How to teach students to be global citizens

Jeanne Perrett
Children working together outdoors picking up litter
Reading time: 4.5 minutes

As teachers, weallwant ourstudents towork toward making the world a better place. Through focusing onglobal citizenship,this drive to change the world is something we can help foster every day in the classroom.In this post, we’ll explore how.

What are global citizens?

A global citizen is someone who knows that they are part of a worldwide community. They understand that there are people who have completely different lifestyles, appearances, cultures and routines but with whom we share common values and responsibilities. Global citizenship encourages tolerance and understanding, and learning about it helps children become open-minded adults.

In a primary English classroom, helping students become aware of themselves as citizens of the world will introduce them to a global way of thinking. We can do this while also helping them become familiar with, and proficient in, English.

How can we introduce the concept?

Beforestudents put themselves in a global context, they should get to know themselves as individuals. But they should also get to know themselves as people whoare part oftheir immediate communities.

In the classroom, this can be done by encouraging students to think about something personal, such as their likes and dislikes. We can then encourage students to look a little further: What kinds of homes do they see in their communities? What makes a house a home to them? What about people working in their communities — what important jobs do they do, and how do they make an impact?

For language teachers,the idea is tocombine vocabulary and grammar structures with a slowly widening view of our world.Simply by introducing the conceptthat we are part of a worldwide communitycantake the children out of their own experiences and help them start to consider others.

Tips and activities

Social media makes it possibleforteachers to contact each other across borders and to collaborate between their schools. Something simple, like organizing a class video call for students after lunchtime and encouraging students in different countries to discuss what they ate in English,canhelp learners become more globally aware.

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How can we teach students to be proactive?

Once students know something, they can progress to putting their knowledge into action. Teachers can foster thisby encouraging good habits –a simple example ishow weteachvery youngchildren to throw their litter in a bin. As they grow older, we can‘unpack’ these habits. That is,we can helpchildrenlook deeper into whythey're so important.Using the example of litter again,thiscould meanmaking students aware about how their civic responsibility has a real environmental impact.

Let’s look at how we cango from knowing to doing, in simple stages, with a range of topicsthat are common in thelanguageclassroom:

Food

  • Ask students to think about what they like and dislike.
  • Ask students to name foods that are good for us and what we should eat more of.
  • Teach about school lunches in other countries.
  • Teach about dishes eaten on special occasions around the world.
  • Haveafood festivalor ‘munch day’ where students make snacks from around the world.

Buildings

  • Ask students to talk about their own homes.
  • Teach about types of homes in other countries.
  • Discuss eco-architecture – such as solar panels, living walls, wind turbines on roofs, and local materials that might be used in building processes.
  • Venture outside as a class to plantpottedflowers and improve the school yard or make a container to collect rainwater for the school garden.

Jobs

  • Teach about the jobs people do at school – such as cleaning, cooking, or driving.
  • Think about jobs withinthe communityand why they are necessary.
  • Think about what skills each child and their parents have and how these skills are needed for different jobs.
  • Have a skill-sharing day wherestudentsteacheach othersomething new.
  • Hosta‘kids take over day’where studentsget todo an important jobatschool (such ascleaning the classroomsorserving lunch).

Technology

  • Discuss the different types of technology used at home and school.
  • Think about how to use this technology responsibly.
  • Talk about different householdsand find outhow and whentablets, laptops and phones are used. For example, who is allowed to watch videos while eating?Who can read on their tablet in bed?
  • Make your own set of technology rules for the classroom and discuss why they’re important.

Holidays

  • Ask students what they like to do on holiday.
  • Teach about how to stay safe at the ocean or in the countryside.
  • Talk about other countries students have travelled to or would like to travel to and learn about interesting landmarks in those countries.
  • Discuss eco-tourism efforts and why they are important.
  • Have a‘Let’s go to[name of a city or country)day.’Make posters about famous sights, learn some phrases of the language spoken thereandhave studentsimaginetheyhave gone abroad for the day.

Sharing the message

The United Nationshas set out a collection of17global goals, called the(SDGs), which aim to create a better future by 2030. They address issues like gender equality, hunger and poverty and can be an excellent resource for teachers to use in the classroom when discussing how global citizenship can help to improve our world.

Teachers can encourage students to spread the message aboutSDGs invariousways. For example, students can:

  • Give speeches– at school or in the local community.
  • Begin a fundraisingcampaign.
  • Write letters to politicians.

Teaching students to be global citizens may sound like a big task. However, through weaving these ideas through language lessons, teachers have the opportunity to plant an important seed in students. Because who knows, they may really grow up to change the world.

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    Five ways to promote friendship in your English language classroom

    By Joanna Wiseman

    There is a strong link between well-being and friendship, which is just as accurate for children as it is for adults. that children with stable friendships are happier, more able to cope with stress, and have higher self-esteem. Moreover, too, and children who experience friendship adjust more easily to school and perform better academically. School friendships are also a valuable way of learning social skills like sharing, resolving conflict, and engaging with peers positively.

    Having friends is an important part of school life, and teachers can play a significant role in creating a positive classroom culture and helping children and young people to form friendships. How can you promote friendships between your students? Here are some ideas:

    1. Make friendship a central theme in your classes

    If there is an example of a good friendship in a book you are reading with students or in your lesson materials, draw your students’ attention to it. For instance, The Jungle Book is an excellent example of a story about friendship. Encourage your students to think critically about the friendships that they read about. You can ask questions like:

    • What are some things a good friend does?
    • What are the qualities of a good friend?
    • What words do you associate with friendship?

    By discussing friendship regularly in the classroom, your students will learn about the behavior and characteristics of being a good friend.

    2. Create opportunities for interaction

    You can create lots of opportunities for students to build friendships with one another during class time. Design activities that call for pair or group work, and include at least one or two in every lesson. Focusing on a common goal or problem is a great way to encourage your students to bond with one another.As a bonus, this collaborative way of working promotes important 21st century skills like communication and problem-solving.

    Another way of promoting friendships between different groups of students is moving them around. Adjust your seating plan regularly to ensure that all your students interact with and work alongside different classmates, to promote positive, friendly classroom vibes.

    3. Discuss and model good behavior

    Friendship is a social skill that children need to learn – and you can help by teaching them. Be explicit about exactly what you expect from them. Saying, “Be kind” is an abstract, vague concept that children might struggle to put into practice. Instead, give them concrete examples of behavior, such as:

    • take turns when playing
    • speak respectfully
    • share pens or other resources

    When you see a student engaging in these behaviors, draw attention to them and praise them.

    But to really convey the importance of school friendships and kind behavior, it’s not enough to tell them. As the teacher, you must model the behavior you’d like to see in your students. Be consistently positive and upbeat in your interactions with students, thank your learners when they offer help with something, and try to refrain from sounding impatient (even when you are!). All these steps will help to build a positive classroom culture where students feel secure, supported and happy.

    4. Help to navigate difficult situations

    Conflict is an inevitable part of school life, but you can help students to navigate arguments and other difficult situations in the classroom. If two students argue, you can help them to resolve it with the following steps:

    • Separate the students to give them time to calm down.
    • Have a conversation with them. Ask for their perspective on the conflict, and find out how their day has been in general. Sometimes, you can better understand a student’s reaction when you look at the bigger picture. Ask them how they feel, and how they could resolve the situation.
    • Bring the students together again to discuss things and find a resolution together. Reconciliation is the goal.

    Following these simple steps teaches children a framework for resolving conflict and gives them the tools to process strong emotions.

    5. Do some friendship-focused activities

    An excellent way to promote a positive classroom culture is to do friendship-focused activities with your students:

    You could do a Venn diagram activity, where students work in pairs to discuss and write down things they have in common and areas of difference. It’s good to pair students who don’t spend much time together for this activity.

    Another positive activity is a 'Honey Roast'. Give students enough squares of paper to have one for each of their classmates. Get them to write their classmates’ names on the paper, and then, on the other side, write down a compliment or something they like about that person, for example, “I like your handwriting”, or “You always use kind words”. Collect the pieces of paper and read out some nice examples to the class. Alternatively, give them directly to the students to read to themselves.