When I first began developing my knowledge of Learning for Sustainability and Global Citizenship the framework inspired me to look closely at my own practice and embed Learning for Sustainability into my day-to-day teaching. Teaching children how to live sustainably and consciously throughout their lives and to empathise with what is going on in the wider world is vital for classroom education today but also something I feel strongly about getting right in my classroom.
Drama and Role Play
Global Storyline is a creative pedagogical approach to teaching Global Citizenship in the classroom through drama and role play, but also allows for links with other curricular areas and it’s all laid out in one plan for teachers to use as they see fit. The course itself takes teachers through the series of lessons with practical drama input and lesson ideas that can be used alongside the storyline to further develop the learning.
"The ownership that P7 had over this really spurred on their enthusiasm for the topic."
The Storyline
The storyline we used, ‘Planet before Profit’, is set in an eco-friendly town, which is created by the children. Teachers can choose to display the town in any way they wish and it can be developed over one or two lessons. This is the hook. My P7 class adored doing this task and we all worked together to come up with amenities in our coastal town, the name of the town and the name of the nearby city. Just when P7 didn’t think it could get any better I informed them that the next step was to create their character and work together in a ‘family’ group who lived and worked in the town. From this we wrote biographies about our characters, used iPads to develop what our characters looked like and researched jobs that our character may have. The ownership that P7 had over this really spurred on their enthusiasm for the topic.
"There were links that could be made to different relevant world issues which led to incredible classroom discussions and activities to develop independent thinking and research."
Real World Issues
Throughout the storyline there were links that could be made to different relevant world issues which led to incredible classroom discussions and activities to develop independent thinking and research.
The storyline’s main focus becomes the town’s bank as it is an integral part of the towns eco-friendly funding and reputation, however a discovery is made that the bank is actually investing in fossil fuels. We learned all about divesting and became activists in the classroom for the divestment of fossil fuels. This led us onto writing a factual piece about fossil fuels, a letter to the bank and a presentation about the issues that fossil fuels cause to our planet.
"The work that they completed was done to a high standard as the passion for saving and understanding our planet shone through."
Impact on Learners
The overall impact of utilising this resource in my classroom was that learners were engaged and enthusiastic about the topic the whole way through. Their classroom discussions became focused on current events and the work that they completed was done to a high standard as the passion for saving and understanding our planet shone through. Thank you Global Storyline for an inspiring pedagogical approach to a very important topic!
For more information on Global Storylines please visit here.
