I’m also adding it to my page of journals with open online archives.

ACT Responsible is a Swiss non-profit that attempts to use the talents of advertisers to address environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Their gallery is full of images and short videos that could be great visual prompts for activities on a wide variety of issues. For starters, check out highlights in The Best Adverts to Save the Planet, a slideshow available from the Guardian.

Facing the Future has a collection of activity-based, global issues lesson plans for students of all ages. In addition to the great stuff they offer for sale, they have a ton of materials available as free downloads. I especially like the lesson plans from Engaging Students Through Global Issues, and the Climate Change curricula. Finally, don’t miss their collection of graphs and other graphics. They cover a range of issues and could readily be used for discussion activities.

The International School Studies Association at the University of Denver has a large collection of links to lesson plans that deal with global issues. They break them down thematically (Cultural Studies, Environmental Studies, Economics, etc.) and by grade level.

My collection of links to global issues-themed video games might also work well with K-12 students.

Larry Ferlazzo’s blog has a ton of K-12 materials, and his “Best of” series includes ideas for teaching about social justice issues, environmental issues, Darfur, the recession, and many other issues.

For America-centric lesson plans, the Library of Congress and National Archives both have collections of lesson plans on race, war, gender and other topics. One great thing about these sites is the inclusion of primary sources — documents and images from history that can convey these issues more powerfully to students. The National Archives site also has a series of worksheets to use for analyzing documents, pictures, maps and so on.

Finally, I invite you to look at lesson plans from the Patel Center’s Global Schools Project. These lessons are not made specifically for ESL students, but they could certainly be adapted for them. I am currently working on a Patel Center program for teachers from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and my students will be adding their lesson plans to this resource.

Please feel free to share other good K-12 resources in the comments!

Worldmapper has maps on many, many topics, including poverty, gender empowerment, water use and even the number of McDonald’s restaurants. There is such a variety that I bet I could find a map to relate to almost any issue. And I love using visual prompts, as they are often the fastest way to meaningful discussion and writing.

Another feature that I really like is the PDF posters. Each of the maps that I’ve linked to above is also available as a PDF poster, which includes statistics and a short reading on the issue. The poster’s also include a quote related to the issue.

I’m currently teaching a special program for geography / social studies / English teachers from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and I’m certainly going to share this resource with them.

Highlights include The Big One an article by Bill Bigelow (author of Rethinking Globalization) on teaching about climate change. The article includes a description of several climate change activities, and materials are also available. One of the activities is a roleplaying game, which seems like a neat way to bring the issue into the classroom.

There is also an article on using first-personal narratives to teach about climate change. It includes a video of students in a small Yup’ik fishing village in western Alaska whose lives are already being profoundly affected by the changing climate.

Finally, there is an excerpt from a new book by Linda Christensen. She wrote Reading, Writing, and Rising Up, a book of activities for activism and literacy that I really like. Her new book is called Teaching for Joy and Justice.

• Fair is Fair (K-5) is a good introduction to the concept for children.
• Progressive City Planners (6-8) puts students in the role of urban designers, and includes some great statistics and a video from CNN.
• Reporting on Environmental Racism (9-12) has students acting as investigative journalists, and uses some interesting case studies.

The latter two activities would both work great with intermediate or advanced learners, and offer a chance to work on critical thinking in addition to language skills.

via the World 727 email list

]]> http://www.esletc.com/2009/04/09/environmental-racism-activities-from-teaching-tolerance/feed/ 0 http://www.esletc.com/2009/01/20/world-sim/ http://www.esletc.com/2009/01/20/world-sim/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:48:10 +0000 Dave http://www.esletc.com/archives/199 I just read a great article on a very interesting activity that a college anthropology professor does with a few hundred students in a lecture class.

He breaks them into groups of about 20, and assigns each group a culture. They spend a few weeks preparing, and the class culminates in the World Sim activity — the students roleplay human history from the years 1450-2100. They take on the roles of colonizers, genocide victims, and industrialists. Overpowered cultures are forced to sell off their resources and destroy cultural artifacts. Superpowers rise and fall. And students gain insight into their cultural history.

Professor Michael Wesch’s website has videos of the activity, materials, and also some information on his philosophy of anti-teaching.

Fortunately, I don’t have classes of 400, but I really love this project and would love to do something similar in a global issues class.

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