I had arranged with my old 5th graders in Norway to test this lesson out, but unfortunately just when they were about to test it, school closed down in.
Learning goal: know about the human rights kids today have, and reflect on why these rights exist.
The lesson has two steps, one step which is homework, and one step which is done in school. Every step and part has an instruction video that instruct and explain what the students are expected to do.
Plan:
First, students will watch a Gapminder graph that illustrates the age of first marriage for women since 1800 until today. I highlighted three countries with very different representations: Norway, Japan, and India. The main idea is for the students’ to discover the huge difference in the age of women’s first marriage between the countries, and especially India and Norway. There are, however, many interesting aspects of the graph that is worth discussing in class, like that the age in Norway drops in 1945, and that the age of first marriage, in are rising in all countries. The second part of the homework is for the students to use the google sheet to fill in their name, what they observed, and what they think about it. This let the teacher know what the students have observed, and if they understood what they saw.
Step two will be done in class. The teacher and students start the class with a discussion of what they observed in the illustration. This is a gateway to start talking about human rights and the UN’s child convention. The students will be divided into four groups, where each group will work on one topic each in regard to human rights and the child convention. I have made a google slide presentation, that already has links relevant to the group’s topic. If the class is big, students can work in more groups, and in several presentations.
Finally, the whole class will watch and discuss the whole google slide presentation together.
Reflection: I believe the gapminder graph has the potential to start many interesting discussions and conversations in the classroom. One potential trap, is that it can be difficult for elementary students to navigate and work in one google slide presentation at the same time, without disturbing or messing up each others work.
Revision: The Gapminder tool can be used to start so many discussions with the students! It would maybe have been better to do it all in class, not do part one as a homework. Then I can talk to the students while they study the graph and guide them to notice everything that happens in the graph.