Section Two: Developing a Common Understanding of What it Means to Be Global Citizens As stated in my understandings, I used the OXFAM global

citizenship characteristics as my key terms to focus on in my research. However, I needed to break these terms down so that my students could understand them. In researching OXFAM, I found that they had elementary curriculum resources to help me. Their version of the characteristics for younger students was laid out in key statements that younger students can understand. I pulled from the following OXFAM lesson plan to introduce these statements. The Global Citizenship lesson plan for ages 7-11 listed nine points to help get at understanding what a global citizen is. The nine points were as follows: I try to understand what other people are feeling. I am as important as everyone else. Everyone else is equal to me but different from me. I know what is fair and not fair and try to do the right thing. I look after the environment and dont waste things. I try to help others and not fight with them. I have my own ideas but can alter them if I realize they are wrong. I want to learn more about the world. I think I can change thing in the world. In October, I put all statements on separate sentence strips and had table groups discuss what each one meant. I then had them do as the lesson plan said, and put which ones they thought were most important to least important in a diamond shape (the top most important, then the 2 that followed, then the 3 that followed, then the next 2 and finally at the bottom would be the statement they thought was the least important). This proved to be quite challenging for the students. Even though we had previously discussed many of these points in many different ways in class they could not wrap their heads around what they all meant. The one they understood the most was the statement about the environment with 1/3 of class writing about it and majority discussing it. This was because this was the statement we had really taken action on and discussed in depth in regards to trash where we play and the impact of having our environment messy. The least understood was everyone else is equal to me but different from me with 1/3 of the class writing about it. When the students went to share out their groups decisions some students were frustrated because they thought another one was more important than the one the group chose. As one student put it, I didnt pick that one. They didnt listen to what I wanted. This was a great

opportunity to discuss group work and teamwork. Carlsson-Paige stated that, young people need to experience a caring environment, have opportunities to engage in decision making and pro social action, see pro social behavior modeled by adults, develop skills such as perspectivetaking and conflict resolution (2005, p. 107). I kept this in mind as I facilitated group work time. I began our teamwork discussion by saying, Working in groups means that we all need to compromise and go with what the majority wants because that may be what is best for the group. I then went on to discuss how we need to talk through our conflicts and learn about why someone thinks something. Doing this will help us better understand the person we are arguing with. This would be a continual discussion throughout our class days. We reviewed the statements and I thought we had a pretty good idea of each statement and what it meant. For the next week we talked about them when working through different subjects. We then reviewed the statements again, and the students still did not fully grasp them. I gave them a reflection and response journal prompt to try to get a deeper understanding of their struggles with these statements. The question was What global citizen statement do you understand the most? Which one do you not understand at all? Through student response I got a better understanding on two points. First, the consistent discussion about the environment did have a solid impact on my students. My students understood the statement, I look after the environment and dont waste things more than the other statements. At least 1/3 of my students wrote that this was the statement they understood the most. When we discussed this prompt after writing and I encouraged more students to share, the majority of them could explain this statement and what it meant to them clearly. For instance, Lana shared her thoughts, if you trashed the Earth the animals will eat it and theyll choke and die plus schools would become dumps. Beyond me discussing this concept with my class, this was not a surprise to me because recycling tends to be a more common lesson in elementary schools. Everybody knows the mantra, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. There are songs about this concept. We had also discussed cleaning up our local lunch space and leaving a place cleaner than we found it during every class day. It was always a discussion with us to make sure trash was cleaned up, to not trample through plants and areas that are not trails, and to make sure that we were responsible and cleaned up our messes. We discussed how we wanted to make sure that the area stayed nice so that we and others who used the space to take walks and eat their lunches could continue to enjoy it. One interesting thing is that one of my 3rd grade students, Sandy, who I thought would get the environment question without a problem responded in a very interesting way. When I read her journal, I realized she understood what this statement meant but didnt understand why it was important. She wrote, I dont get it. I look after the environment and dont waste things. It doesnt make sense. Trying to look after the environment is nice but I just dont get! When I asked her to share during discussion she clarified that she understood what the statement meant

but didnt understand why it was important. I would check in with her thinking on this idea throughout the research. The second point I received clarity on was why students were confused about the statements in general. I was struck by the statements they shared that they did not understand. Many of them shared a general confusion with the statement, Everyone else is equal to me but different from me. As Alison wrote, I dont understand it because if everyone is equal to you how can they be different? Also, I dont understand what equal means in that sentence. I dont know if it means alike or if you have equal rights? The common response to this statement was that it just didnt make sense. When we discussed this whole group we talked about how even though people around the world may act in a way that we think is different or they may look different than us we are all people and we all should be treated the same. Beyond the majority responses above, it became quite obvious that as a whole the students were very confused with the OXFAM statements in general. This was a dilemma I had to conquer because understanding these statements were crucial to understanding what a global citizen is. I went to my graduate school cohort and participated in a Spotlight where I presented my work and asked questions about it in hopes that I would gain some insight. One of my main questions was about what to do with the statements so that the students would understand them. Sure enough, a fellow student suggested doing a simple web and discussing the statements with the class to come up with our own class friendly statements that they could relate to on a daily basis. What a seemingly simple solution! Here is what my class and I came up with together as our characteristics: Global Citizens: We are aware of the world and our role in it (Which encompasses: I am as important as everyone else and I want to learn more about the world.) We are responsible for our own actions (Which encompasses: I know what is fair and not fair, I try to do the right thing and I try to help others and not fight with them, and I have my own ideas but can alter them if I realize they are wrong.) We understand that people around the world have different cultures and react to things differently (Which encompasses: I try to understand what other people are feeling and everyone else is equal to me but different from me.) We understand that we need to care for the worlds environment (Which encompasses: I look after the environment and dont waste things.) We participate and help the community around us and around the world (Which encompasses: I want to learn more about the world.) We help the world be a better place by taking action (Which encompasses: I think I can change things in the world.) After we established these characteristics they became a part of each of our class days. I would constantly refer back to them in relation to everything from morning meeting share outs of our weekends to group work during math time. I would consistently ask, Which global characteristic do you think you fell under when you/we did this? After we made the characteristics our own, the students were able to identify with them instantly.