Creative Solutions for World Problems
Nikysha (Nikki) Gilliam, Ed.D.
In a Nutshell: "...giving ...a book to someone equals giving them a new world" - Jairo, a 12th-grade student
Students who don't have the financial means to travel the world can still do so in the pages of a book. While "exploring," they will have an opportunity to examine ethical issues in a text through the lens of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After selecting an ethical issue and a corresponding or related SDG, students will develop a creative solution for the identified issue and create a Google Slides presentation to share their research and proposed solution.
Objective: Students will see that art imitates life as they identify ethical issues in a fictional text set in South Africa. As they uncover ethical issues, they will map them to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, conduct research to develop a creative solution to the problem, and create a Google Slides presentation to share with the class.
Rationale: Students who don't have the financial means to travel the world, can still do so via the pages of a book. While exploring, students will have an opportunity will examine ethical issues in a text, using the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a guide to potential solutions. After selecting an ethical issue and a corresponding or related SDG, students will develop a creative solution and create a GoogleSlide presentation to share their research and proposed solution.
Prior Knowledge Needed:
How to use GoogleSlides
website navigation
understanding/identifying reliable sources
Timeline: Six to eight weeks
Materials/Resources Needed:
Book, When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina
Chapter Two, "Born a Crime", from Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Icons of Depth and Complexity (This video for teacher understanding may also be used with students.)
Website, Sustainable Development Goals
GoogleSlides template, "Creative Solutions for World Problems"
Global Read Webinar Series - Africana Book Award, When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina
Procedure/Activities/How-to:
Introduce the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to students
Let students know that as they read, they will be looking for connections from the text to the SDGs.
Read When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina
record the plot on a plot diagram
record the characters' development on chart paper (Jack, Zanele, Meena, Thabo, and Mankwe)
record the ethical issues that surface in the book
As students are reading, have them begin identifying and thinking about the ethical issues that they see in the book.
What ethical issues do students see in When Morning Comes that are related to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals? Have them note the ethical issues and attach them the the SDGs posted in your classroom (see example below).
Invite students to investigate one ethical issue that they've identified.
Have students use the Creative Solutions Note-Taking Guide to
find out more about the ethical issue.
Describe an ethical that you identified in the book When Morning Comes. Is it an ethical issue in the lives of real people in South Africa? Which Sustainable Development Goal does it relate to? Why is this an ethical issue? What information can you find? [Who are the affected people? What are their living conditions? Where do they live? What circumstances exacerbate the problem (make the problem worse)?]
find out more about any attempts to address the issue.
What attempts have been made to address this ethical issue? How much progress have we made in finding a solution, according to the United Nations? How effective have the attempts been to alleviate (get rid of) the problem? What challenges have occurred as attempts to solve the problem have been made? (You will have to do some more research to find this out.)
What other ways can students think of to address the ethical issue? Propose a creative, potential solution.
Based on what you know from your research, what creative solutions can you develop or design to address the ethical issue that you identified? How do you know that this is a viable solution (a solution that will work)? Please be sure to provide evidence to support your claim.
As the class continues to read the book, invite them to attach additional ethical issues to the posted SDGs.
Allow time for students to update the class on their research.
Once students have completed the book, Have them watch the Global Read Webinar Series - Africana Book Award, When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina.
Have students use the information in the Note-Taking Guide to create a Google Slides Presentation to share with the class.
California Common Core Standards:
RI10.3 - Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
RI10.7 - Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
RW10.7 - Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
RW10.8 - Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance and following a standard format for citation including footnotes and endnotes.
Works Cited:
When Morning Comes, Arushi Raina
Global Read Webinar Series - Africana Book Award, When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina
Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals
Introduction to the Prompts of Depth and Complexity (video)