Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource in the following sequence:

15 mins

Tune In: Why don’t we give more?

10 mins

Find Out: How to create a culture of giving

35 mins

Take Action: Motivating a change

5 mins

Reflection

Tune In: Why don’t we give more?

Preparation

This lesson and the other lessons in this unit use The Life You Can Save book and organisation to inspire students to develop their ethical thinking capabilities and think critically about what it means to be considerate and giving. To give some context around this lesson and the resources students will use in the following steps, you might like to explain to your students that The Life You Can Save works to eliminate poverty. They conduct research to identify nonprofits running highly impactful programs that address the multiple dimensions of poverty. They also help connect people who want to donate money and resources with these nonprofits to maximise the impact of their gifts. They aim to create a world where everyone has an opportunity to build a great life and where there’s no suffering or death due to extreme poverty.

Step 1

Explain to students that today they will explore why individuals give and don’t give to charitable causes.

Read the statements below with students (also included in the Student Worksheet).

These statements are from chapters 4 and 5 of the book The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer. After reading each statement, check for student understanding.

The Identifiable Victim: “...we will spend far more to rescue an identifiable victim than we will to save a ‘statistical life’.” (page 65; section pages 64-68)

Parochialism: “Our intellect… takes in the news of [a] disaster, but our emotions are rarely disturbed by tragedies that occur to strangers far away with whom we have no special connection.” (page 69; section 68-71)

Futility: “...the proportion of lives saved often carries more weight than the number of lives saved… people will give more support for saving 80% of 100 lives at risk than for saving 20% of 1000 lives at risk - in other words, for saving 80 lives rather than for saving 200 lives, even when the cost of saving each group is the same.” (page 71; section pages 71-72).

The Diffusion of Responsibility: “We are also much less likely to help someone if the responsibility for helping does not rest entirely on us.” (page 72; section pages 72-73)

The Sense of Fairness: “...our willingness to help the poor can be reduced if we think that we would be doing more than our fair share.” (page 73, section pages 73-75)

Step 2

Ask students to individually rank the above statements from 1-5 in the order of how dominant they are in preventing more charitable giving, with 1 being the most dominant reason.

Step 3

Ask students to form a small group and see if they can devise a ‘Freeze Frame’ to model their choice of these statements within 5 minutes. This requires students to use physical poses or gestures that capture the meaning of a statement, which might come in handy for their video later in the lesson. Students do not need to act out or use any speaking for the Freeze Frame, however they may require some space to do this.

Step 4

Once ready, ask each group to briefly pose their Freeze Frame and see if students can guess which statement is being modelled.

Provide some commentary for the class about the messages the Freeze Frame is displaying or ask for feedback on something they like about the Freeze Frame and what might help it to be even more powerful and provocative.

If there are statements that students did not select to use as a Freeze Frame, inquire about why this might have been and whether there is an image or Freeze Frame that might be possible.

Find Out: How to create a culture of giving

Step 1

Explain that just as there are reasons why individuals are reluctant to give, there are also methods to create a culture of giving.

Ask students: What do they think ‘a culture of giving’ means?

On their Student Worksheets, they will find the following list of methods. Read through these statements together and ensure students understand the meaning and terminology:

Getting It Into the Open: “...we are much more likely to do the right thing if we think others are already doing it.” (page 81; section pages 81-84)

Strength in Numbers: Pledges and Giving Communities - “…the public actions of one’s peers can motivate others to give, and give effectively.” (page 88; section pages 85-90)

On your Own: “...the support of like-minded people certainly makes it easier to start giving, but it isn’t necessary.” (page 90; section pages 90-93)

Social Media and Growing the Effective Giving Culture: “...when it comes to giving, [social media] makes it much easier to spread new and beneficial ideas.” (page 93; section pages 93-94)

Putting a Face on the Needy: Connecting Donors to Recipients: “...donors typically respond most generously when they feel a connection to the beneficiaries of their philanthropy.” (page 94; section pages 94-96)

Giving People the Right Kind of Nudge: “Using an understanding of human psychology to steer behaviour in a desired direction is a cornerstone of all sorts of campaigns.” (page 97; section pages 97-99)

Company Giving: “Pledging to give is spreading among companies, as it is with individuals” (page 99; section pages 99-102)

The Next Generation: “If we want to bring about lasting cultural change, it is important that parents model effective poverty giving so their children see it as a normal part of what decent people do.” (page 103; section pages 103-104)

Challenging the Norm of Self-Interest: “When corporations make giving normal behaviour… [they] challenge an assumption about our behaviour that permeates western culture: the norm of self-interest.” (page 104; section pages 104-110)

Step 2

Invite students to identify which methods for ‘Encouraging reasons’ would best counter the ‘Preventative reason’ they ranked most highly in the Tune In task. Students should use the table on their Student Worksheets to note this. Advise students it could be that their top ‘Preventative reason’ has several strategies addressed by an ‘Encouraging reason.’

Step 3

Conclude this phase with a brief sharing session around the class of some examples of alignment of the reasons. Take note of some of the logic and interpretation of language that leads students to make their selections.

Take Action: Motivating a change

Step 1

Explain to students that they will construct a short (2-minute) video to persuade someone who may have a preventative reason with a corresponding encouraging reason(s). The video could be intended as a social media post, an advertisement, or a short presentation to peers. Students should use the selections they’ve made in this lesson to help them. However, they will use a little more research to assist their arguments.

Step 2

Instruct students that they will need access to the sample chapters 4 and 5 from The Life You Can Save. This could be via a device or in print (but you might only print 1-2 copies of these chapters so students can share sections).

Preventative - Chapter 4 ‘Why Don’t We Give More?’
Encouraging - Chapter 5 ‘Creating a Culture of Giving’

Students should read the sections indicated by the page numbers corresponding to the reasons they have aligned to a preventative reason.

As an alternative, you could have students who have similar selections work together by sharing the reading of the relevant sections (preventative and encouraging) and making notes that they can then share with one another.

Step 3

When students have read their section and made some notes about some examples, they can begin working on their short presentation.

Reinforce to students that they are creating a video/presentation with persuasive arguments advocating for ‘Creating a Culture of Giving.’

Step 4

If students are recording a video, several programs can support this. On a laptop, Microsoft PowerPoint has an inbuilt recorder where students can narrate over some slides. Alternatively, they could use screen capturing software (such as a Teams meeting) to record themselves.

If students are presenting face-to-face with peers, you may like to allocate another lesson for this or ask students to record their videos at home and save them to a shared folder.

Step 5

One of the most important parts of recording anything is the viewing. Allocate some time in class to watch some of the video essays, and encourage students to reflect on their peers’ work by sharing 2 stars and 1 wish—2 things the creator did well and 1 thing the viewer wished they had included.

You could even see if there is a way some of the best ones could be shared with the school community.

Reflection

Invite students to consider which arguments were most effective and why.

Whole Class Extension Opportunity

Get your class involved in Charity Elections, where high school students research, discuss and reflect on three non-profits before voting to decide which will receive up to $2,000 in sponsored funds. Refer to the Teacher Content Information for this lesson for more information.

Arguments For and Against Giving to Charitable Organisations

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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