Electronic Resource Magazine
Volume 7: Summer 1: Global Education Project: Child Mortality: Himal's Story: How Poverty Affects Children in Nepal	Printer Friendly Version

Himal's Story: How Poverty Affects Children in Nepal

http://www.unicefusa.org/atf/cf/%7BB35DBA70-2A32-4E25-999B-FA3A590864DB%7D/HimalMS.pdf (Grades 6-9) or

http://www.unicefusa.org/atf/cf/%7BB35DBA70-2A32-4E25-999B-FA3A590864DB%7D/HimalHS.pdf (Grades 10-12)

This resource is also from UNICEF USA.   Once again the resource is slightly different for Grades 9-12.   The activities are very similar to Maria's Story (see review above) but the issues dealt with are related to poverty as a cause of child mortality.

Activities in these three lessons include an on-line video (found here), an activity designed to encourage students to examine the impact of poverty on the lives of children, an examination of statistics on the rate of poverty and depravation, and a look at the extent to which progress is being made in addressing poverty in Nepal.

These lessons would be suitable for students in grade 6, Unit 3:   Identity.   The Grades 9-12 lesson plan would be useful in Social Studies 11, Unit 4: Wealth and Poverty.

Curriculum Links and Objectives

Social Studies 6, Unit 3:   Identity

• Recognize that understanding the interrelationships among history, climate, resources and cultural patterns can lead to better understandings of different cultural groups
• Promote the ability to analyze and understand a social problem, and to design and carry out a plan of action.
• Promote understanding that negative stereotyping leads to racism and sexism and promote a desire to make necessary changes.

Social Studies 20, Unit 4:   Wealth and Poverty

• Know that human beings create social organizations to meet their basic needs.
• Know that wealth is defined as those things which satisfy human needs and wants.
• Know that welfare is the belief that one's personal potential is being developed adequately.
• Know that marginalization is the process of eliminating groups of people from those that have social significance within society.
• Know that empowerment gives people acceptance and makes them active participants in those things that are significant to their welfare and that of society.
• Know that conflict can be a normal and healthy part of human interaction provided the participants maintain a balance of cooperation and competition in working out their differences.
• Know that the resolution of conflict within a society depends upon how the various parties approach the conflict: competition, collaboration, avoidance, accommodation, or compromise.

Evaluation Links

Saskatchewan teachers have been provided support resources for student assessment and evaluation from the provincial ministry of education, Saskatchewan Learning. Specifically, teachers have been provided with the document Student Evaluation: a Teacher Handbook, in print format. Chapter 4 on specific student assessment techniques contains a variety of ready-made rubrics, rating scales, checklists, portfolio set-ups and templates that could be adapted to each task developed in your classroom. This resource is available on-line at: http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/evergreen/policy/studeval/chap4001.html. The simple templates outlined on this Saskatchewan Learning site, will help you tailor your assessment to match any activity and ensure that your objectives are being met.

Another source of easily adaptable evaluation material is Discovery School located at http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html.  The site has both subject specific evaluation tools and evaluation instruments for process oriented tasks.  You will also find rubric builders, portfolio evaluation instruments, graphic organizer evaluation strategies, etc. all at this site.

Another rubric generator can be found at http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/.  And, for a discussion on the value of using rubrics in the middle grades, teachers may want to go to http://www.middleweb.com/rubricsHG.html.

Produced with the support of the Government of Canada through
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).