Investigating Education
Teaching Suggestions
Print this Page- Subject(s): Language Arts & Literature, Social Studies & Geography, Environment & Health, Service Learning, Mathematics
- Grade Level(s): 6–8, 9–12
- Related Publication: Global Issues | Education
Overview
These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of the issue of food security. They may be used on their own or to extend students' learning from the WebQuest: Ensuring Access to Quality Education.
Background Information
More about Peace Corps Volunteers' work in education
Global Issues | Education
More about education in the United States
More about education in the world
Featured Reading(s)
Procedures
Service Learning: Consider ways to foster learning for all through advocacy or direct service. Consult World Wise Schools' service-learning page for suggestions about how to make service-learning globally-relevant. Then review the list of education-related service-learning project ideas to help initiate a project of your own.
Math: Discover how a unique school project in students in St. Vincent and the Grenadines helped 6 th grade students learn math and business skills with real-world applications. Engage in the web-based investigation Starting Your Own Small Business to find out about the project, a student-run chicken raising business. Then consider projects you could do in your school or community to help foster math skills.
Social Studies: Play the Peace Corps Challenge Game, Educating Village Girls . As you play, consider the ways that culture influences people's perspectives on education, as well as the diversity of perspectives that may exist within one culture. Discuss what you found most challenging about finding a solution that would meet the community's needs. How were the challenges like and unlike the challenges we face in the United States with regard to education?
Language Arts: Invite a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in the field of Education to come speak to your class through World Wise Schools' Speakers Match program . Prior to the speaker's visit, conduct research about the educational system in his or her country of service and prepare relevant questions. Afterwards, write a reflection on how education in the Peace Corps country compares to and differs from your own experience.
TESOL: Begin with a discussion of the similarities and differences between your school and schools students have attended in the past. Why do you think some things are different? In pairs or small groups, read the e-book Go to School for a Day in Namibia . Practice reading the text aloud for fluency (click on the text to hear pronunciation). Discuss any vocabulary that is unfamiliar. Then create a diagram of similarities and differences between your school and the school in Namibia.
Health: View the slide shows Healthy Girls, Healthy Villages and Life is Wonderful ; listen to the podcast Texting Across the Desert . How did each of these projects help to educate people in settings outside of school? How does promoting learning outside of school have the potential to impact people's health and wellbeing? What kinds of resources support your learning outside of school?
Framework and Standards
Enduring Understandings
- Education is a human right.
- Education is closely linked to many critical global issues.
- While enrollment in school is key, a larger goal than school enrollment should be ensuring learning for all.
Essential Questions
- How does education benefit individuals and communities?
- Why does inequality exist in access to quality education?
- How can I help promote equal access to quality education?
Standards
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
- Operations and Algebraic Thinking
- Analyze patterns and relationships.
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
- Thematic Strand I: Culture
- Demonstrate how different cultural values and beliefs can contribute or pose obstacles to understanding between people or groups.
- Thematic Strand IX: Global Connections
- Explore the causes, consequences and possible solutions related to global issues
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
- Speaking and Listening
- Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
- Writing
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.