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Rules for the Common Good

Unit of 3 lessons

Kindergarten-2nd Grade

Subjects:

Language Arts, Library / Technology, Philanthropy and Social Studies

Key Words/Concepts click to view

Lesson 1 :	ELA:	Miss Nelson Is Missing; Brainstorming; Group Discussions; Listening; Prior Knowledge; Response to Text/Others
	PHIL:	School Rules
	SOC:	Choices/Consequences; Civic Responsibility/Virtue; Common Good; Core Democratic Values; Rule of Law; Rules
Lesson 2 :	ELA:	Reflection; Role-Play; Teamwork
	PHIL:	School Rules
	SOC:	Choices/Consequences; Common Good; Consensus; Rules; School Climate
Lesson 3 :	PHIL:	School Climate; School Rules
	SOC:	Choices/Consequences; Civic Responsibility/Virtue; Common Good; Rules; School Rules

Unit Overview:

Students need to follow rules at school. They tend to follow the rules more willingly when they have had a part in developing those rules. This unit is designed to involve the students in developing, understanding and being able to explain the classroom rules to others. It also is expected that the students will be able to explain why rules are needed for the benefit of everyone or that they serve the common good. This unit can serve as a brief introduction to Core Democratic Values. The students will be involved in brainstorming a set of rules, categorizing those rules and illustrating one of the rules. They will act out one rule for the class and be able to explain how that rule meets the needs of the common good.

Unit Purpose:

Students will work together to develop a set of classroom rules and an understanding of how rules can meet the needs of the common good.

Unit Objectives:

The learner will:

cooperatively establish a set of classroom rules that meet the needs of the common good and summarize the rules in order to make them more user-friendly.
explain how the use of rules helps the common good.
illustrate one of the class rules.

Service Experience:

Although lessons in this unit contain service project examples, decisions about service plans and implementation should be made by students, as age appropriate.

After working with the class to establish and illustrate a set of rules that meet the needs of the common good in the classroom, students will create a poster of a school rule and post it as a reminder to the rest of the school of the benefits of following the rules.