At a Glance:
| Grades: | 10, 11, 12, 9 |
|---|---|
| Subject: | SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) |
| Topic: | Positivity, Citizenship, Responsibility |
| Lesson Length: | 1 - 2 hours |
Standards / Framework:
What will students learn in this activity?
Students will create a comic to illustrate a task that has a positive impact on a community.
What should students know before this activity?
Students should be familiar with the US Census Bureau.
How can teachers introduce this lesson?
- Ask students:
- “Which communities are you a part of?”
- “What does our community need?”
- “What can we do to help our community thrive?”
What will students do?
- Explain there are many tasks that we can complete to make a positive impact on our community. However, students will identify where their community may need help the most by analyzing data.
- Have students explore the US Census Bureau website (https://data.census.gov/) to gather data about their community.
- Have students identify strengths and areas for growth in their community based on the data on topics like education, housing, employment, and health.
- Have students share their findings in small groups or pairs. In these groups, students will also brainstorm potential ways they could make an impact on the topic they found needs improvement.
- Have students create a comic that illustrates a task that would have a positive impact on their community. Encourage students to include statistics or evidence they found to support their task.
How can teachers wrap up the lesson?
- Have students reflect on everyone's comics:
- Which task(s) may have the biggest effect on a community?
- Which task(s) might they like to do when giving back to their community?
- Students will post their comics on a bulletin board for their school community to gain ideas about how to make a positive impact and gain insight into the community they live in.
- Encourage students to carry out the impactful tasks they created.
- Share with your students that they looked at data about the community they live in, but they are also members of networked communities like communities of practice, interests, and place.
How can teachers differentiate this activity?
- Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
- Allow students to work in pairs or groups as needed.
- Allow students to use the voiceover to read their comics aloud.
- Allow students the opportunity to use FAQs and video tutorials about the Census website to support their exploration and data collection activity.
- Provide a graphic organizer with major topic categories to support students with their data collection.
Related Resources:
- Comic to print or display: Comic.
- Graphic Organizers:
- Books:
- Videos:
- Website: https://data.census.gov/
Rural
Urban
Suburban
High School
Suggested Story Starters:
