The United Nations Global Goals, or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are a great foundation for student learning. They are global in nature, yet they allow kids to focus on their local community regardless of how big or small that community may be. Kindergarten students can understand the basic idea around “Zero Hunger” and “Reducing Inequalities”. Secondary students have the capacity to delve deeper into the same topics. Yet both groups have the power to make a change in their home, school, or local community and that is where the power of the Global Goals truly begins.
Allison Haltom, an English as a New Language Teacher and Equity Coach in Indiana, has a lot to share about the power of The Global Goals as a foundation for learning among her students.
“I love incorporating the Sustainable Development Goals in the classes where I co-teach. The SDGs aren’t ‘another thing to do’, but a cross-curricular framework to use in daily classroom exchanges. Even the youngest learners are able to use the Global Goals to make connections in their learning,” Allison said. “Giving students access to the SDGs has provided an authentic focus for service-based learning which led to increased student engagement and an understanding of global perspectives.”
Allison expanded on the benefits of teaching the SDGs to students: “As the ENL teacher for the multilingual students in our K-4 school, the SDGs provide many things for my students and their peers. One of the benefits is how easily the Global Goals lend themselves to service-learning projects,” she continued. “The multilingual learners participate in authentic projects that provide opportunities to build language alongside their classmates. The opportunities to build oracy are endless when the students are working on passion projects.”
She also highlighted the work of several classes in her school who worked on the #GoalsProject, in which over 1600 classes from 70 countries investigated one SDG for a month.
“The SDGs are goals for the whole world, but kids can help meet these goals by working on the problems faced in our own communities. We don’t need to solve anyone else’s issues, but we can help each other address problems that we face in our daily lives. The SDGs allow teachers to seamlessly incorporate a global perspective in the classroom.”
Picture books can provide accessibility to all the goals and can be a great opener for students of any age as younger students appreciate the simplicity and older students appreciate the nostalgia. Allison shared with us a selection of books that can be used as a springboard to the Sustainable Development Goal #10, Reduced Inequalities, from her personal lending library. These books can be a foundation for great projects, discussions, and research in the classroom.
Beyond the great books lists above, Allison shared a few other resources with AFS-USA educators so you too can get started using the Global Goals in your classroom! You can join the Participate.com network and access multiple videos and resources for free. View resources tied to Global Goal #10 – Reduced Inequalities.
For SDG 10:
BUILDING YOUR BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
LESSONS
- Blue Capes Global Goals Lessons is great for younger learners (pages 16-19)
- World’s Largest Lesson: Amnesty WLL Lesson Plan
- Collection of Goal 10 Lessons by Level
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Beyond Allison’s personal lending library where she has featured some selections for our AFS-USA educators, there are amazing book lists that can provide ideas of where you may want to start.
- A Children’s Book List for Anti-racist Activism
- Books to Helps Kids Understand the Fight for Racial Equity
We hope you will share with us what resources you use in your classroom to teach the Global Goals, but especially this month’s featured goal about reducing inequalities! You can email us directly or you can post a link, photo, or video of a resource or your students in action on our Padlet.
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