We find poetry everywhere: lyrics to songs, commercials, and picture books. Poems express strong emotions and observations of relationships with each other and the world. Sharing their poems to communicate care can be an act of generosity.
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Unit: Poetry for the Common Good
Unit: Motivated to Give
Youth identify motivations for giving and social action in the community. They compare research-based motivations of adults and youth. They write a persuasive call to action for an issue of their choice based on the motivations they learned.
Unit: Writers as Activists
Students will recognize the linguistic strategies that Alice Walker uses in her introduction to Anything You Love Can Be Saved that persuade readers to believe in her causes, and thus begin to think about techniques that they can use in their own activist writing, which they will do in...
Unit: Road Less Traveled
Participants read about the philanthropic traditions of early African-American culture and place the values of giving in a hierarchy circle.
Unit: Civic Virtue in Modern American Democracy
As a group we define good citizenship, including the classic Roman concept of civic virtue (putting the common good above individual need).
Unit: Early American Influences
We look at the Society of Friends/Quakers and describe how this group promoted the common good. The Quakers pushed for religious freedom and freedom of choice, which are Core Democratic Values. As a group, they formed organizations to promote social change in the areas of slavery,...
Unit: Character Education: Caring (Grade 7)
In this lesson the learners discuss a quote about gratitude and consider the relationship between caring and gratitude.
Unit: Character Education: Fairness (Grade 8)
Learners reflect on their attitude about and responsibility for making fair choices about spending. They use the literary device of metaphor to express their thoughts.
Unit: Heroes and Their Impact
Rosa Parks' acts of philanthropy brought a community of people together for the common good and resulted in major social change in her community and in the nation. Participants identify a need in the community and take action with personal responsiblity.
Unit: Project on Poverty and Homelessness at Sea Crest School
Students explore the effects of hunger and its role in the lives of children.