I was searching for a lesson on a poet, and a link took me into the middle of a unit at the Coverdell World Wise Schools program of the Peace Corps. I started reading and clicking around, and the next thing I knew it was an hour later. I had visited three continents with Peace Corps volunteers, laughed, wept, and wondered how these lesson plans would work with my summer school students.

They worked very well.

The site’s description is simple, “Stories, folk tales, poems, and letters from Peace Corps Volunteers will expand and enrich the lives of students by allowing them to see the world as Peace Corps Volunteers do.”

That simplicity belies a rich and generous gift to educators. Designed using the Wiggins and McTighe Backward Design model, each unit plan features an outstanding first person narrative rich with cultural insights and complete with the following:

• enduring understandings, essential questions, and standards
• an overview
• necessary background information
• objectives
• vocabulary
• materials
• daily procedures
• extension activities
• suggestions for assessment

The units are designed for grades 3-12 and are by their nature interdisciplinary with emphasis on student writing. The volunteers’ memorable stories help students respect cultural differences and see their own cultures with more insight. “A Single Lucid” moment, for example, focuses attention on the generosity of one group of people and the apparent callousness of another. “I Had a Hero” and its companion piece, “Ilunga’s Harvest,” memorably depict the concepts of hard work and community. And “The Extra Place” points to sad changes in society that can happen everywhere.

Through these narratives and these lessons, Peace Corps volunteers make a contribution not only in the countries where they volunteered, but here at home, too.

Posted Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:26:15 and filed under Writing, Language Arts, Literature, Vocabulary. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.