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If the World
Were a Village...

Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Literature
  --Visual Arts
• Educational Technology
• Mathematics
  --Applied Math
  --Statistics
• Social Studies
  --Geography
  --Regions/Cultures
  --Sociology

Grade

• K-2
• 3-5
• 6-8
• 9-12

Brief Description

A popular picture book leads to lessons in multicultural awareness, graph-making, more.

Brief Description

Students

• grasp the concept that the world is a large place; many people in the world live lives much different from our own.
• understand how statistics can be used to help us understand the world and its people.
• create illustrations or graphs of statistics found in the award-winning children's book If the World Were a Village.

Keywords

percent, fraction, world, multicultural, statistics, census, population, million, billion, graph, bulletin board, David Smith, If the World Were a Village, map, world, society

Materials Needed

Students

• a copy of the book If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World's People, written by David J. Smith. This popular, award-winning book should be readily available in your school or local library.
• art supplies
• graph-making software or the free, easy-to-use online Create a Graph tool (optional)

Lesson Plan

Do your students have any concept of the world and its population? The award-winning (IRA Children's Book Award, 2003; Smithsonian "Notable Book"; Children's Book Council "Children's Choice"…) book If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World's People, written by David J. Smith, will help students look at the larger world by putting it in an easy-to-understand perspective.

From the American Library Association publication Booklist...
(Grades 3-5, younger for reading aloud.)
"To make the idea of a world of 6.2 billion people more understandable, Smith suggests that children imagine the population of the world as a village of just 100 people. That's one person representing 62 million people in the real world. Surprising, even shocking statistics follow -- for example, many kids in the U. S. take computers for granted, but only seven people in the global village own one. Each double-page, picture-book spread relates a few consciousness-raising facts about such topics as nationalities, food, language, and religion. … This highly informative book will get kids thinking and asking questions, and it can easily be incorporated into a middle-school social studies curriculum. The endnote suggests related activities for home and classroom."

From the Publisher...
There are currently more than six billion people on the planet. This enormous number can be difficult to grasp, especially for a child. But what if we imagine the whole world as a village of just 100 people? In this village, 22 people speak a Chinese dialect; 20 earn less than a dollar a day; 32 are of Christian faith; 17 cannot read or write; and 39 are under 19 years old. In a time when parents and educators are looking to help children gain a better understanding of the world's peoples and their ways of life, If the World Were a Village offers a unique and objective resource. By exploring the lives of the 100 villagers, children will discover that life in other nations is often very different from their own. The shrunk-down statistics -- some surprising, some shocking -- and David Smith's tips on building "world-mindedness" will encourage readers to embrace the bigger picture and help them to establish their own place in the global village.

Share this excellent book by reading it aloud to students from grade K to 12. After reading it aloud, use some of the book's activities to extend your students' understanding. In addition, use the book to teach about…

• Fractions. Each of the statistics presented by Smith can be use to teach fractions (translate each fact into an x/100 fraction; reduce 25/100 to its lowest common denominator -- ¼; write each fact as a percent (32/100 is equivalent to 32 percent)…
• Graphing. Have each student use graph-making software to create a circle or bar graph to illustrate a different statistic from the book. If your classroom computers do not have graph-making software installed, the free Create a Graph tool is very easy to use.
• Art. Have each student illustrate one of the statistics from the book.
• Bulletin Board. Create a bulletin board with the headline If the World Were a Village… Post students' graphs or their art illustrations on the bulletin board.

You can find additional information, resources, and activities on David Smith's Web page, If The World Were A Village -- A Book About the World's People.

Assessment

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts
GRADES K - 4
NA-VA.K-4.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.K-4.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas
NA-VA.K-4.4 Understanding the Visual Arts In Relation to History and Cultures
NA-VA.K-4.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines
GRADES 5 - 8
NA-VA.5-8.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.5-8.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas
NA-VA.5-8.4 Understanding the Visual Arts In Relation to History and Cultures
NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.1 Reading for Perspective
NL-ENG.K-12.2 Reading for Understanding
NL-ENG.K-12.7 Evaluating Data
NL-ENG.K-12.9 Multicultural Understanding
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

MATHEMATICS: Number and Operations
GRADES Pre-K - 2
NM-NUM.PK-2.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-NUM.3-5.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
GRADES 6 - 8
NM-NUM.6-8.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems

MATHEMATICS: Connections
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-CONN.PK-12.2 Understand How Mathematical Ideas Interconnect and Build on One Another to Produce a Coherent Whole
NM-CONN.PK-12.3 Recognize and Apply Mathematics in Contexts Outside of Mathematics

MATHEMATICS: Representation
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-REP.PK-12.1 Create and Use Representations to Organize, Record, and Communicate Mathematical Ideas
NM-REP.PK-12.3 Use Representations to Model and Interpret Physical, Social, and Mathematical Phenomena

SOCIAL SCIENCES: Geography
GRADES K - 12
NSS-G.K-12.1 The World in Spatial Terms
NSS-G.K-12.2 Places and Regions

TECHNOLOGY
GRADES K - 12
NT.K-12.1 Basic Operations and Concepts
NT.K-12.3 Technology Productivity Tools
NT.K-12.4 Technology Communications Tools

See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)

For additional math lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Math
• Math Subject Center
• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Math

For additional social studies lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Social Studies
• Social Studies Subject Center
• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Social Studies

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Copyright© 2009 Education World

Originally published 01/16/2006
Last updated 04/24/2009