THE WORLD COURSE
FIFTH GRADE: FREEDOM AND THE RIGHTS
OF INDIVIDUALS: SOCIAL CHANGE AROUND
THE RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS

Theme
l I nderstanding how civic engagement helps people improve themselves

and their communities.

Description

In this grade the primary focus is on individual rights and freedoms
as well as on social change. It builds from the creation of a classroom
community. It then moves into historical explorations of various inde~
pendence movements (the United States is the primary focus, and the
French, Haitian, and South African resistances to oppression are also
discussed). In this sense, it is meant to build on immediate concepts
and them move back through history, starting with the most familiar
contexts and expanding to other global contexts. This unit also stresses
nonviolence as a successful path to resistance to Oppression and to in”
dependence. The MDGS and SDGS and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights provide the foundation for Students to identify and ex~
amine organizations promoting human rights historically and helping
students can organize around issues through the capstone activity. The
year ends with a capstone in which the Students create their own media
documentary about one of the SDGS.

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