What is Fair?

Chelsea Creech

Grade Level: Second Grade

Date: November 30, 2015

NCSS Standard:
Civic Ideals and Practices: Social Studies Programs should include experiences that
provide for the study of ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic
republic.
Subject: Social Studies focusing on Sociology
Learning Objectives:

Students will explore issues related to fairness.

Fair or Unfair hand out this will be made into a book at the end.

Students will individually and in a group identify different fair and unfair situations.
Students will brainstorm ways they can demonstrate fairness towards others.

Students will reflectively think of fairness used in their classroom.

Vocabulary:
Fair: Free from bias and dishonesty.
Unfair: Not conforming to standards of social justice, honesty or ethics
Bias: Favouring one person, group or point of view over another.
Materials/Resources:
List of Fair/Unfair situations
Bag of candy
Have a premade list of student groups

Introduction/Starter:

Main:

I will begin the lesson by discussing with the class their own definitions
of fairness. The class will be split into two groups. The two groups will be
based on eye color, the first will be all blue eyes and the other group will
be brown/green eyes. I will have the students sit on different sides of
the room. Then I will begin to favour the blue eyed group by giving them
candy, telling them they have extra recess and explaining that they get
to be the first half in line. I will do this while the other group is sitting at
their desks- I will continue until someone says, that isnt fair, or
something along the lines of fair. If no one says this within the first five
minutes I will ask the other group is this fair?. Then I will stop the
exercise and ask the students if they know how the group was split up,
allow everyone to share and then give the answer if it was not said. I will
then write the word bias on the board and ask the students if they know
what this word means, I will define it for them and use it in a sentence
such as I was biased towards the children will blue eyes in the class I
gave them extra stickers and privileges. Then I will ask a few students
to use bias in a sentence for me.
The students will then return the candy and sit down at their desks. The
class will then be in a teacher led discussion about the exercise.
Questions like:
How did you feel during the lesson?
Would you have felt differently if you were in the other group?
Should you feel different if you were in the other group?

How would you have felt different, better or worse?

I will then write the word fair and unfair on the board and have
students define using their own words. Then they will pick a partner and
discuss with their partner for ten minutes how the activity could have
been made fair.
Discussion Questions:
Was the activity fair?
Was the division of the class fair? Should I always divide groups
like this?
If not how could it have been made fair?
Are the rules in our class fair? Why is this important?
What does treating people fairly mean?
Have you ever seen someone being treated unfairly? What
should you do if you see this?
Then, I will have the students return to their seats and begin to read
fair/unfair situations. I will explain to the students that if a situation is
fair put their thumb up and if it is unfair put their thumb down. I will
read eight different situations and we will discuss two of them. We will
discuss one example the class decides to be fair and one example they
decide is unfair. The class will then decide what we could do to change
the unfair example to make it just. We will also discuss the idea of bias
in both situations.
Each student in the class will be given a copy of a t chart and asked to
label each side with fair/unfair and to get out their art materials. I will
then have the students draw and label one picture for each column. For
example, in the fair column one student may show a teacher giving out
one sticker to each student in the class and write below Every student
in the class gets a sticker, this is fair.
At the bottom of this paper the students will write their own definition
of fair. The student samples will be made into a book that will be
available in the classroom library.
At the end I will ask students What is a fair way to hand out the
candy?. Then I will brainstorm at least five different ways, the class will
vote on the candy distribution and this is how I will distribute the candy.

Closing:

Differentiation:
If student is too shy to participate in whole group discussion I will individually walk up to
their desk during small group discussion to listen to their thoughts as well as pay close
attention to this child during the thumbs up, thumbs down activity.
If student writing is illegible I will ask the student what their writing says and copy it
underneath their writing (for the students to read in the book).
Lesson Extension: The student samples will be made into a book that will be available in the
classroom library. Students will be able to reference the book by checking it out to read their
classmates examples of fair. This will reiterate the lesson of fairness and social justice in the
future through literacy.
Evaluation: Before I make the Fairness Book, I will check each childs page and make sure they
understand the difference between and importance of fair vs. unfair. The evaluation will be
given as I am picking up student work. By completing this informal evaluation it guarantees
every student example will be included in the book because I will have a chance to correct
student work before it is final.

Fair or Unfair?
Read the card. If you think the situation is fair, put a thumb up. If you think the situation is
unfair, put a thumb down.
1. Jack is in a wheelchair. He cant get to the school library because there are steps. He never
gets to take books out of the library unless his teacher or a friend remembers to get him one.
Is this FAIR or UNFAIR?
2. Everyone in the class wants to take the class pet home for Thanksgiving so the teacher puts all
of the names in a hat to choose one person who will take care of the pet.
Is this FAIR or UNFAIR?
3. Fields School only has one soccer field. There is a girls soccer team and a boys soccer team.
Only the boys get to use the field because they always get there faster after school.
Is this FAIR or UNFAIR?
4. Mr. Parker, the first grade teacher, decided to give everyone with brown hair an A on a math
test.
Is this FAIR or UNFAIR?
5. Mrs. Doggett tells the students they will get extra recess if they get an A on the spelling test.
She encourages them to study. Peter doesnt study and he is the only student that does not get an
A. He does not get extra recess.
Is this FAIR or UNFAIR?
6. The teacher or practitioner uses her list of childrens names to choose someone to count how
many children are here today. Each day she chooses the next person on the list.
Is this FAIR or UNFAIR?
7. A child is at the dough table and is engrossed in playing. She has all the dough, but has not
noticed that someone else has come to the table. She carries on playing her own game.
Is this FAIR or UNFAIR?
8. Mrs. Young announces that every boy in the class will get a pencil with an eraser top and
every girl in the class will get a piece of candy for good behavior.
Is this FAIR or UNFAIR?

What is Fair?

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