Lesson Plan Assignment Social Justice

Lesson Plan Template
Name: Linda Vu 214765838 Subject(s): Geography Grade: 8

Lesson Title: Global Inequalities and an Introduction to Poverty
Curriculum Connections
Curriculum Area: Geography Curriculum Area: Mathematics
B. Global Inequalities: Economic Development and Data Management and Probability
Quality of Life
Overall Expectations: Overall Expectations:
“B1. Application: analyse some interrelationships
among factors that contribute to global inequalities, “Collect and organize categorical, discrete, or
with a focus on inequalities in quality of life, and continuous primary data and secondary data and
assess various responses to these inequalities” display the data using charts and graphs, including
frequency tables with intervals, histograms, and scatter
plots;”
Specific Expectations: Specific Expectations:
B1.1 analyse some interrelationships among – read, interpret, and draw conclusions from primary
factors that can contribute to quality of life data (e.g., survey results, measurements,
observations) and from secondary data (e.g.,
B1.2 analyse how various factors have affected election data or temperature data from the
the economies of specific developed and newspaper, data from the Internet about lifestyles),
developing countries around the world presented in charts, tables, and graphs (including
frequency tables with intervals, histograms, and
B2.2 gather and organize data and information from a scatter plots);
variety of sources and using various technologies to
investigate issues related to global development and – identify and describe trends, based on the rate of
quality of life from a geographic perspective change of data from tables and graphs, using
informal language (e.g., “The steep line going
upward on this graph represents rapid growth. The
steep line going downward on this other graph
represents rapid decline.”);
– make inferences and convincing arguments that are

based on the analysis of charts, tables, and graphs
(Sample problem: Use data to make a convincing
argument that the environment is becoming
increasingly polluted.);
Learning Goals:
1. Students will be able to identify what poverty is and the different contributive factors that cause poverty
2. Students will be able to understand the relationship between inequalities and poverty on a global
perspective
3. Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge through analyzing statistical data and presenting
their knowledge through charts, graphs or maps.
Assessment & Evaluation

© 2014 Antonino Giambrone, Salima Kassam, Vidya Shah
Adapted from: Differentiated Instruction Teaching/Learning Examples 2009 – Template for Writers. Ontario Ministry of Education, Student Success/Learning to 18 Implementation,
Training and Evaluation Branch
SUCCESS CRITERIA: ASSESSMENT STRATEGY:
What will you focus your assessment on? Are you
 I will be able to work collaboratively with my looking at the product or process, metacognition skills
peers to understand global inequalities in more etc.?
than one category (social, economic, health, o Assessment ‘for’ learning
access, and power) o Mind maps
o Game/Researching
 I will be able to use the Gapfinder or The o Open Discussion
Atlas of Global Inequalities to effectively find o Assessment ‘as’ learning
relevant data for comparison o Observations
o Anecdotal Notes
 I will be able to contribute equally to group o Learning Skills
work and work independently when needed o Collaboration skills
o Research skills
 I will be able to formulate questions related to o Graphing skills
global inequalities and poverty, and answer o Inference skills
questions presented in class o Communication skills
o Critical thinking/Analytical skills
 I will be able to understand the cause and
effects of poverty towards the end of the
lesson
Prior Learning
Prior to this lesson, students will have:

 Understood the terms inequalities, equalities, global, quality of life, accessibility, wealth, developed and
developing countries, and resources
 Compared and contrast the differences and similarities of developed and developing countries/nations
 Brainstormed what they believe are unequal and equal opportunities in the world and recognized what
countries have more or less resources/opportunities
 Listed the resources that Canada has and the access we have in terms of education, lifestyle, food, living
space, material goods, transportation and healthcare
 Identified which countries they believe to be developed nations or developing nations, justifying their
responses
o Students have coloured in on a blank map with two colours – one colour representing developing
countries and one colour representing developed countries
 Understood actions needed to reduce inequalities and improve the quality of life of some countries and
regions
 Formulate questions relevant to global developments, as well as challenge existing assumptions relating
to particular countries/nations
Materials and Resources

Materials
 Chart paper
 Markers
 Chromebooks/Desktops/Ipads
Written and Online Resources

 The Atlas of Global Inequalities
 If The World Were a Village of 100 People
 http://www.gapminder.org/
 Guest Speaker on poverty (Indigenous speaker, Immigrant speaker, or a parent of a student)
Time Steps/Activities Pedagogical Assessment

1:00 Framework: As/For/Of
hour Learning
Minds On Connections Assessment
 Establish a positive learning environment to Opportunities
 Connect to prior learning and/or experiences Framework
 Setting the context for learning
Class Guiding Questions Classism Assessment for
5-10 1. What is poverty? What does it make you think of when Learning
mins you think of the word?
2. What factors contribute to poverty? Think globally, and Mind maps give
locally teachers an idea of
what students
Teacher Notes currently know
 Have students form into groups of 2-3 and brainstorm on about poverty and
chart paper gives teachers an
 Have students create a mind map of what they believe insight into what to
poverty is and what it looks like address or
 Students should also list examples of poverty seen in approach next
their local community, as well as globally
 Students are also encouraged to use knowledge and terms
from previous class (developing/developed countries,
quality of life, access to resources and inequalities)
Accommodations
 Groups are provided to accommodate ESL, ELL and IEP
students
 Mind maps accommodate for visual learners and requires
short responses as opposed to long responses
 Students have the option of working in the library or in
separated room
Alternative Activity
[If felt that students will not be engaged enough with the guiding
questions, teachers could alternatively use this activity as a back
up]
 Have students state whether the statements about poverty
are myths or facts – these myths can be found on the link
below
 Teacher can take up with the class afterwards and explain
‘The Reality’ or ‘The Myth’ (Gorski, 2008)
 If there is time, ask students ‘What Can We Do?’ to
address stereotypes, discrimination and bullying. Also
provide advice to which students can adopt to become
more inclusively accepting to those who struggle with
poverty and inequities at home (Gorski, 2008)
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-
leadership/apr08/vol65/num07/The-Myth-of-the-Culture-of-
Poverty.aspx
Action Assessment
 Introduce new learning or extending/reinforcing prior to Opportunities
learning
 Provide opportunities for practice and application of
learning (guided/independent)
Teachers (5 min) Classism Assessment as
35-40  Teachers are to extend and add onto student’s knowledge Learning
mins on what their idea of poverty is and expand on an
example of what poverty looks like on a global scale Observation:
(provide pictures as well) Teachers will
 (Prepare beforehand) Have visual definitions on the observe students
board or a poster board of what these categories mean: ability to navigate
o Life expectancy, child mortality, income per through the online
person (GDP). resource as well as
the written text for
Students (30-35 mins) the purpose of
 Students will pair up into groups of 2-4 and refer to their research and
coloured (developing and developed nations) maps made understanding data
in the class prior through charts and
 Students are to use the online resource graphs
http://www.gapminder.org/ or the book The Atlas of
Global Inequalities to compare and contrast the Anecdotal Notes:
inequalities that exist between a developing country and a Teachers are to
developed country/nation. make anecdotal
o Students could do multiple countries/nations if notes of how
they have the time or desire to students are
 Students should include factors from categories such as: collaborating
o Inequalities of access (poverty, hunger, water, together, the
energy, transportation) amount of effort or
o Health inequalities (life expectancy, child contributions put in
mortality, access to healthcare, infectious by each group
diseases) member and the
o Educational inequalities (literacy, barriers to group’s way of
education, early childhood care and education) communication.
o Economic inequalities (income, household
wealth, consumption, work and employment) Assessment for
o Power inequalities (international trade, Learning
government action, freedom & democracy)
o Social inequalities (gender, age, class, race and Game/Researching:
ethnicity, child labor)
 Have each group record at least one feature from each Online interactive
category on a table, graph, mind map, or a chart resource
Gapminder and
The Atlas of Global
Accommodations Inequalities gives
 Provide the option of referring to other resources to find teachers the
relevant data and information, such as videos, media, opportunity to
audiobooks, other prints understand
 Provide students alternative resources that is presented in a student’s ability to
variety of languages for better understanding navigate, apply
 Groups are formed to accommodate ELL and ESL students, mathematical
as well as students with IEPs (peer support and knowledge and
collaboration) analyze and
 Tables, graphs, mind maps and charts are incorporated for interpret data into
those who are mathematically oriented or work better with conclusions
numbers
 Have PowerPoint or visual representation addressing the
instructions of the activity
 Give extra time next class for students who struggled with
completing the task
Consolidation and Connection Assessment

 Helping students demonstrate what they’ve learned Opportunities
 Providing opportunities for consolidation and reflection
Assessment for
10-15 Optional Guiding Questions for Inquiry (after discussion): Classism Learning
mins 1. What have you learned from your independent or group
research? Open discussions:
2. What examples can you provide that addresses these allow for students
inequality differences? Why do you think one country is to demonstrate
wealthier than another? their knowledge
3. How can you relate how these factors cause or are caused by and ability to make
the idea of poverty? connections
4. Is there any data or information you came across that you do between prior
not agree with? Or you do not consider an inequality or knowledge and
poverty-related situation? current knowledge
5. How can you compare and relate this to your local
community? The community that you most relate to? Or
Aboriginals People?
6. How have your culture and heritage shaped your outlook to
quality of life and poverty?
KEY GOAL: Have students recognize the interrelationships

between poverty and other existing inequalities.
Open Discussion
 Have students explore these questions in an open
discussion
 Allow students to present some of their information to
the class and encourage other students in the class to
expand and reflect on their peer’s data/information
Accommodations
 Allow students to write down what they have learned or the
connections they have made between inequalities and
poverty on sticky notes (to put the board)
 Open discussion to gain insight into peer’s analytical
thinking and inferences
 Have students write in Google docs their answers OR on the
same chart paper they wrote on in the beginning of class
Next Steps
 As students are exposed to the inequalities that exist on a

global and local scale, as well as the features that cause
poverty and the consequences of poverty, they will be
furthermore exposed to hands-on experience to what
poverty looks like
 Collaborating with the City of Toronto’s volunteering
associations, students will have an opportunity to
participate in off-site learning by volunteering with a
cause or initiative for a day.
 These volunteering opportunities may include
volunteering:
o At a soup kitchen/food bank (main off-site
learning opportunity related to culminating
activity)
o Participate in a Provide-A-Meal program
Students can also start an independent or group initiative at

school:
o Organizing a food or clothing drive/bank
o Start a fundraiser through bake sales, events, and
activities
Towards the end of the unit plan, students will also have a guest
speaker who is either from an Indigenous or Immigrant
background. The guest speaker will present his/her experiences
within living in an unequal or unjust society, struggling with the
inequalities mentioned throughout the unit. This will provide a
first hand, authentic and real account story telling experience for
students to learn from and relate to.
 Here, parents of students are encouraged to volunteer

Adapted from Lewison, Leland and Harste. Creating Critical Classrooms (2004)
Disrupting the Commonplace: Considering Multiple Viewpoints:
 Modifying the curriculum’s monolithic  Providing a variety of resources that are

perspective and integrating diverse topics available through audio, video, interactive
throughout each strand that relates to the online programs, pictures and guest speakers
specific/overall expectations for students to understand the text in multiple
different ways (lesson plan includes these
 Incorporating guest speakers from the local or multiple resources in the action and next steps
global community, which is outlined under the box)
next steps for the lesson plan
 Have readily available narratives challenging
 Encouraging students to challenge dominant the perspectives of dominant narratives;
narratives and question the data and alternative narratives
information they found throughout their
research gives an alternative insight to the  Have sources or resources addressing similar
lesson plan topics in different languages, as well as
different levels of English
 Asking students to contribute to discussions comprehension/vocabularies
and conversations with their own viewpoint
and opinions to relevant issues (socio-political
also)
Focusing on the Socio-Political: Taking Action to Promote Social Justice:
 Through the use of the online Gapfinder and  Towards the end of the unit, and throughout
The Atlas for Global Inequalities, students will upcoming lesson plans, students will be
have the opportunity to explore issues relating introduced ways to make a change both in their
to inequalities regarding to social, health, local community and global community
political, education, economic, power, and (volunteering, donating, raising awareness,
access fundraising, charity, and ultimately creating
their own initiatives)
 Students are to also refer to videos and their
families as a resource to their research and  With this, students will be planned a field trip
understand social and political issues from to volunteer within the local community to
different standpoint help with those in need and gain a deeper
insight to what first hand experiences of
 The field trip planned to a soup kitchen or inequality may look and feel like. This is
homeless shelter will give students a carried through with the idea to plan a field trip
perspective into issues that not only surround at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter
the community but also within our political
system. Students will be exposed to  Students will also be given the opportunity to
storytelling, first-hand experience and diverse fundraise through bake sales and planning
opinions about our social and political system events as a way to donate to non-profit
that will enforce inquiry based thinking. organizations. Collecting canned goods and
clothing is also an initiative students can
 Having student understand the social and
political issues globally through their research participate in if attending the field trip is
and ultimately applying their knowledge to the unavailable to them.
local community and Canada’s political and
social system.
Reflection
This assignment has provided me with an opportunity to think inclusively and differently in regards to
social justice and equity, and has encouraged me to integrate this knowledge within my teachable subject area
geography. As a result, I had made this lesson focused primarily on the grade 8 strand, Global Inequalities:
Economic Development and Quality of Life. Throughout this strand, the overall expectations and specific
expectations address social justice and equity by targeting issues of social, economic, health and education
inequities around the world. In order to demonstrate teaching for social justice and equity, I decided to
introduce this topic in a way that engages students and consider students perspectives in regards to global
inequalities, as well as provide resources that are accessible online and within text.
Throughout the lesson, students will be able to broaden their perspective with these injustices through
the online program, Gapminder, and written text, The Atlas of Global Inequalities. They will be able to
independently and collaboratively explore nations and countries around the globe that lack opportunities and
resources to live a high quality of life, and see the reasons and consequences behind these inequalities. By
exploring multiple global places, students will be able to not only compare the differences between developing
and developed countries and understand the reason for these differences, but they will also be able to culturally
relate with the research that is being done. Exploring multiple places also considers exploring multiple cultures,
the resources that are available to only some, few and many, and a perspective into our student’s experiences or
family experiences. It exposes students to the reality of the situation and enables students to recognize the
privileges and barriers that exist, which may help remove some unconscious biases present in students. By
implementing a service learning (volunteering at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter) and a philanthropic event
(fundraising and charity work), students will come to understand the steps that they could take, initiatives they
could run, and activities they can partake in to act against social injustices, and support inequalities that exist
within our own local community. Here, students will not only learn about the inequalities that exist worldwide,
but also apply it to the inequalities that they recognize in their local community. They will learn about the
actions they could take on a local level, and potentially pursue those actions onto a global level. It is in this
opportunity that culturally sustaining pedagogy is being implemented throughout the unit as it pushes students
to think about these issues presently and taking action in the future (Paris, 2010). This multicultural and
multinational exploration alone encourages students to think cross culturally and investigate countries that are
not related to their own identities. As a result, it broadens the cultural perspective of global inequalities in
respect to poverty and access to resources (Paris, 2010).
Reflecting back on the lesson plan, there are a few areas that I would modify and re-do to incorporate
more social justice and equity. For instance, the minds on component could be more engaging to students by
introducing a video that touches on poverty in the world, and asking students to create a mind map based on
their own knowledge and their response to the video. Furthermore, Aboriginal or Indigenous education could be
more integrated within the lesson plan as an example to inequalities and poverty. It is an important issue to
address within our local Canadian community and can serve as an extension of a history lesson for grade 8
classrooms. Moreover, the lesson can also work more to include the narratives of student experiences and their
family cultural experiences to better understand quality of life issues outside the classroom, across diverse
situations. It is an additional resource for students to refer to when understanding the realities of global
inequalities. Overall, by introducing these alternative narratives and cultural consideration, it accommodates for
multicultural education in regards to the dimension of ‘content integration’. (Banks, 2010). More importantly, it
promotes an equitable pedagogy to which student’s culture and experiences are considered as relevant resources
and significant roles to understanding inequalities and poverty across the globe (Banks, 2010).
As important role models and mentors to our students, I do encourage all future educators to first and
foremost understand their student’s culture, experiences, and ethnic background before implementing what one
might believe as ‘good teaching’. Such understanding will be reflected upon the diverse resources used, the use
of inclusive language within the lesson, enforcing culturally sustaining pedagogies, and the execution of
‘learning outside the classroom’. Teachers must be actively engaged within the lesson and build upon student
knowledge during their learning, and after their learning. Furthermore, teachers must educate themselves around
the existing social justice frameworks in order to effectively teach their students. Demonstrating the ability to
understand the social justice frameworks and incorporating it within student learning will help students better
grasp and understand subject areas through the social justice and equity lens. Ultimately, I believe that it is most
important to understand students socially, culturally and emotionally. Teachers can then take this level of
understanding and use it as a base for teaching cross culturally, disrupting stereotypes and assumptions, and
making connections between student and authentic learning.

References
Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology,
and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3). doi: 10.3102/0013189X12441244 
Banks, J. (2010). The dimensions of multicultural education. In Cultural Diversity and

Education: Foundations, Curriculum, and Teaching. Boston: Pearson, pp. 3-18. Retrieved
from http://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/toc/ze_2006_372.pdf
Gorski, P. (2008). The myth of the culture of poverty. Educational Leadership, 65(7). Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr08/vol65/num07/The-Myth-of-the-Culture-
of-Poverty.aspx


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Lesson Plan Template

Name: Linda Vu 214765838 Subject(s): Geography Grade: 8

Specific Expectations: Specific Expectations:

– make inferences and convincing arguments that are

Assessment & Evaluation

Prior to this lesson, students will have:

Materials and Resources

Written and Online Resources

Time Steps/Activities Pedagogical Assessment

Consolidation and Connection Assessment

KEY GOAL: Have students recognize the interrelationships

 As students are exposed to the inequalities that exist on a

Students can also start an independent or group initiative at

© 2014 Antonino Giambrone, Salima Kassam, Vidya Shah

Disrupting the Commonplace: Considering Multiple Viewpoints:

 Modifying the curriculum’s monolithic  Providing a variety of resources that are

Focusing on the Socio-Political: Taking Action to Promote Social Justice:

© 2014 Antonino Giambrone, Salima Kassam, Vidya Shah

Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology,

and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3). doi: 10.3102/0013189X12441244

Banks, J. (2010). The dimensions of multicultural education. In Cultural Diversity and

© 2014 Antonino Giambrone, Salima Kassam, Vidya Shah

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