How to use this resource...

Our Forest, Our Future helps teachers and pupils to explore the interdependence of people and forests and the vital role forests play in sustaining our environment – in the past, the present and hopefully the future.

The Scots Pine forests in Scotland and the Congo Basin rainforest in Africa provide case studies through which pupils will begin to understand why our forests are under threat and the implications for our planet. Further information about these forests is provided in the following documents.

In making connections between consumerism, people and the environment, pupils will be encouraged to see how they and their actions have an impact on the lives of others globally. It encourages reflection on the possible futures of the world's forests and ways of taking positive actions for a future where people and forests co-exist in a sustainable way.

The resource is structured around a global citizenship framework devised by Oxfam.

The reflection and evaluation sections in each activity support formative assessment and ongoing monitoring of pupils learning.

Additional assessment opportunities are indicated by...

Outdoor learning opportunities are indicated by...

Homework activities are indicated by...

Taking Action for Change

Education for Global Citizenship is committed to enabling pupils to bring about positive actions for change either locally or globally. This process should support pupils to make their own informed choices through a critical evaluation of the options open to them and the possible implications of those choices.

Throughout the resource there are ideas for possible actions, such as reflecting on our power as consumers, peer education and tree planting. Your pupils themselves should be encouraged to think creatively about the many actions they could take, critically evaluate the impact these actions might have and then evaluate what they have done.

The materials below support your pupils through this process.

> Assessing learning

6. How can I make the world a better place?

This activity is designed to find out what pupils think and know about actions they can take to make the world a more just and sustainable place.

What you need:

Recording sheet

Aims

To reflect on pupils ideas on how they can make the world a more just and sustainable place

To assess the pupils ability to recognise their live impact on people and the planet

What to do

This activity is a baseline activity for measuring the impact of the global learning. The pupils should take part in the activity at the beginning of this section or at the beginning of the input on global forests, and then repeat it at the end of the input.

Ask pupils, 'How can I make the world a better place?' Pupils can discuss their ideas in groups, but should each write their own responses onto post-its. Each idea needs to be on a separate post-it. Depending on the class, either ask the pupils to plot their responses onto the recording sheet.

Classify the comments by putting a mark in the appropriate section of the table. For example, a comment about litter in the playground is local/environmental sustainability; a comment about climate change is global/sustainability; a comment about giving money to a charity is local/social justice and a comment about fair trade is global/social justice.

Teacher prompts

Think about the classroom
Think about the playground
Think about your community
Think about the wider world

How to record and analyse the data

What to look for:

Pupils' ability to recognise the impact of their lives on people and the planet
The extent to which pupils show an understanding of appropriate actions relating to both social justice and sustainability

When you repeat the activity to measure change, you are looking for:

A better understanding of the impact of individual actions
A greater balance between responses relating to social justice and sustainability and between local and global actions

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4