Character Education Objective:
- Students will discuss the impact of unfair practices in the classroom. They will problem solve to make the classroom more equitable.
Content Objective:
- Students will define fairness and work towards making their community a fairer place.
Language Objective:
- Students will journal about personal experiences around fairness.
Purpose:
Fair does not always mean equal and that can be a difficult concept for children. This lesson is designed to help students understand that fairness is everyone getting what they need and not simply everyone getting the same thing. It will also allow your students to identify, discuss and problem solve ways the classroom can be fairer for all students.
Lesson:
- Ask the students “what does fair mean?”Watch “Build Character Build Success: FAIRNESS” video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqPeMprcEDw
- Discussion Questions
- Would it be fair for the four students in the video to all take the same test with the items they first had?
- Why is it fair that the last student was given two items?
- What does fair actually mean?
- How can you determine if something is fair or not?
- What might be unfair in our classroom?
- How could we make our classroom fairer?
- How would making our classroom fairer impact all of us?
- JournalWrite/draw about a time when things were unfair for you. What would have made it fair for you? Would that have been fair to everyone else involved?
Family Connection:
Encourage families to create a compact of how they will treat one another fairly at home. In order to create the compact, discuss the following:
- What does fairness mean in our house?
- What does fairness look like?
- How will we act if things are unfair?
- How will we resolve unfair situations?
Once you decide how your family will treat each other fairly at home, write down the plan. Ask everyone in the family to sign the compact of fairness.
Fairness in the Classroom (Grades K-5)