Learning to Give, Philanthropy education resources that teach giving and civic engagement

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Our Journey Begins Close to Home—The Americas
Lesson 2:
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Lesson
Handouts
Academic Standards
Philanthropy Framework
6th-8th Grade
Subjects:

Language Arts, Library / Technology, Math, Philanthropy and Social Studies

Key Words/Concepts click to view
ELA: Discovering the Inca Ice Maiden; Universal Themes
MAT: Graphs/Charts/Tables; Patterns
PHIL: Altruism; Pro-Social Behavior; Stewardship
SOC: 4 genOn; Advocacy; Common Good; Cultures; Geography; Nonprofit; North America; South America

Purpose:

This lesson enables learners to examine and demonstrate knowledge of geographic, historic and cultural elements and traditions in North and South America. Learners will investigate how the elements they have affected the development of Stewardship and Philanthropy in representative nations.

Duration:

Five to Six Forty-Five Minute Class Periods (or three block schedule sessions)

Objectives:

The learner will:

  • investigate the history and culture of selected countries in North and South America.
  • explain how the cultural traditions in these countries affected the development of nonprofit organizations and stewardship.
  • describe and locate nations in North and South America, their cultures and communities.
  • be able to discover biomes in nation selected.
  • discover nonprofit organizations in nations studied.
  • demonstrate use of concepts relating to philanthropy and geography.
  • describe ecological and human problems addressed by NGOs.
  • describe a contemporary condition in Canada, and one nation in Central or South America, and trace the historical origins.

Service Experience:

Although this lesson contains a service project example, decisions about service plans and implementation should be made by students, as age appropriate.

None for this lesson.

Materials:

  • Learning Logs or Journals
  • Paper & pencil or pen
  • Book - Discovering The Inca Ice Maiden by Johan Reinhard (See Bibliographical References)
  • Masters for a timeline, line and bar graphs
  • Internet access
  • District-supplied geography text
  • Atlases
  • Globes
  • Geographic and historical reference materials from local school library or media center

Instructor Note: Make arrangements to take your class to the local school library, media center or community library to obtain reference resources needed for lesson research.

Instructional Procedure(s):

Anticipatory Set:
Review the concepts of philanthropy and stewardship, using the definitions and concepts developed in Lesson One: Traditions—Our World and Philanthropy. Read an excerpt from the story, Discovering The Inca Ice Maiden, by Johan Reinhard. (The publisher is National Geographic Society, March 1998. ISBN: 0792271424. It is the story about the effort to preserve an Incan child entombed in ice on a mountain in Panama. The author gives a lot of information about the country and the photography is excellent.) Talk about the story with your students and discuss these two questions: "What elements of culture and history are present in what we just read?" and "Why is this preservation an act of stewardship?"

  • Students will take out their Learning Logs or journals, write their responses to these two questions from the anticipatory set, and justify their answers.

  • Note: Tell the learners that philanthropic or Non-Governmental Organizations in Panama are largely concerned with environmental problems. It is only in the last 10 or 15 years that NGOs were formed to help the native peoples living in their country.

  • Model with your learners the nation of Panama and construct a timeline of historical events that have impacted the development of stewardship and philanthropy (see Bibliographical References for sources of information). Discuss with the learners, the grassroots movement that led to the United States giving control of the Panama Canal back to the Panamanians when the lease was up. Develop the themes of place, location, time, relationship of people to the environment (include building of the canal, disease) and movement.

  • Divide the classroom into groups of four to five learners and assign each group either the continent of North America, Central America or South American to investigate. One group will research and analyze Mexico and its nonprofit organizations. The second group will research and analyze Canada and its nonprofit organizations. The third will do the same with Peru. If your class size allows for more than three groups, divide Canada into provinces and have groups research a particular province.

  • Each group will be responsible for the following:

    • Research the physical geography, history and culture of their country.

    • Produce a physical/political map of the nation.

    • Compile and evaluate statistics on the ethnic makeup and socio economic connections of their country and display the data on a line or bar graph. Example: ethnic group and poverty, ethnic group and levels of education.

    • Investigate the nonprofit organizations and foundations and determine which ethnic group receives the greatest percentage of services. Relate their activities as advocacy groups. Show how their activities promote the common good.

    • Once they have the percentage, hypothesize the reason(s) for the disparity. Then, look back at their historical research to determine the accuracy of their hypothesis. They may record their hypotheses in their Learning Logs or journal.

    • Answer the question, "What is being done to reach a greater number of people who are receiving the least amount of services from nonprofit organizations?"

    • What cultural differences are there in the group receiving fewer services and why are they harder to serve?

    • How are the four countries similar? Answers: The first peoples to inhabit each of these countries were native peoples. How are they different? Sample answer: Cultural traditions vary from tribe to tribe and country because of the varied terrain.

Assessment:

  • Each team will present their graphs and other information about stewardship and philanthropy in the country that they studied.
  • Learning logs
  • Teacher observation
  • Assess oral presentations according to the following rubric:

    4 points - All eight questions completed with great detail and reasoned answers

    3 points - Six of the eight are completed with detail and reasoned answers

    2 points - Four to five questions adequately answered

    1 point - Two to three questions answered with some accuracy

    0 points - No attempt made

Curriculum Connection:

 

Bibliographical References:

  • Reinnhard, Johan. Discovering the Inca Ice Maiden. National Geographic Society (March 1998). ISBN: 0792271424

     
  • Smith, Bradford, Sylvia Shue, Jennifer Lisa Vest and Joseph Villared. Philanthropy in Communities of Color. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999.

     
  • The two sources which follow are excellent Internet sources for culture and traditions of Canada:

  • Canada: Fundraising Resources. http://www.fundsnetservices.com/canada.htm

     
  • http://www.south-america-travel.info/culture.html
    (Site gives a great deal of information about cultural traditions in South America.)

     
  • CIVICUS - (an international organization whose goal is to strengthen civil society throughout the world). http://www.civicus.org/

     
  • http://www.learningtogive.org. Learning to Give - (a national effort to awaken people of all ages to give something of themselves back to the society. Philanthropy is defined as "the sharing of our time, talents, and treasure and taking action for the common good.")

     
  • Internet sources for information on South and Central America:

     
  • http://www.lonelyplanet.com 

     
  • Choike is a portal dedicated to improving the visibility of the work done by NGOs from the South. It serves as a platform where NGOs can disseminate their work and at the same time enrich it with information from diverse sources, organized in line with the perspective of Southern civil society http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/4/34/links.html

Lesson Developed By:

Christine Jensen
Grand Rapids Public Schools
Sibley Elementary School Building
Grand Rapids, MI 49504

Handouts:

Philanthropy Framework:

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Unit Contents:

Overview:Around the World Summary

Lessons:

1.
Traditions—Our World and Philanthropy
2.
Our Journey Begins Close to Home—The Americas
3.
Africa—The Great Southland
4.
Australia, Land of the Outback
5.
Philanthropy in Europe
6.
Asian Fusion

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