Our first conceptual humanities unit is called "Building a Community." During this unit, social studies and language arts standards combine to form a study of civics and government. We began last week by learning about "rights," the protection of which is the foundation of any civilized community.
This week our unit has lead us to think about how rights are in play in the classroom. In partner groups, the students brainstormed what rights we have in the classroom. Then, partner groups combined to form small groups who refined their lists to make them even better. As a class, we shared and consolidated our lists of rights and brainstormed what rules we could put in place to protect them. The students pointed out that some rights are protected by me and some are protected by them. Conversations like these bring out such interesting comments and connections from the students. One student pointed out that Smokey has all the same rights we do, and so some of our rules should be to protect her! Finally, we used our list of rights and rules to create our class constitution. By creating our own constitution, the students gained a sense of power and ownership over the culture of the classroom along with an intrinsic understanding of the nature of rights and laws.
4 Comments
Brent Epstein
8/29/2018 01:14:59 pm
I love this talk about rights. Makes me think my own family should have a conversation about the rights of each other. Perhaps there would be less fighting!
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Shirley Alkobi
8/29/2018 04:24:11 pm
Such an important activity and impressive constitution, written by you and your students! ! I love it that our little kids think, and got involved in such an important subjects!!!
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Mrs. Skillman
8/30/2018 05:17:33 am
Thank you! Yonatan has been super engaged during all of this. Ask him about the cows' rights during "Click, Clack, Moo!"
Mrs. Skillman
8/30/2018 05:07:03 am
Lila has been awesome during these activities! Leave it to her to bring up the rights of the citizens of the Lower 9th Ward during Katrina!
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