As a student, responsibility is a an extremely important term because it is up to the student’s to complete their work and be their own person, us teachers need to emphasize that in the class room and this lesson encompasses that.
Warm Up: Rings Metaphor (5 mins.) (Links to an external site.)
Before the lesson: Use masking tape to create a large, physical version of the Rings of Responsibility on your classroom floor. Alternatively, you can create the rings with chalk on an outdoor blacktop.
- Invite your students to gather around you. Drop a pebble or a penny into a bowl of water and watch the concentric circles grow.
- Ask: What do these circles remind you of?
Students may respond with: a bull’s eye, the Target company logo, rings in a tree stump, etc. Explain that the circles remind you of the Rings of Responsibility. Clarify that a responsibility is a duty you have to yourself or others. (Slide 4 (Links to an external site.))
Learn: The Rings of Responsibility (15 mins.) (Links to an external site.)
- Show the Rings of Responsibility (Links to an external site.)video on Slide 5 (Links to an external site.) and ask: According to the video, how could throwing a bottle out of your window be similar to something you do online? Take turns sharing with your partner.
Invite students to respond. Clarify that littering is similar to doing something online because they both show how your actions affect not only you, but also your community and your world.
- Ask: According to the video, what are the Rings of Responsibility?
Invite students to respond. Clarify that each ring represents a person or group you are responsible to (yourself, your community, and your world) and that being responsible to someone means that you think about how your actions will impact them.
- Show students the Rings of Responsibility framework on Slide 6 (Links to an external site.) and explain what each ring represents:
- Self: The center ring represents responsibilities you have to yourself, such as keeping yourself safe and healthy.
- Community: The middle ring stands for responsibilities you have to your community, including the people you know and interact with on a regular basis. This can include both friends and family. But it can also include people you don’t know well, but with whom you interact with (e.g., grocery store clerks, a friend in an online gaming community, etc.).
- World: The outer ring stands for your responsibilities to the larger world. This would include people you don’t know but whom your actions might affect.
(If necessary, define the vocabulary term community.)
- Pair students up and assign each to be “A,” “B,” or “C.” Have each pair answer one of the questions on Slide 6 (Links to an external site.), according to their letter.
Call on pairs to share out their answers. Example answers include:
- Self: I eat healthy food, I keep my bedroom clean, I don’t watch too much TV before bed.
- Community: I help my neighbors with yard work, I follow rules like using the crosswalk.
- World: I don’t litter, I don’t say mean things to others online.
Explore: Our Responsibilities (10 mins.)
- Ask: Have you ever heard the term “digital citizen”? What comes to mind when you hear that term?
Invite students to share out any words or ideas that come to mind. Clarify that a digital citizen is someone who uses technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate. Say: As digital citizens, we have responsibilities to ourselves, our communities, and our world as we learn, create, and participate on the internet. (Slide 7)
UDLifying: To prepare for a share out on a new possibly new topic, allow students time to pair/group share. This will give students more time to develop their thoughts into words they feel comfortable sharing to the large group. Also, you should break down the parts of the phrase “digital citizen” and provide multiple definitions, phrasings, and examples to support second language learners or students who have trouble understanding figures of speech.
- Direct students to stand outside the physical Rings of Responsibility you’ve marked in your classroom. If space is an issue, you can also designate corners or areas of your room to represent the three rings.
UDLifying: For a student who is physically disabled, and not able to move around the classroom freely, the teacher can offer sings that the student can hold up indicating their choice of ring of responsibility. The teacher can also ask another classmate to help the physically diabled student, if possible, move around the classroom.
- Say: As I read each statement, move silently to stand inside the ring you think best fits with that statement. For example, if I said “I never tell anyone my full name online,” you would walk to the center ring — Self — because that’s a way that you can protect your own privacy.
- Read the following statements aloud, pausing after each one so students have time to move around. If you have time, discuss and reflect when students have different answers. Some examples may fit into multiple rings.
I only use apps and websites that are OK for someone my age. (Self)
I never share things about my friends that they wouldn’t want other people to know. (Community)
I don’t post or share information online if I’m not sure that it’s true. (World)
I treat others with respect, in person or online. (Community or World)
Wrap Up: My Rings of Responsibility (15 mins.) (Links to an external site.)
- Have students return to their seats, and distribute the My Rings of Responsibility (Links to an external site.)student handout. Read the directions aloud and pass out crayons, colored pencils, or markers. (Slide 8 (Links to an external site.))
Allow five to seven minutes for students to complete the handout.
- Invite students to share out their answers. (See the Teacher Version (Links to an external site.) for reference.)
- Invite students to select one statement from the handout and write an explanation for which ring(s) it belongs in and why. They can write this either on the back of the handout or by adding a second page to the document. Collect handouts to assess student learning. (Slide 9 (Links to an external site.))
- Have students complete the Lesson Quiz (Links to an external site.). Send home the Family Activity (Links to an external site.) and Family Tips (Links to an external site.).
UDLifying: These final steps of the lesson can be adapted to meet the needs of particular students. Students can be given the option to draw a picture for step 3 or sentence frames can be provided to accommodate this written opinion. Also, the quiz should be available as a physical handout for students who are unable to focus or produce their best work when using a screen and keyboard.
Enduring Understanding:
Making healthy decisions for yourself also means making healthy decisions for the people around you. The reverse is also true; the decisions other people make have an affect on you. We want the students to know that the decisions they make in their lives can change what someone else does in their lives. We want them to think about and evaluate their actions before they act upon them in order to make the best possible decisions.
Essential Questions:
“Do my choices affect other people?”Paragraph
“Am I protecting myself and/or my community in my decision making?”
“This lesson is well paired from the standards to the assessments. With the formative assessment, think about how you could gather tangible evidence of growing understanding and misunderstanding so you can teach to it: clip charts with all kids names on them are a classic way to gather data as you circulate and listen to kids in groups. What else? I think we should transform “exit tickets” to something like “transition tickets” and have kids do them in between key transition points in a lesson, where kids need background knowledge to continue.
This lesson could totally initiate a unit, like many of the important lessons here. How could you extend it? I think that your lovely enduring understanding might be an amazing place to think about extensions. How might you involve parents here? &/or extend this to the playground (where it can be like the “lord of the flies”)? Here’s a super interesting listen from a cog pysch perspective on kids truly transferring learning… and this lesson – about one’s rings of responsibility – is so important I want you to truly teach it! So check this out: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/powerful-teaching/ (Links to an external site.)“
-Colette Rabin
“I really liked the essential questions for the lesson plan! I do think that it is important for students to understand how they can affect others through their actions, and it’s important to make responsible decisions, especially with health.”
-Kate Kelly Aso
Health and Special Education: 294 