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Title: Free the Children

Unit: Charitable Organizations
Subject: Ethics and Religious Culture
Grade: Grade 8 (Cycle 1 Year 2)
School: Westmount High School




















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Time Allotted: 70 minutes Teacher(s): Ms. Johnson and Ms. Jafralie
Introduction/Hook: 15 minutes Group Size: 20 Students
Lecture: 45 minutes Date: May 8, 2014
Summary: 5 minutes Location: Westmount High (Room 107)
Closing Activity: 5 minutes Time: Period 3 (11:40-12:58)
Work Book Entry (if time permits)

LESSON FOCUS

Big Idea: How to get more involved in charitable organizations Free the Children

Essential Question: How can young people and students make a difference in their world,
locally and globally?

The focus of this lesson is to give students an introduction to the concept of charitable
organizations in their own communities and provide students with examples of how they too
can be involved in making a difference. This raises an important idea that one individual is
capable of making change and promoting a better society. This lesson will focus particularly on
the organization Free the Children, which was created in 1995 by Craig Kielburger. This outline
will explain the foundation of the organization by a boy who was only 12 years old at the time,
very close to the students own age. Additionally, we will look at how this organization has
expanded and continues to carry out many events and initiatives. The overarching theme of this
lesson and unit is children helping children, and aims to encourage students to take action in
their own lives to change their society for the better. Students often feel as though they cannot
make a difference because they are only one person, however, this organization provides a
strong example of how being only one person can be enough to bring about change. Even if the
students do not feel ambitious about beginning their own charitable organization, they will
learn how they can become involved even in minor ways. This will reinforce the idea that even
small deeds can make a large impact on others. The unit will be taught in a way that is
interactive and encourages independent thinking but still adheres to the curriculum that is
required by the Ministre de Lducation, du Loiser et du Sport (MELS). Ultimately, students will
look at the difference they can make and will be required to develop their own charitable
organization.

Selected MELS Competencies from the QEP
Subject Specific Competencies Addressed in this Lesson:
Competency One: Refects on ethical questons. Students will refect on ethical
questons both in discussion and the workbook assignment. There will be a series of
questons, which do not necessarily have a right or wrong answer, but will allow
students to refect and defend the positon that they believe to be correct.
Competency Three: Engages in dialogue. This competency will be met during the
introducton actvity and class discussion throughout the lesson. One porton of the
lesson discusses child labour products and will begin with everyone standing. If they

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have purchased/used products from these brands, students will be asked to sit. This
allows students to engage with the class even if they are not the most talkatve. The
lesson aims to include each student without forcing dialogue in order to ensure that
each student feels comfortable.
Cross-Curricular Competencies Addressed in this Lesson:
Competency Eight: Cooperates with others. Students will be interactng in partners
during the think, pair, share actvity at the beginning.
Competency Nine: Communicates appropriately. Students will develop this competency
in class discussion and in the writng assignment at the end of class.
Broad Areas of Learning (BALs) Addressed in this Lesson:
Citzenship and community life. With a strong emphasis on giving to those in need (both
locally and globally), students will learn how to be a part of their community in a
positve way.

Professional Competencies
Competency One: To act as a professional who is an inheritor, critic and interpreter of
knowledge or culture when teaching students.
Competency Two: To communicate clearly in the language of instruction, both orally
and in writing, using correct grammar, in various contexts related to teaching.
Competency Seven: To adapt his or her teaching to the needs and characteristics of
students with learning disabilities, social maladjustments or handicaps (see
differentiation at the end of the lesson plan).
Competency Eight: To integrate information and communications technologies (ICT) in
the preparation and delivery of teaching/learning activities and for instructional
management and professional development purposes.
Professional Competency Goals
Competency 10: To cooperate with members of the teaching team in carrying out tasks
involving the development and evaluation of the competencies targeted in the
programs of study, taking into account the students concerned.
Competency 6: To plan, organize and supervise a class in such a way as to promote
students learning and social development.
OBJECTIVES (DESIRED RESULTS)
Students will understand:
How to become more involved in charitable organizatons in their community and be
given the knowledge/tools to succeed
That thinking critcally about our world can lead to change, regardless of age
Why charites are needed
How to make meaningful contributons in society
Students will know:
What charity means and what it means to be a charitable organizaton

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About the organizatons in their own community
The background of the successful charitable organizaton Free the Children
About the benefts of charites and the role they play in society

OUTCOMES (ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE)

The objectives of this lesson will be met using several assessment tools. These include the
following:
Class Discussion: class discussion will play an important role in this lesson by allowing
me to see what knowledge the students have of charites and Free the Children prior to
this lesson. I can then adjust the lesson as I go. There will also be many breaks for
discussion throughout the lesson to ensure that the students are following the material.
By the end of the lesson, discussion will refect that the students know what a
charity/charitable organizaton is, how Free the Children was created, and how it exists
in the present.
Brainstorm Race: the brainstorm race will assess which parts of the lesson stood out to
the students the most and give me an understanding of what I need to spend more
tme on. It will assess the general terms covered in class and what they mean. The focus
is to ensure that students know the main ideas from the lesson. This is done in an
objectve fashion but is not for marks; rather, it will simply assess what the students
retained from the lesson.
Workbook Entry: the workbook entry will look more at comprehension and critcal
thinking. It will assess the students refecton on the lesson. This will assess how
students can become more involved in their community, how youth can change the
world, why charites are needed and how they can make meaningful contributons in
society.
Final Assignment: at the end of the unit, students will use what they have learned to
create their own charitable organizatons. This will help them to clearly demonstrate
their understanding, as well as increase their own sense of purpose to see how they are
able to make a diference in society.

LESSON OUTLINE

Introduction/Hook (15 Minutes)
The lesson will begin with a 20 minute hook activity to get students to think about charitable
organizations. This will begin with a brief reflection. I will write the word Charity on the board
and as students to individually reflect on what this word means to them or what words they
associate with charity. They will then turn to a partner and discuss the ideas they came up with.
We will then discuss these ideas as a group. I have chosen this activity because it will introduce
students to the lesson surrounding Free the Children and the overarching theme of charities
created by children for children. It will also help the students to feel more conident in their
answers, because they reflect on their group, not just themselves. In a setting where they may
feel less confident with me taching, this can help to brea the ice. We will then discuss some key

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questions to get students to understand how they know what they do about charities. These
can include Why do we need charities? Who is responsible for helping others? Why do some
people want to help charities? Why dont some people want to help charities? How can we help
without giving money? How do we decide who needs help? These will get students to think
critically about the concept of charities and why they are important. The have become very
prevalent in North America and are sometimes accepted blindly so it is important for students
to be aware of why things are they way they are.

Development (45 Minutes)
- Afer the hook (think, pair, share) about charites, I will begin with an explanaton and
defniton of charity/charitable organizatons.
- Current popular organizatons discuss which ones students have heard of, if they have
ever partcipated in any of these organizatons.
- Free the children introducton of the charitable organizaton we will be discussing
today in class.
o Background foundaton of the organizaton by Craig Keilburger at 12 years old
and how a newspaper artcle about child labour motvated him to take acton.
o What is child labour? I will give a brief discussion about what child labour is and
why it is a negatve thing.
o Companies using child labour an explanaton of popular companies that
currently use child labour. This will lead into the idea that even if students
cannot make a huge impact, even small actons like ceasing to support child
labour companies is beter than nothing at all. During this discussion, I will have
every student stand up. I will list of companies that use child labour (Forever 21,
Puma, Urban Outiters, X-Box, Hersheys) and have students sit down if they
have ever purchased from these companies. Students will see that it is a very
common method of making products even now. The aim is not to make students
feel guilty, but to see the magnitude of the problem and how they can help even
in simple ways, such as being selectve in the brands that they buy from.
o How Free the Children has helped in other countries statstcs surrounding the
impact of Free the Children and how they have improved situatons in other
countries.
o Free the Children in the present The existence of this organizaton in North
America and abroad. This will discuss why this model is so successful and how it
is diferent from other charites. It will also discuss the costs of helping. To beter
reach the students, I will cimpare these prices to things that they purchase on a
day-to-day basis and see how easy it can be to donate money instead of
spending it on personal things.
o Where Free the Children Works (Nicaragua, Ecuador, Hait, Sierra Leone, Ghana,
India, Kenya, Rural China)
o Me to We/We Act partnership organizatons and the role of this charity
domestcally (how it involves youth).

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o We Day I will use a video to show We Day and the excitement surrounding it.
The video involves testmonies, celebrites that atend, and other major public
fgures such as the Dali Lllama who have atended We Day. Students can see
what a great event it is and maybe even go to the one next year.
o Getng Involved this will dicusss how students can become more involved in
Free the Children or charity in general. It also acts as a conclusion, by tying
together many of the important ideas from the lesson.

Closure/Summary:
The lesson will end with a brief review of important terms and ideas that will help students and
be important throuhgout this unit. These key ideas will include: Charity, Charitable
Organizations, Philanthropy, Child Labour, and Free the Children. This will be a time for
students to ask any other questions they might have regarding the lesson or unit. This will help
me to determine if the students have met my objectives and understand the ideas that I set out
to teach from the beginning. It will involve discussion and hopefully lead into other questions
that students might have about charitable organizations of Free the Children.

Evaluation/Follow Up
There will be an immediate evaluation (not for marks) through the use of a Brainstorm Race.
This means that students have 2 minutes to write down as many terms from the lesson as they
can remember. They do not have to be directly from the PowerPoint, but must have been said
during the lesson. For example, when looking at child labour, I mention that X-Box uses child
labour. Although it is not crucial to the unit, students may record X-Box as a term. Overall, this
aims to help me understand what stood out the most to students and what might need to be
reviewed at the beginning of next class. After the 2 minutes, I will go over the lists with the
students and discuss why these words were relevant. I will also add any terms that students did
not have on their lists. As the unit goes on, students will have more time but must try to
remember words from every preceding lecture as well. This will help the students reflect each
class through repetition and discussion. This activity allows me to see how all of the students
are learning and can involve everyone without forcing them to participate in discussions.

Work Book Entries (if time permits): students will be asked to answer the following question in
their work books: As a student, what would you like to do in high school to make a difference?
This can be in your community or somewhere else in the world. This will have students think
critically and reinforce the essential question of how youth can make a difference. Similar to the
brainstorm race, it also allows me to see how all students are learning, not simply the students
who raise their hands in class.

DIFFERENTIATION

This lesson is prepared to accommodate learning difficulties by using accommodations within
the classroom. Accommodations are necessary to ensure that all students can demonstrate

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their understanding and be a part of the class. These accommodations may include the
following:
Give extra tme for individual discussion in the hook actvity
Read the PowerPoint aloud and give students extra tme to copy down the informaton
Reportng key words at the end
Allowing spelling errors in the journal entries/Brainstorm Race for certain students
Allowing the use of laptops by students or letng them look online if required
Give students a quiet place to work when working on the journal entries


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

At the end of the unit, students will use the informaton to create their own charitable
organizaton. This will not be mentoned during this lesson, however, keep in mind that
this lesson will provide students with informaton about what makes a charitable
organizaton successful. This fnal assignment will allow me to see what the students
have learned by producing a plan for a charitable organizaiton of their own. It also
demonstrates what young people see as the most pressing issues in society now.

REFLECTION
What went well?
What would I do differently next time?

This lesson has been the first that I have ever created and implemented and it went very
well! The activities seemed very well spaced between the lectuer information and the videos
throughout the lesson seemed to be a relief for students to sit back, even if they were only one
minute long. They were also very active in the discussion so I feel that the questions used were
engaging. Additionally, they helped me to understand what the students knew and how they
were thinking. The students responded very well to the activity where they all stood up and sat
down if they used a child labour product. They also went from joking around to very serious at
this time. I think that this was good and it made me feel like I was really getting the message
across.
For next time, I would find a way to get more students to speak at the beginning of class
just to break the ice. Certain students spoke much more than others, but I think that this is
pretty normal. I would like to hear every students perspective but do not want to push
students who are shy. This is why the journal entries came in very useful. They let me see what
the students learned and to hear their opinion if they are not very talkative in class. For next
time, I would also plan for more time. This is a very long class and even with the additional
workbook entry, we had about 5 minutes at the end of class. We used this time to get to know
each other but in a regular class I would like to have another plan to continue student learning.
Overall, this lesson let me put a lot of the things I have learned in my education classes into
practice and I felt like it went very well!

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References

Ministre de Lducation, du Loisir et du Sport. (2013). Government du Quebec: Quebec
education program. Retrieved from
http://www1.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/programmeFormation/secondaire2/