The Front Page April 2017

An e-publication provided by New Jersey ASCD

ASCD’s Global Engagement :

About the author ~

Dr. Virginia Magnus

is currently a faculty

member for NJASCD

in which she

presents programs

for secondary school

educators. She also

provides in-district

support for extended

application in the

content areas of the

learning skills and

instructional

standards. She

served on the NJDOE

Standards Review

Committee that

worked on the New

Jersey ELA Student

Learning Standards.

NJASCD ~ a trusted source for professional learning ~

Clean Water:

A Model Secondary Authentic Project

Guest author: Dr. Virginia Magnus

Designing instructional programs entails many responsibilities for educators when they focus on the whole child. The ASCD Whole Child Initiative is a collaborative approach to learning and health. The initiative fosters the tenets of promoting students to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. ASCD’s vision identifies Global Engagement as one of the Communities of Excellence that frames the tenets of the Whole Child. Authentic global engagement projects can connect students within an entire school, as well as to students in other schools within the state, nation, or the world. These same projects will build responsible citizens for the future.

Components of Global Engagement

The first component of states, “Today’s students require the

knowledge, skills, and dispositions to participate as citizens in a global society.” Many businesses are hesitant to develop the knowledge and skills of their workers because too many workers leave their place of employment for other jobs. The workforce of tomorrow will require that workers are responsible for their own learning. They need to learn how to learn new information quickly and effectively, so that they can adapt their own knowledge and skills to new situations and people. They also need to develop the dispositions to understand their own perspective and to listen to the perspectives of others in the new work place.

The second component states, “In addition to being actively engaged in

learning, students need to understand their connection to their communities and the world at large.” Many students focus only on their own personal needs and don’t think about how these needs may connect to other people. These connections may be with other class members, team members, or community groups. Global engagement broadens this real connection to students in other schools throughout the country and the world.

The third component stresses that educators need to “Prepar[e]

children for an interconnected, global society and engage educators in critical issues facing education.” Educators have a responsibility to explore ways to provide students with opportunities to connect with other students and to develop global dispositions. These opportunities need to be ongoing and within all classrooms.

The fourth component states, “Develop the intercultural

competence to expand your curriculum beyond a textbook and learn about promising practices and topics of concern to educators worldwide.” Traditional instruction provides students with new information that could be found in encyclopedias, books, and videos. The new paradigm for learning information is with the use of technology. It enables students to have access to more current information and real people who have knowledge and perspectives about global issues. Technology also provides a means to talk with other students across the country and around the world.

1. 2.

3.

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April 2017

NJASCD ~ a trusted source for professional learning ~

Research is indicated by two Anchor Writing Standards:

NJSLSA.W7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects; and

NJSLSA.W8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources.

Global engagement entails gaining new information, sharing perspectives, and challenging students to take responsible actions. The Whole Child Tenets, the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, and instructional standards provide support for teachers to design authentic projects. One example essential question is:

In what ways does the lack of clean water impact people across the globe?

The Whole Child Tenets of Healthy, Engagement, and Support connect to this question. Also connected to this question are The New Jersey Student Learning Standards which call for all students to be engaged in authentic research by using technology.

Researching the issue of clean water is also supported by instructional standards:

Social Studies. 6.1.12 B. 16.a. Explain why natural resources (i.e., fossil fuels, food, and water) continue to be a source of conflict, and analyze how the United States and other nations have addressed issues concerning the distribution and sustainability of natural resources.

NGSS. HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.

Health/Physical Education. 2.2.8.D.1. Plan and implement volunteer activities to benefit a local, state, national, or world health initiative.

World Languages. 7.1.AL.C.2. Create a research-based analysis of a current global problem/issue showing cultural perspectives associated with the target culture(s) and another world culture.

Together, these standards enable teachers and students in different instructional areas to connect together on the global issue of clean water.

Researching information about clean water issues requires that students practice the key skills of the learning process. Students are exposed to new information by reading informational texts or by listening/ viewing to a speaker. As students gather the information, they need the opportunity to discuss their findings. The Whole Child Tenet of Safety is important to establish at this point. Students need a classroom environment that is safe to question the new information. They may need to clarify details about state or international water programs, regulations for addressing clean water, and the credibility of any source or speaker.

These informal discussions are supported by two Anchor Speaking and Listening Standards:

NJSLSA.SL1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively; and

NJSLSA.SL2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats.

Technology provides a more expansive way to share knowledge not only about a global issue but

also about what other students across the country and world know and think. Technology provides

opportunities for students to talk with students and authorities who are actually dealing with water that

has been contaminated with such chemicals as lead, PFOA, or PFOS. Students can question others

about the new knowledge. Students will be surprised to learn about the different worldwide

perspectives.

April 2017

NJASCD ~ a trusted source for professional learning ~

Once students have this exposure to new global information, they need to process the information by thinking/ analyzing what they have learned. This is a difficult step for many students because they will initially think that all of the information is important and accurate.

Three Anchor Reading Standards demonstrate the importance of analysis of information:

NJSLSA.R7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats;

NJSLSA.R8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text; and

NJSLSA.R9. Analyze and reflect on how two or more texts address similar themes or topics.

The following instructional standards also support the need to analyze research information:

Social Studies. 6.2.12.A.6.a. Evaluate the role of international cooperation and multinational

organizations in attempting to solve global issues;

NGSS. HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria

and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants;

World Languages. 7.1.AL.C.2. Create a research-based analysis of a current global problem/issue

showing cultural perspectives associated with the target culture(s) and another world culture; and

Technology. 8.1.12.A.3. Collaborate in online courses, learning communities, social networks or virtual worlds to discuss a resolution to a problem or issue.

The focus of research that each instructional standard will reveal about unclean water issues will be important to share among varied student groups. Since students in each instructional area will focus their research on different aspects of the global water issue, it is important for students in other areas to have the opportunity to share their findings.

What is the next step?

As students process the information about the unclean water, they will need direction on how to filter the information. In other words, what is the “next step”? Global engagement entails the disposition of taking responsible action. This is the step that students can choose to take different action steps to connect to their own community or to the world. The NJ Student Learning Standards and the individual instructional standards provide the basis for opportunities for students to use their skills of writing and speaking to take responsible action.

Supporting these NJ Standards are some of the instructional standards:

Social Studies. 6.3.12.B.1. Collaborate with students from other countries to develop possible solutions to an issue of environmental justice, and present those solutions to relevant national and international governmental and/or nongovernmental organizations;

Health/Physical Education. 2.2.8.D.1. Plan and implement volunteer activities to benefit a local, state, national, or world health initiative; and

Technology. 8.1.12.C.1. Develop an innovative solution to a real world problem or issue in collaboration with peers and experts, and present ideas for feedback through social media or in an online community.

April 2017

NJASCD ~ a trusted source for professional learning ~

Taking responsible action will require developing effective communication skills. All instructional areas need to provide the Whole Child Tenet of Support for classroom opportunities to practice writing and speaking. In deciding what action to take, students need to analyze their target audience, the specific event, their own purpose, and whether writing or speaking is the effective means to communicate information to the identified audience.

Taking responsible action allows for much student choice. Since students have varied abilities, they need the ability to choose what action they can take. Performing arts students can step in and use their talents to support selected actions. Guided by the standards and the Whole Child Tenet of Challenge, individuals or small groups of students can choose to perform different responsible actions. Example actions include:

Design a computer simulation that models the impact of a proposed solution and present it to the school and/ or to a community

Present a position to the school board that needs to be taken about the issue Propose to an international organization an alternate action step Present a proposal to different community groups Write a persuasive letter about a position to an official: the editor of a local paper; a

community, state, or national official; an environmental agency Take creative action to support an action: draw/ paint an image of an unclean water

system

Global Engagement is a powerful Community of Excellence. It can connect the studies of all secondary areas of instruction. It allows students to gain appropriate knowledge about clean water by practicing their learning skills. It encourages students to respect the perspectives of others around the world. It provides opportunities for students to take appropriate and responsible action steps. Global issues connect the whole child, to the whole school, and to the whole global community. The knowledge of global issues can turn ordinary students into to extraordinary citizens when they learn how to take responsible action to address a global issue.

Resources:

ASCD. www.ascd.org

Educational Leadership: The Global-Ready Student. December 2016/January 2017. Volume 74. Number 4. ASCD. www.ascd.org.

New Jersey Student Learning Standards. http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/

New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Social Studies. http://www.state.nj.us/education/aps/cccs/ss/

Next Generation Science Standards. http://www.nextgenscience.org/

New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Comprehensive Health and Physical Education. http://www.state.nj.us/education/aps/cccs/chpe/

New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Technology. http://www.state.nj.us/education/aps/cccs/tech/