Develops attitudes and values founded on Catholic social teaching and acts to promote social responsibility, human solidarity and the common good.

Before beginning this unit, students should:

1. Have some understanding that the Canadian standard of living is much higher than many countries with whom we trade.
2. Have some understanding of the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ whether they be personal or collective.  For example all humans need food and water to survive, but may want to eat at the newest restaurant in town as opposed to eating dinner at home.
3. Have some understanding that there are a wide variety of social, cultural, political, geographic and environmental factors that influence and effect how human needs are met throughout the world community.
4. Have the ability to locate scripture passages in the bible using the book name, chapter and verse.
5. Have some understanding of why child labour may be a necessity for family survival in some parts of the world as opposed to abuse or exploitation (see ‘Child Labour’ section under ‘Notes to Teacher’).
6. Have the ability to find relevant research material on the internet and elsewhere.

Knowledge of Fair Trade
Teachers should take time prior to beginning the unit to become familiar with the concept, key principles, and working structure of the Fair Trade system.  An excellent resource to assist teachers is Transfair Canada’s ‘Fair Trade: A Teachers Guide’ which has been included in the appendix of this unit (see Appendix A).  This resource can also be found on line at www.transfair.ca along with a wide variety of relevant information on the topic of Fair Trade.  Transfair Canada’s website will provide a valuable starting point for any educator unfamiliar with Fair Trade.

Catholic Social Teachings
A sound background knowledge of relevant Catholic social teachings is essential to the effective delivery of this unit.  Prior to beginning this unit teachers should review some of the key areas of Catholic social teachings that are most closely connected to the topic matter and content of this unit.  In particular a review of the concepts of:  Dignity of the Human Person, Community and the Common Good, and Preferential Option for the Poor, would be highly beneficial. 

‘Curriculum Support for Catholic Schools - Enhancing the Religious Dimension of Catholic Education (2005)’ is an excellent resource for reviewing these key areas of Catholic social teachings.  This curriculum support, web-based CD, published by The Eastern Ontario Catholic Curriculum Cooperative (EOCCC), was recently updated and provides a wealth of valuable resources, information, and additional resource links.  A selection of relevant material from this CD has been included in the appendix of this unit under the title ‘Relevant Catholic Church Teachings’ (see Appendix B).  Most subtasks also include passages of interest from relevant Church documents and Catholic social teachings.  These excerpts are located under the ‘Teacher Background Notes’ section of each subtask and should be of great benefit to a teachers’ understanding of the underlining justice issue being addressed in the subtask. 

Scripture References
In most of the subtasks a section on relevant scripture passages has been included under ‘Teacher Background Notes’.  Teachers may find the suggested scriptures passages useful for student journal reflections, guiding class faith discussions, or for making connections to the faith dimension of the subtask.  Teachers are encouraged to have students make use of classroom copies of the bible to locate specific passages.  For convenience the full texts of these passages have also been included in this unit.  They can be found in the appendix under the title ‘Relevant Scripture Passages’ (see Appendix C).

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Child Labour
The topic of child labour may arise many times throughout this unit.  It is important that the teacher has a sound grounding in the key issues surrounding child labour, so as to be able to guide students carefully through this sensitive matter.  A clear understanding of the difference between child labour in the family context and the more exploitive forms of child labour including child slavery is essential for those teaching this unit.  Teachers wishing to learn more about child labour will find additional information at The Canadian International Development Agency’s Youth Zone website (Youth Zone - Child Labour), or at the U.N.’s Cyberschoolbus website (see the Toshi Module or Isabelle Module under the ‘Rights at Work’ section).  The U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and/or the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child can also be valuable resources and can be found at the Cyberschoolbus ‘Human Rights in Action’ page (http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/index.asp).

The basic underlying reality to remember when educating young Canadian students about child labour is that it is often a matter of family survival in many parts of the world to have young children work instead of attending school.  Child labourers are generally trapped in a cycle of poverty.  Their families are so poor they rely heavily on the income provided by working children just to meet their basic human needs.

Child slavery on the other hand is very different from this form of child labour.  Child slavery involves parents selling their children for money.  This is most often done under the false belief that this will provide a better life for themselves and their children.  In many cases the family may never see their children again and they will be forced to work in abusive and exploitive situations (see the International Labour Organization's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention for more details).

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Technical Notes
1.  Access to information over the internet offers great opportunities for enhancing the Social Studies Curriculum.  Many sites have been suggested for further study in some of the subtasks in this unit and as places to find relevant resources and materials. While every effort has been taken to ensure the reliability of these sites, teachers must ensure that students are well supervised when making use of the internet. 

2.  In the web-based CD version of this unit all BLM’s are provided in 2 different formats (PDF and Word).  Although the PDF versions are ‘read only’ the Word versions will be completely adaptable by the individual teacher to better allow for adaptation to specific student or class needs.

3.   This unit has also been adapted for use in the French as a Second Language environment.  All BLM’s have been translated, adapted, or removed if not appropriate, to suit the requirements of French immersion or extended French classroom.  Adapted French BLM’s have also been provided in both PDF and Word formats to allow for the divergent abilities and needs of student.

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Generic Adaptations
The activities in this unit are designed to be as open-ended as possible to allow for many learning styles and abilities.  Teachers will want to choose small group members carefully to ensure that all student needs will be met.  Individual accommodations to the unit should be considered by the classroom teacher based on student needs and through careful consideration of recommendations in individual IEP’s. 

Some suggested adaptations are:

• Recognize effort as well as full task completion
• Clarify expectations at the beginning of each lesson and perhaps provide sample responses for some students
• Repeat important information (concepts and ideas)or allow students to repeat and rephrase
• Conference with students, both formally and informally, regularly
• Present instructions orally and in writing
• Use pictures and diagrams whenever possible
• Encourage students to question for clarification and additional information before beginning work
• Vary resources with regard to reading level, amount of visual information, use of oral, written and visual data
• Modify the assignment in terms of time, quantity of work assigned, and nature of the assignment
• Stress quality rather than quantity
• Provide opportunities for strengths to be used
• Group students with varying abilities
• Help students keep lesson notes consistent and organized
• Adjust reading level of student material or tape record text
• Teach note taking and organizational skills
• Provide research material at their reading level, or with relevant information highlighted
• Use reading partners
• Assign enrichment tasks

Please refer to the “Teacher Companions: Special Education Companions” in the Ontario Curriculum Planner for more specific learning adaptations.  The teacher’s manuals for EQAO Testing for grade 3 and 6 also offer strategies for accommodating students.