TEXTO ANTICORRUPCIÓN
DÉCIMA TERCERA.- TRANSFERENCIA DE DERECHOS Y OBLIGACIONES.- “EL
Learning Goals Know:
• how volunteer service is commemorated or recognized • the significance of civic contributions of some individuals • how others might view their service
• the value of reflecting on and documenting their experiences to develop and demonstrate their skills and know-how
Do:
• investigating how their civic duty is valued in their school and community based on opportunities provided to them
• acquire a primary example of an incentive or opportunity available to youth and synthesize their findings
• communicate their ideas and conclusions Be:
• aware of the importance of civic contributions • motivated to set goals and be an active citizen
Lesson Objectives
In this lesson students are exposed to volunteer opportunities from someone in the local community, as well as school personnel. This will provide students with some examples of how their school and community value their volunteer contributions and incentives that they can strive to achieve such as scholarships and awards.
One of the largest predictors of youth engaging in volunteer service is whether or not someone in their family does community service, particularly their parents (Meinhard & Brown, 2010; Metz & Youniss, 2005). If students do not have family members or friends encouraging them and supporting them in their volunteer initiative, then perhaps other incentives or goals provided to them from the school or community organizations might help to motivate them to strive to reach their civic duties.
Many schools and/or communities have awards and scholarships available to youth—some of which are granted based on community involvement and volunteer service. In lesson 2 students were asked to reflect on and investigate the benefits of volunteering and how community service contributes to the common good. This lesson helps to make students aware of some potential extrinsic motivators for volunteering and being an active member of society. At the same time, while exposing them to scholarships, awards, and further opportunities, educators are demonstrating to them the value that community members have placed on volunteerism and how others perceive them when they are active members of society working to do good for others.
Instructional Plan
Setting the Stage:
Educators should open up the lesson with discussion how people view volunteers. As a group students can list off words/phrases that come to mind when they think of an individual that is an active community volunteer and these words/phrases can be recorded on the board as a mind map. It can be assumed that most of these ideas and descriptors will be positive (if there are negative ones educators should not ignore them but address them immediately). This will open up thinking about how volunteers are perceived in the community and even in Canada as a whole. Educators can also make reference to iconic volunteers such as Terry Fox, in order to have students really conceptualize how volunteers can be commemorated.
By discussing volunteers like Terry Fox, educators can demonstrate the heroism that comes from serving the community. Now it is time to demonstrate how this same heroism can be recognized on a regular basis for average community members such as themselves.
Core Learning Activity:
Educators will expose students to the ways in which the school and community are commemorating youth volunteers. This can be through scholarships, awards, or simple manners of recognizing their contributions (newspaper articles, school announcements, etc.).
Ideally, educators should arrange for a leader in the community to come and speak to the class about their organization and the award/scholarship they distribute to youth. Educators should encourage
representatives of community non-profit organizations to share their initiative with youth, as many community organizations are struggling to accumulate volunteers and this could help to increase volunteer interest (Volunteer Canada, 2012).
In addition to community members, the classroom teacher could arrange for other school staff to come into the classroom and talk about awards and scholarships that the school offers. For example, the Principal, Vice Principal, or Guidance Counselor may be experts about these opportunities and be a great resource for students to ask questions and gather information. As well, courses such as Co-op which is offered in grade 11 in Ontario schools also expose students to community organizations; therefore, the Co-op teacher in the school may be a valuable resource that can not only share information about these incentives but also relate the community service program to a course that students will have the opportunity to take the following year. Aside from guest speakers, there are other resources that educators can expose students to in order to find information. School boards such as the Thames Valley District School Board have a “Student Awards and Scholarships” page on their website which lists the various awards students can apply to and many of them have volunteer service as their requirement:
Thames Valley District School Board. (n.d.b). Student Awards and Scholarships. Retrieved from http://www.tvdsb.ca/students.cfm?subpage=36
Students will be asked to research an award or scholarship that is given to youth as recognition for the outstanding service in the community. Educators should encourage students to seek out an opportunity that they could strive for themselves and is relevant and feasible for them to strive for.
As an assignment, students will write a letter to the organization that is distributing the community service reward they researched and tell them why they think having the reward is beneficial and why they should continue to recognize community volunteers. These letters could be displayed in the school in order to help inform other students about these opportunities or educators could help students send the letters to the organizations in order to develop a relationship with a community organization of their choice.
Lesson Consolidation/Debriefing With Students:
Educators should have students share their findings with the class and consolidate their conclusions. This activity helps to expose students to opportunities that they might not have thought to seek out, while also demonstrating how others positively perceive volunteers in the community. Students should share what they learned with each other in order to teach each other about the opportunities available for youth volunteers.