What is an NGO? from Jake Simkin on Vimeo.
Global Education Unit Plan: Evaluating Non-Government Organizations
Part of the Teachers for Global Classrooms training was to create and teach a specific unit on a globally focused topic. At the time, I was teaching an elective class titled "Global Studies." I created this unit and the students completed the all the activities during the semester. After the students finished the unit, students helped me reflect and I made revisions based on their input and my observations. The result is this improved three week unit that anyone is welcome to use in any form.
I was drawn to this unit after reading Jessica Alexander's book Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid. I was looking for a unit that would help students understand what NGO's are and the unique role they play in delivering humanitarian aid. I want the unit to be research based, involve student debate and promote higher level thinking skills using a global topic.
Here is a summary of the unit.
Unit Summary: Students will learn what a non-governmental agency is and what role these agencies play in global assistance. Students will research a specific NGO, and prepare a persuasive presentation that they will use to convince classmates to donate to their chosen Non-Governmental Organization.
Students learned the definition and mission of the NGO's. The Jake Simpkin video above was very helpful. Students then researched three NGO's of their choosing from "The Global Journal" which publishes a list of the World's Top 100 NGO's. After they completed their research they chose one NGO that they felt they would like to learn more about. Students in class were not allowed to duplicate. They then created a persuasive powerpoint to argue that their NGO was most worthy of support.
Then we had a bake sale! After several rounds of presentations, voting and revisions, the students sent the money from the bake sale to the NGO they decided was most worthy.
The unit was fun, a bit competitive and the students were empowered to act by donating the money that they had raised.
Below, please find the unit plan and some of the resources I used during the activity. Also, please find an example of Standards Based Global Education that I generated using national and state social studies standards.
Unit Plan using UbD
I was drawn to this unit after reading Jessica Alexander's book Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid. I was looking for a unit that would help students understand what NGO's are and the unique role they play in delivering humanitarian aid. I want the unit to be research based, involve student debate and promote higher level thinking skills using a global topic.
Here is a summary of the unit.
Unit Summary: Students will learn what a non-governmental agency is and what role these agencies play in global assistance. Students will research a specific NGO, and prepare a persuasive presentation that they will use to convince classmates to donate to their chosen Non-Governmental Organization.
Students learned the definition and mission of the NGO's. The Jake Simpkin video above was very helpful. Students then researched three NGO's of their choosing from "The Global Journal" which publishes a list of the World's Top 100 NGO's. After they completed their research they chose one NGO that they felt they would like to learn more about. Students in class were not allowed to duplicate. They then created a persuasive powerpoint to argue that their NGO was most worthy of support.
Then we had a bake sale! After several rounds of presentations, voting and revisions, the students sent the money from the bake sale to the NGO they decided was most worthy.
The unit was fun, a bit competitive and the students were empowered to act by donating the money that they had raised.
Below, please find the unit plan and some of the resources I used during the activity. Also, please find an example of Standards Based Global Education that I generated using national and state social studies standards.
Unit Plan using UbD
ubd_ngos_unit--robert_lurie--final.docx | |
File Size: | 31 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Students used the Charity Navigator Website to critically examine each NGO
http://www.charitynavigator.org/
http://www.charitynavigator.org/
They also listened to Jessica Alexander speak about her experiences as humanitarian aid worker
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=244991546
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=244991546