Session One
Introduce the idea of lasting difference.
- Invite students to share stories of ways in which they have assisted members of
their family or community.
- Cut out the cards (i.e., short-term difference and lasting difference) from Kinds of Differences and paste them on the board. Share a few
contrasting examples to help students understand the concepts. For example:
- doing a friend's homework for him or her versus teaching the friend how to do
the work himself
- giving someone a paper bag to carry his or her lunch versus giving the person a
lunch box
- helping an elderly person walk by holding his or her arm versus giving him or
her a cane or walker.
- Print each of these actions beneath the card that best describes the effect.
- Invite students to categorize the helpful actions they shared as short-term or
long lasting. It may be interesting to discuss whether making someone happy
creates a lasting positive memory or is a short-lived experience. Illustrate
this point by contrasting a child's favourite toys, such as the teddy bear that
is brought to bed each night, versus a toy that is quickly put aside. Students
may suggest that some actions have intermediate-term effects; if so, print
these actions mid-way between the two cards. Emphasize to students that all of
their efforts make a difference to someone. Explain that the purpose of
categorizing the kinds of differences is to note that some contributions have
an ongoing effect.
Read and discuss the story.
- Announce that you are going to read a story about a young girl named Concepcion
who makes a lasting difference to children who have no home and are often
hungry. Read aloud A Handful of Seeds. After reading the story, invite
students to identify the problems experienced by the street children, the
solutions presented in the story and other solutions that the street children
might consider. After a brief discussion, create a chart, as illustrated below,
indicating for each problem whether the actual and suggested strategies made a
short-term or lasting difference. You may need to offer suggested solutions,
which students could then categorize.
Dealing with the Street Children's Problems
Problem |
Short-term Difference |
Lasting Difference |
No food |
Eat the seeds for food
Steal for food
Sell garbage for food |
Plant the seeds to grow food
Find new families for the street children |
Police beat them |
Run away and hide |
Stop stealing so police won't chase them
Talk to the police
Find someone to help them |
No home |
Sleep where they can |
Find new families for the street children
Build their own homes |
Confirm understanding of concepts.
- Distribute copies of Things We Can
Do and Short-term or
Lasting ? to each student or pair of students. Direct students to cut
out the cards on the first sheet and paste each pair of cards in the
appropriate column on the second sheet. Ask students to explain the difference
between the two kinds of effects at the bottom of each column.
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