You Told Us, We Listened: New Video Dilemmas!

In our work with educators, we hear it’s become increasingly difficult to engage students in discussions. In a recent conversation, teachers told us that it might be helpful if there were more video dilemmas available on our website to help spark these conversations. Just in time for 2022, we now have two new video dilemmas [link here] available! 

For those working with The Good Project Lesson Plans [link here], these new dilemmas are drawn from Lesson 1.2, which asks students to use a “See, Think, and Wonder” routine to learn how to differentiate and understand the relationship between “good work” and just “work.”

The first dilemma, “The Meaning of Grades [link here],” explores a Professor of Engineering’s relationship with grade inflation and its impact on his students’ future prospects. The second dilemma, “When in Doubt… Make it Excellent [link here],” tells the story of a high school student who turns around his school’s journalism club’s culture of making things up.  

Take some time to review the dilemmas and try engaging in the See-Think-Wonder routine on your own. 

• What do you see in these narratives? What do you notice? How do you see these narratives relating to the 3 Es?

• What do these narratives make you think about? Do they relate at all to your own life? 

• What do these narratives make you wonder? Do you have unanswered questions?

The Good Project Website Video Dilemmas

Thanksgiving Resources

The holiday season is a time of reflection for many.  As we prepare to gather (or not gather) with family and friends, many of us are asking, where are we as compared to where we were last year at this time?  Things certainly aren’t back to “normal,” but for some, the situation is much improved as compared to Thanksgiving 2020.  How we respond to this question is dependent upon so many factors: how we’ve experienced the pandemic, where we are in the country, our financial situation, our political, social and cultural beliefs, and our values.  In many cases, personal perspectives may be different from those of our family and friends, and these differences may indeed come to a head over Thanksgiving dinner.  Some are asking, is it safe (link) to gather?  Others are wondering, how can we reinvent this holiday (link) and honor historical truths?  Meanwhile, still others are wondering how to best budget (link) for the holiday during a time of economic hardship.

With that in mind, we thought we’d share some resources that might help:

1. Arguments happen. The Better Arguments Project (link) tells us not to avoid them and asserts that “we don’t need fewer arguments, we just need better ones.” Explore their methods here (link).

2. Perhaps the disagreements have to do with items in the news, and trying to discern facts from fiction. You might try using this (link) thinking routine from our colleagues at Project Zero.

3. Try one of our Good Project frameworks (like the rings of responsibility (link)) to unpack differences and try to find points of commonality.  For an example, here’s (link) how TGP team member Shelby Clark used an exercise about values (link) in thinking about familial differences at this time last year.  

4. The Family Dinner Project (link) offers resources, advice, discussion starters and games to help approach the “new normal” of Thanksgiving gatherings.

Are there resources you’ve found especially helpful in facing some of these challenges, either in your classrooms or at your tables?  Share them in the comments below!

Role Model Resources

by The Good Project Team

The Good Project Team recently met with teachers who are implementing our new lesson plans with their students. The teachers we spoke with said their students were struggling with lesson 2.3. 

In this lesson, we ask students to “describe role models, mentors, “anti-mentors” and others who inspire us to varying degrees.” The teachers reported that students had a hard time thinking of someone who inspires them. 

We suggest that teachers urge students to think beyond just people they know--in the lessons we suggest that it could be a role model from fiction, TV, music, and more. But, if your students need some additional role model inspiration, here are some resources to get you started: 

For younger students…

Books

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls vol. 2

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 100 Real Life Tales of Black Girl Magic 

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World 

Rebel Girls Champions: 25 Tales of Unstoppable Athletes

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World

Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win

50 Real Heroes for Boys: True Stories of Courage, Integrity, Kindness, Empathy, Compassion, and More!

Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different: True Tales of Amazing Boys Who Changed the World without Killing Dragons 

Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different 2: Even More True Tales of Amazing Boys Who Changed the World

The Good Guys: 50 Heroes Who Changed the World With Kindness

Stories for Kids Who Dare to Be Different: True Tales of Amazing People Who Stood Up and Stood Out

Other:

Wonderopolis “Who was…?”

My Hero Stories

Rebel Girls Podcast

For older students…

Google Doodle Subjects

Time Most Influential People

Nobel Prize Laureates   

For a higher-level article to spark more discussion around how different cultures view the idea of “hero” or role model, check out: 

Who Are History's Heroes And Villains? A World Opinion Survey

We hope that you find these resources helpful. Teachers, if you have any additional resources, please feel free to share in the comments below. Also, if you have introduced The Good Project in your classroom, have you encountered any hurdles? If so, please let us know and we will put our best effort into helping you overcome the obstacle!

First Brazilian Conference on Active Learning for K-12 Education

We are pleased to announce that the first Brazilian Conference on Active Learning for K-12 education streamed live on October 11, 2021 . Director Lynn Barendsen gave a talk on Good Work and Good Teaching in 2021 as part of the conference.

You can find the conference in English and Portuguese below:

English version

https://youtu.be/Mlf2HSlEz3Q

Portuguese version

https://youtu.be/NjQ7yBA3i3Y

What does it mean to “make a difference:” Considering four frameworks

by Shelby Clark

In our work here at The Good Project, we often consider the question of what it means to make an impact in the world. Another way we ask this question is, “What does it mean to you to make a difference?” 

Recently, my colleagues and I began to dig into the research about social impact, and four overarching frameworks emerged. These frameworks include: 

1. Effective altruism. At its core, the Effective Altruism (EA) movement is about using evidence-based research to find ways of making the most impactful, long-term change. However, in practice, EA has been most associated with the “earning to give” movement, which involves taking a high income job to be able to give away a significant portion (usually >10%) to effective, evidence-based charities. In addition, EA is associated with the idea of “longtermism,” which involves trying to improve humanity’s long term prospects, such as focusing on and ameliorating the effects of AI and climate change. 

2. Systems thinking. Many people think making a difference means addressing the root causes of social issues. This thinking is in line with “systems thinking” which focuses on how different elements of a context or system intersect and what outcomes or problems emerge as a result. In addition, systems thinking also involves addressing the particular power dynamics inherent in a system, the processes that are part of a system, the boundaries of the system, and who or what benefits from or is at a disadvantage as a result of the system. 

3. Cascades. Other individuals believe in drawing on their personal relationships to make change in the world; they’ll tell their friend, who will then tell theirs, and so on. A wide variety of research now supports the idea of using ripple effects--or cascades--in order to make social change. However, this research has shown that there are two types of ripple effects: simple contagions versus complex contagions. In simple contagions, when there is very little cost for a person to do something (e.g., sharing a fun meme on social media), people are often more easily convinced by another individual to do something. However, in complex contagions, there is often a higher cost for an individual to get involved (e.g., attending a protest). In these cases, continued social reinforcement from peers is often necessary before individuals become involved. 

4. Social entrepreneurship. Finally, some people are more entrepreneurially inclined in their thinking around impact. These people are social entrepreneurs, or creators who confront new challenges, seek new opportunities, and are willing to take on risks, with the goal of creating productive transformational change. As Bill Drayton, an early leader of social entrepreneurship and founder of Ashoka said, “Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry." Importantly, whereas for business entrepreneurs profit is expected from the outset, for social entrepreneurs the goal is societal transformation, with profit (if it results at all) a happy by-product. 

To find out more about how your ideas of making a difference might align with these frameworks, visit our “Making a Difference” Questionnaire here: 

Do you agree with the frameworks above? Are there ideas you believe are not captured within them? Or, perhaps there’s a framework not listed here that we should know about. What do you believe it means to “make a difference” in the world? Let us know in the comments below!