Social Studies 10-4: Living in a Globalizing World
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Your Opinion Please

Activity: Looking for the Quality in Quality
of Life

Formative Assessment

Throughout this suggested activity, you will support students in achieving the following skills that are the focuses for assessment:

The following formative assessment opportunities are provided to help students unpack and develop the focus skills for assessment. Feedback prompts are also provided to help students enhance their demonstration of the focus skills for this activity. Formative assessment support is not intended to generate a grade or score.

Formative Assessment: Assessment for Learning Opportunities

Explain Factors that Determine Quality of Life

Involve students in a self-reflection of their discussion forum or journal entry to consider the comprehensiveness of the information they have shared. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.

Feedback Prompts:

  • Have I described the factors that determine quality of life?
  • Have I explained the relationship between quality of life and standard of living?
  • Have I explained the relationship between human rights and quality of life?

These feedback prompts have been incorporated into the Explain Factors that Determine Quality of Life: Self-reflection Tool , which can be copied or adapted for student use. Samples of tools created for a similar skill within a different formative assessment context may be found in the Social Studies 10-4 Formative Assessment Summary PDF.

Communicate Information

Involve students in a peer review of their discussion forum or journal entry to provide and receive feedback on the effectiveness of the information they have shared. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.

Feedback Prompts:

  • Have I clearly and concisely stated my point?
  • Is it easy for the reader to understand what I have written?
  • Does my language show respect?

These feedback prompts can be posted on an interactive white board or bulletin board, or incorporated into a feedback tool that can be copied for student use. Samples of tools created for a similar skill within a different formative assessment context may be found in the Social Studies 10-4 Formative Assessment Summary PDF.

Linking to the Summative Assessment Task

  • As students explain factors that determine quality of life and communicate information through the suggested activity Looking for the Quality in Quality of Life, they will have completed the first portion of the Summative Assessment Task: Your Opinion Please .
  • Students should consult the assessment task and the assessment task rubric  to ensure that they have provided the information required.
  • Encourage students to use the feedback received during the formative assessment opportunities to make enhancements to their work in progress.
  • If necessary, continue to use the feedback prompts from the formative assessment opportunities to coach students toward completion of a quality product.

Students explore the concept of quality of life and consider local and global examples of how quality of life and human rights, especially for women, children and youth, can be affected by globalization.

Instructional Support

A number of possible tasks are provided in this suggested activity. It is not intended that you work through all of the tasks, but rather select those tasks and resources that will best meet the learning needs of your students. The focus should be on ensuring that students have the background and support to be successful with the skills that are the focuses for assessment (explain factors that determine quality of life, and communicate information).

Setting the Context for Learning

  • The Summative Assessment Task: Your Opinion Please  sets the stage for helping students consider their role as citizens in a globalizing world. In this suggested activity and the one that follows, students consider not just their own quality of life but that of others throughout the world. Students will refer to the concept of quality of life and its relationship to globalization throughout this related issue. As such, it is important that students have the opportunity to clarify understandings of these key concepts.
  • Involve students in a small group discussion in response to the question: How do you know if you have a good life?
  • Have students record their answers on chart paper and post the paper on the wall, or post answers to an online shared document.
  • Look for common responses and begin to create a common list for the class. Categorize the responses. If students focus only on basic needs such as food, water and shelter, guide a larger discussion on factors such as being treated with respect or having a sense of hope. Assign groups to determine and then share everyday examples of these factors.
  • Remind students that they have learned about quality of life in previous years in social studies and that a discussion about quality of life will be part of their inquiry over the next several classes.
  • Let students know that as they work through their inquiry over the next several classes, they will be working on the skills that they need in order to be successful with the Summative Assessment Task: Your Opinion Please .
  • Share the summative assessment task and the assessment task rubric  with students. Point out the different parts of the task, and let students know that they will be working on the various parts of the task as the classes proceed.
  • The language of the assessment task rubric is clarified through the formative assessment opportunities provided for each suggested activity. The boldfaced descriptive words in the rubric are also clarified in the Summative Assessment Task Rubric Glossary PDF.

Explain Factors that Determine Quality of Life

The directing questions from the summative assessment task provide the structure for a sequence of instructional support that will prepare students to post their entries on a discussion forum. The emphasis in this assessment task is on helping students articulate the relationships between and among concepts. As such, it is important to help students extend their thinking beyond the topic of study and focus on the relationships therein.

Students will likely benefit from working together in small groups to explore a variety of perspectives on the questions posed and to refine their ideas. Encourage students to use a graphic organizer to record their ideas in point form prior to posting to the discussion forum. Alternatively, students might wish to write out their posting and engage in a peer review before actually posting their contribution to the discussion forum.

Students may wish to keep a journal in addition to or instead of participating in the online discussion forum.

What is quality of life? In what ways is quality of life similar to standard of living?

  • Remind students that one way to think about quality of life is to think about which emotions and physical feelings people experience on a regular basis. If the emotions or feelings people experience are more often positive than negative, then it might be fair to say that these people have a good quality of life. Share the table below to illustrate a basic comparison of negative and positive emotions or physical feelings.
    • Negative emotions or feelings Positive emotions or feelings
    fear secure or safe
    loneliness cared for
    hunger well fed
    physically ill physically well
  • Brainstorm with students a list of possible factors related to positive emotions or feelings that contribute to a good quality of life; e.g.,
    • nice place to live
    • parents or other adults who care
    • nutritious food to eat
    • opportunities to do interesting things
    • freedom to act according to one's beliefs
    • safety and protection
    • sense of purpose in life
    • access to education to be able to read and write
    • freedom to get around (transportation)
    • affordable health care
    • treated with respect by others
    • clean water
    • reasonable sanitation
    • sense of hope
    • job or source of money to buy necessary things
  • The materials in Modelling the Tools: Judging Quality of Life may be useful in helping students explore the differences between quality of life and standard of living. The accounts of two students, José PDF and Emma PDF, may prove particularly useful.
  • Point out to students that the emphasis in this suggested activity is on exploring the concept of quality of life and not on making judgements about groups, countries or individuals.

What role do human rights play in determining quality of life?

  • Involve students in an exploration of the topic of human rights by using the United Nations Cyberschoolbus Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Plain Language Version).
  • Ask students to consider their responses to the following questions:
    • What rights do we expect children in Canada to have?
    • Do we expect children in other countries to have the same rights?
  • Select a case study to use as a model for working through the remainder of this suggested activity and the next suggested activity. Possible case studies and potential resources to serve as springboards to inquiry include the following:
  • The case study will be introduced at this point, but will be expanded further in subsequent suggested activities.
  • As students view the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ask them to consider what, if any, human rights children from other countries do not have.
  • Ask students to reflect on the questions for the discussion forum or journal entry:
    • What is quality of life? In what ways is quality of life similar to standard of living?
    • What role do human rights play in determining quality of life?
  • Students should consult the notes they have made on their graphic organizer as they prepare to make their discussion forum or journal entry.

Communicate Information

  • The skill of communicating in a digital environment is an essential one for students in the 21st century. Remind students that the general outcome for Related Issue 4 is for students to examine their roles and responsibilities as citizens in a globalizing world. Clarity of communication is essential if students are going to be able to participate responsibly as citizens in a globalizing world.
  • Invite students to think about a time when they had difficulty in having their request understood and/or in getting something they wanted because of the tone of voice or the choice of words they used to communicate their request. They don't actually need to share the negative experience but rather to consider why tone of voice and word choice are important in their communication.
  • Ask students to consider how tone can be communicated in writing.
  • Involve students in a discussion of who the audience is for the discussion forum and how awareness of the audience might affect the content, style and tone of the forum entries.
  • Have students work in small groups to develop a set of guidelines they think should be used for the forum entries.
  • Post the lists from all of the groups (either on chart paper or through online document sharing) and work as a class to come to a consensus on the guidelines for posting forum entries.
  • Students can then use the guidelines to engage in a peer review of their point-form notes and/or the written drafts of their entries.
  • Once students have completed the peer review and have had the opportunity to reflect on the feedback received, they can make their first posting to the forum.
  • The posting of forum entries will continue through the next suggested activity as well, so these early postings can be considered strictly as formative assessment opportunities. Students who are having difficulty with any aspect of the skill of communicating effectively in the discussion forum will benefit from additional support and coaching from the teacher and from structured peer reviews.

Suggested Supporting Resources

Textbook References

Student Basic Resource—Oxford University Press, Living in a Globalizing World:

  • Pages 268–281 Understandings of Quality of Life
  • Pages 282–295 Globalization, Democratization, and Human Rights

Student Basic Resource—McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Exploring Globalization:

  • Pages 306–307 What Are Human Rights?

Teaching Resource—Oxford University Press, Living in a Globalizing World:

  • RM 0.3 Analyzing & Discussing Issues 
  • RM 0.22 Organizer to Present an Informed Position
  • RM 9.1 Chocolate—What's the Real Story? Show more
  • RM 17.1 Human Rights—The Ongoing Challenge
  • AM 1 Demonstrating Understanding Rubric
  • AM 2 Generating & Organizing Ideas Rubric
  • AM 3 Considering Multiple Perspectives Rating Scale
  • AM 4 Considering Multiple Perspectives & Viewpoints Rubric
  • AM 15 Discussing Issues Rating Scale

Web Resources

Web Links for Online Sources:

Note: The vocabulary found in some of these links may be challenging for students. You may wish to use certain sites for your own reference only.

Knowledge and Employability Studio (Social Studies): 

Videos:

Distributed Learning/Tools4Teachers Resources:

Critical Challenges:

Stories and Other Media (e.g., films, stories/literature, nonfiction, graphic novels)

  • Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet, by Carol Off (nonfiction, Random House Canada)