image of themselves and of the groups to which they belong
- recognize the
importance of cooperation in the interdependence of the classroom, the
neighborhood, the city
- become more familiar
with conflict in a nonthreatening way (for example, by learning how
rules provide us with a way to resolve conflicts fairly and quickly)
- develop a mental
image of systems and understand how that image can help them make sense
of new experiences.
With the lessons
in Part 3, children will begin to see that interconnections and human
commonalities extend to people throughout the world, not just people in
their immediate surroundings. They will learn some ways people everywhere
communicate with each other and help meet one another's need for affection
and a sense of belonging.
In the intermediate grade activities, children develop more complex perceptions
about
- how people express
and manage conflict
- different ways
we communicate and fail to communicate
- basic needs and
interests shared by people everywhere
It is probably better
to use the activities of any one part in a sequential order; later activities
often build on earlier ones. However, teachers have been successful in
using selected materials in random patterns, fitting them in where they
meet the needs of their classrooms.
It is hoped that these lessons will be a catalyst for your own ideas about
global perspectives instruction. Obviously each school and community has
its own unique composition. By tailoring these lessons and others to your
own classes' needs and interests, and by utilizing your school and community
resources, you will be able to provide children with a variety of meaningful
curriculum experiences.
PART
I Myself and the Neighborhood
Activities for primary grades,
developed by Alexis Aquino-Mackles.
PART
II Exploring Systems
Activities for all grade levels
Developed
by Alexis Aquino-Mackles and Project Teachers.
The concept of systems is related to the larger concept of interdependence.
It is one of those key concepts which students can use to help organize
information÷a learning tool that will be useful to them throughout and
beyond their years of schooling. A child who has a concept of a heating
unit of a house as a system, or the game of baseball as quite a different
system, has a good mental image for analyzing larger, more complex systems:
the ecology of a lake, the economics of a community, the government of
a nation.
In simplest terms,
students will become aware of systems as things or groups made up of interconnected
and mutually dependent parts. If one part fails to function properly,
the whole system will be affected. This seems like an easy idea÷and it
is, once children have that beginning model in their minds.
In a short space of time, they will be discovering systems on their own;
they will be using the concept to help make sense of the world around
them.
As with any abstraction, this concept can be grasped only when applied
to concrete and specific examples. In these activities students will be
discovering the working systems in their bodies and in their immediate
surroundings. They will be becoming familiar with this organizing tool
and learning to use it. These materials can be used to introduce the concept
to older as well as younger students-in fact, some activities have been
used effectively with high school students and adults.
PART
III Communicating with Others
Activities for all grade levels
Developed by Margaret S. Branson.
By now, your students have explored a variety of ways they are interconnected
with other people÷in the school, in the neighborhood and in the community.
This awareness will be expanded in the activities in Part 3. Children
will begin to recognize similarities between their lives and concerns
and those of people in other cultures, both present and past.
In this lesson, "Talking with Our Hands," they will experiment with nonverbal
communication. This can help them to understand language as the key element
in human culture.
The second lesson, "Lullabies Link People," will enable students to discover
some very important things they have in common with people everywhere.
By this age, they have already gained impressions of ways people are different.
It is very important for them to understand and appreciate ways in which
all people are also alike.
PART
IV
Myself and the Larger World Activities for intermediate grades,
developed by David C. King.
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