Standing up for what’s RIGHT!- Lesson plan

 Standing up for what’s RIGHStanding Up For What's Right

Grade 3 – Rylee Otwell 

“Love and Liberation”

Introducing fourth graders to the understanding of accepting others is crucial for their development. Students will complete activities based on movies they watch in class and books read that will give them a clear understanding of “love and liberation”. Through class activities and discussion students will further recognize the importance of loving and accepting others despite their differences. 

Justification

The Main Source of information that inspired my lesson plan was the novel Sula written by Toni Morrison. Within this novel there are many different examples of being different from others and choosing to love one another through it. A perfect example of this is Sula’s and Nel’s friendship, they had very different morals and personalities, but they were best friends despite that. Sula and Nel friendship was very similar to Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, despite their differences (predator and prey), they became best friends. 

Why 3rd grade?

During elementary years, third grade is a crucial time where students’ minds begin to comprehend new thoughts and morals for themselves. It is important to teach positive morals to students to help ground positive thoughts and actions when they first begin to have ideas of their own. By teaching third grade students the ideas of love no matter their differences, it is bettering well-being, promoting healthy friendships, and self-love.

 Objectives

• Students will have a thorough understanding of what it looks like to love and accept people. 

• Students will be able to explore the idea of standing up for others. 

• Students will have the ability to recognize and respect people for their differences 

• Students will be able to understand the many aspects of love and kindness to others.

• Watch the film “Zootopia” 

Daily Assignments

During the four-week period of the lesson plan, students will be required to answer a “bellringer” type question during the first 10 minutes of class. A few responses are required to be read aloud to get conversation started. The daily question will have correlation to the text or film from the specific week. Full sentence structure. 

Ex. “Name a time you have stood up for another person.” or “Name something you love most about yourself” 

Week 1

Text: “Bad Case of Stripes”- David Shannon- A children’s book about Camilla Cream who loves something other don’t which leads her to having a strange condition referring to her “lost identity” due to her embarrassment of enjoying lima beans

Discussion: Students will participate in a discussion about Camilla and her differences from her friends and explore why she felt the way that she did. This will help the students understand the impact not accepting another person can lead to. 

Daily Assignment: Beginning of class “Bellringer”

End of Week Assignment: Students will be given a printed color sheet with a photo of Camilla Cream and design their own pattern. Beneath the coloring, there will be a question asking the students to answer the question “Why did Camilla get the bad case of stripes, and how did she fix it?” 

Week 2

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk_HYAiS26I - A video describing how people look different but are all part of the “human race”. This video shows students that even though there are differences between people, they should all be treated equally. 

Discussion: Students will discuss what the main points of the video and share what they recognize from how small people’s differences truly are. This will allow students to visually see how everyone should be treated the same, and differences in looks shouldn’t change that. 

Daily Assignment: Beginning of class “Bellringer”

End of Week Assignment: At the beginning of the week, students will be assigned a partner that they are required to sit beside through the longevity of the week, and at the end of the week a worksheet will be handed out that asks the student to write a complement to their partner. The worksheet will be given to their partner at the beginning of class the next week.

Week 3

Text: “A Color of His Own”-Leo Lionni- Although this is a young children’s book, it relays a clear message about a chameleon that was sad of not being like others, but throughout the book he is accepted for himself rather than changing to “fit in”. 

Discussion: Students will discuss their own takeaways from listening to the story read aloud. Students will have an understanding that when someone is accepted and loved for who they truly are it can change how they feel about themselves. Ex. Before the chameleon met the other, he was sad about not being like everyone else, but once he was accepted for who he was, he was happy. 

Daily Assignment: Beginning of class “Bellringer” 

End of Week Assignment: Students will be required to write a four-sentence short answer reflecting on a personal time within their own life. The prompt for the students will be, “The chameleon wanted to have a color of his own because he felt left out and different. Write about a time you felt left out or wish that you were different.”

Week 4

Movie: Zootopia- A movie that discusses the societal differences between people and portrays the ideas through different types of animals. Ex. A bunny as a cop, fox as a friend. These could “never happen” but through the movie it is shown to accept differences and that anyone can be anything. 

Discussion: There will be a short discussion held that makes sure students have a clear understanding of the movie and retain the theme. This discussion should allow students to understand the main points from the movie.

Daily Assignment: Rather than the bellringer, this week students have had a sheet answering movie related questions as the movie went along.

End of the Week Assignment: No end of week assignment due to final project. 

Final Project

Students will be asked to create a poster of “What MY Love Looks Like”. This project will allow the students to connect what they have learned in class to their person lives. 

Rubric: Select 5-10 photos that represent you (Ex. Photos of you with friends, Photos doing what you love, Photos with family.) and glue them to half of a poster board. Make sure the poster contains the title, “What MY Love Looks Like”. Make the poster colorful and design it to represent YOU. After creating your poster. Write a 4-sentence rundown of how the photos relate to our topic of loving one another and how they relate to you.

Field Trip 

Students will take a field trip at the end of the four-week timeline. The field trip will be to the Louisiana Purchase Gardens & Zoo. Due to watching Zootopia, I feel that this field trip would be a fun experience to be able to see all the animal’s differences in person to allow the students to grasp how different something can be, but they are all part of the “animal kingdom”.