Teaching Process

Preparation:
Select an International Day based on either a) your current unit, b) the time of year, or c) student interest. You can find International Days for each month on the International Days section of the TakingITGlobal website.

Lesson:

Introduction

Mini Activity #1
Ask your students which holidays are approaching and record their responses on either a chalkboard, a whiteboard, or on chart paper. You may get answers like “Halloween” or “Easter” but encourage them to come up with more responses
Once they have listed all of the holidays they can think of, tell them that there is another very important day to celebrate this month and proceed to give them the name of the International Day you have selected

Explain that there are many International Days - in addition to the one that the class will be focusing on - and that many of them are connected to a “Global Issue” (allow time to explain this concept to students if needed)
Introduce TakingITGlobal as a website where young people can find out about these International Days and the Global Issues they are connected to (and much more!)
Using a projector or an interactive whiteboard, visit the TakingITGlobal homepage and then visit the Global Issues section. Use one of the Global Issues pages as an example and show the students where the International Days that correspond to that issue are listed on the page

Body of the Lesson

Part #1: Learning about the International Day
Divide the class into groups and ensure that each group has an electronic device
Instruct students to visit the TakingITGlobal website and, in particular, the International Days homepage and the web page that corresponds to the International Day that the class is focusing on
Instruct each group to read the description of the day and to review the “Take Action!” list and to answer the following questions (which can be written on the board or projected)
Why do people around the world celebrate this day? (Provide 3 reasons)
How do people celebrate this day?
What are 3 things that individuals can do to bring awareness to and/or to celebrate this day? Choose 2 actions from the list on the web page and come up with 1 action as a group
When groups finish answering the questions, they may move onto the next step. This step is selecting one of the 3 actions they chose (either one of the 2 from the list on the web page or the one that they came up with on their own) and actually taking that action as a group. Let your students know that they must choose an action that they can complete with their device in under, for example, twenty minutes

Part #2: Planning the Celebration
Explain to your students that to celebrate the fact that the class took so many actions to help bring awareness and to help celebrate this international day, the class will have a celebration!
Students will remain in their groups and each group will choose a representative to draw one slip of paper out of a hat. On each slip of paper will be a different role in planning the class party. For example, one slip may read “music” while another may read “decorations”
Each group will spend time (time will vary based on your time restraints but this can be completed in as little as one hour) researching (which will, again, require at least one device per group) and making plans for the celebration. This may involve research, making decorations, etc.

Part #3: The Celebration
Each group will bring their contribution to the celebration (i.e. music, decorations, a slideshow of related pictures, a poster board with the history of the “day”, etc)
Students will circulate, observe, and discuss each other’s contributions
You may select a short video to play or come up with some related games to add some structure to the celebration

Conclusion
Toward the end of the celebration, provide each student with a slip of paper and ask them to write down why they think International Days, such as the one the class focused on, should be celebrated. They should begin their response with the phrase “International Days should be celebrated because..” (responses should be between 1 and 3 sentences)
Post these responses somewhere in the classroom for all students to see

Possible Extensions:
Ask students to create posters to promote the various actions that other students in their school can take to help bring awareness to and help celebrate their International Day
Create an International Day calendar for your classroom. Divide the class into 12 groups and have each group fill out one month of the calendar. They can find the International Days in that section of the TakingITGlobal website
Ask students to come up with their own International Day. They can a) name it, b) describe why this “cause” should have its own day and be celebrated internationally on that day, and c) describe how it is celebrated
Introduce students to Commit2Act and make connections between some of the actions they can take on the app and the International Day you focused on or other International Days

Materials:
Projector and screen and/or interactive whiteboard
Electronic devices (at least one per group)
Assorted art supplies (to create decorations for the celebration)
Slips of paper for each student (for response)