Cleanup Clash: Deciding the Best Spot

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  CTE Lesson Plan

• CTE Course Info and Benchmark Notes

  
  

  HE.3.R.3.2: Identify opportunities to volunteer or serve others in the school or community.

• Unit Outline

  
  

  This lesson is designed to be used with the case study, “Community Cleanup Committee” See CPALMS resource ID# 219006.

• Career Connection

  
  

  Students will build their knowledge of civic responsibility, including how to successfully engage in civil discourse and come to an agreement with people who hold opposing views. Students will utilize durable skills such as communication, both written and verbal, as they participate in a discourse circle. They will orally communicate their initial claims and reasoning to convince others to agree with them. After the discourse circle, they will reexamine their thinking and write their final claim and reasoning/evidence on a sticky note to make a class bar graph.

• Learning Objectives

  
  

  The student will be able to:

  • Communicate their opinions with logical reasoning.
  • Describe ways to engage in volunteerism.
  • Identify how volunteering can impact their school or community.
  • Participate in a civil discussion with their peers using appropriate collaborative techniques.

• Prior Knowledge

  
  

  Students should be familiar with/able to:

  • The basic guidelines for engaging in civil discourse with their peers.
  • Support their claims with logical reasoning.

• Guiding Questions

  
  
  • What should the cleanup committee do when they must make an important decision, but don’t agree with each other?
  • How can the cleanup committee make sure that they have the best information when making important decisions?
  • What should committee members do if a member is getting upset or being rude?
  • What are fair ways to get members with opposing opinions to come to an agreement?

• Procedure

  
  
  1. Prior to the lesson, the teachers should write each word on the board or chart paper (civic virtues, citizenship, volunteerism, and cooperation). For each word, the teacher should follow this process:
     • Provide students with the definition.
     • Provide students with a contextual sentence.
     • Ask the students to turn and talk to a partner and discuss examples and/or nonexamples.
     • Call on volunteers to share their responses.
     • Clarify as needed.
     • Repeat steps 1-5 with the next word.
  2. Lead students into a brief discussion of the opening case study question: What factors should citizens consider when deciding on volunteer opportunities in their community and beyond? Read the text “Case Study: Community Cleanup Committee” with students. (See CPALMS Resource ID#219523)
  3. After reading the text, lead students in a discussion asking the following questions:
     • What should the cleanup committee do when they must make an important decision, but don’t agree with each other?
     • How can the cleanup committee make sure that they have the best information when making important decisions?
     • What should committee members do if a member is getting upset or being rude?
     • What are fair ways to get members with opposing opinions to come to an agreement?
  4. Students will utilize a tree map graphic organizer to list the 3 possible locations at the top and list the reasons each group gave in the scenario. Instruct students to add any other reasons (pros or cons) to the tree map. The teacher will then ask students to circle the location that they feel they most agree with. This location is their claim.
  5. Organize students into a circle. Set the ground rules for a civil discussion. For example, 1) active listening, 2) respecting others' viewpoints, 3) speaking one at a time, 4) everyone should have a turn to speak. Next, explain how the discussion will be conducted:
     • One person presents their claim and their evidence.
     • Other students take turns respectfully agreeing or disagreeing and stating their reasoning.
     • The students discuss the statements and evidence to see if they can come to an agreement.
  6. Once the rules are set, students participate in the discussion, while the teacher observes and listens, intervening as little as possible.
  7. After each student had a chance to speak, instruct students to look back at their tree map and reevaluate their first location choice, considering the claims and reasoning they just discussed with their peers. Direct them to draw a star next to their final decision for the location.
  8. The teacher should have the 3 locations written on the board or chart paper to set up for the bar graph. Provide students with a sticky note and instruct them to write their claim and their logical reasoning to support their claim. Call on students to come up and stick their sticky note next to the location that they selected until all students have their sticky note on the board. Once all students have come up, the bar graph will be completed, and the teacher can lead students in a discussion about the results. The teacher can then lead a class discussion about what to do next. Some possibilities are:
     • go with the majority vote,
     • eliminate the choice with the least votes and vote on the top two choices again,
     • read the reasons on each note and engage in further discussions,
     • or some other possibility.
  9. Students should turn and talk with a partner or small group to discuss:
     • How successful (or unsuccessful) was the process for determining a location, and why?
     • What might have happened if the committee could not agree on a location?
  10. In closing, applaud students for their work today. Volunteering is important in every community and the decisions the cleanup committee had to make was difficult. Remind students that our country and the world is filled with people who have opposing views, and that’s a good thing! But problems won’t get solved and important decisions can’t be made if people do not know how to communicate effectively and respectfully.
  11. End the lesson with a discussion of future work:
      • How might the skills you used today be used in different situations: At home? With your friends? At school? At a part-time job? Other?
      • How did seeing and hearing other perspectives help you with your thinking? How do you see collaboration as part of your future?

• Teacher Notes

  
  

  Based on class size and student needs, discourse circles can be implemented as a whole group or as multiple small groups.