Learning Goals:
• To develop a common understanding of what it means to be human
• To understand what reciprocity is
| Task
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Instruction
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| Gather
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Teacher reads the following quote to the class and hands a copy of it to each student:
“Cultures of gratitude must also be cultures of reciprocity. Each person, human or no, is bound to every other in a reciprocal relationship. Just as all beings have a duty to me, I have a duty to them. If an animal gives its life to feed me, I am in turn bound to support its life. If I receive a stream’s gift of pure water, then I am responsible for returning a gift in kind. An integral part of a human’s education is to know those duties and how to perform them.” —Robin Wall Kimmerer, Potawatomi biologist
Teacher asks the students questions such as:
1. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear this quote?
2. “An integral part of a human’s education is to know those duties and how to perform them.” What does this mean?
3. What does it mean to be human?
4. How do you know you are human?
5. Who taught you about what it means to be human?
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| Synthesize
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Students will take the quote and the questions and free write (stream of consciousness) for 10 minutes on their own on whatever comes to mind. https://medium.com/personal-growth/one-exercise-that-will-change-the-way-you-write -forever-13b278f20d17
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| Transfer
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Students will share their answers with a partner orally and then discuss the questions again in a large group to see if the answers have deepened in thought.
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| Beyond
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Students can edit what they have written.
Ask students to bring in a childhood picture of themselves.
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