Making Global Connections Through Literature
How to Make Your Existing Curriculum Global
Kids love maps and stories. Use the Passport Club and quality global literature to build a classroom environment that empowers students with the knowledge, attitude and skills that will continue to grow as they mature into globally competent citizens. Being intentional about infusing a global element into the curriculum helps teach tolerance, empathy and respect for others, and comes naturally through maps and books with multicultural characters and settings.
Add quality global literature to your library
Add quality global literature to your classroom library. The Passport Club recommended book list correlates with the countries featured each month. Commit to reading a minimum of one of these books a week.
Give students time to learn country locations
At the beginning of each month, give students the opportunity to study their maps and learn country locations. Relationships begin with a name, and learning locations on a world map provides important context that enables students to make connections between the characters and settings in the stories they’re reading and the real world.
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Make connections between stories and locations
Mount a large world map on the wall and ask students to point out the locations of places in the stories. Encourage discussion about similarities and differences between your students and the people and places in the stories. Seize opportunities to teach respect, empathy, pride for one’s culture, and other characteristics of global competence that are naturally presented in these books.
Plant the seeds of global literacy
When the opportunity arises within your current curriculum, whether it be reading, math, science or social studies, make connections to countries the children have studied and the stories you have read.