Global Voices Information Sheet

The Seoul Consensus

Courtesy of Reuters

International Development

 International development is aid given by governments and other agencies to support the
growth of economic, social and political systems in developing nations. There are
different kinds of aid, and considerable debate over which is best.
 Humanitarian Aid: This is also known as emergency aid and is given to people of
countries in immediate need of assistance. For example, after the Haiti earthquake, many
nations and individuals gave humanitarian aid for basics like food, water and shelter.
 Development Aid: This is the transfer of financial assistance or resources to eliminate
poverty in the long term.
 There are many different ways development aid can be given. This includes, food aid
(when a country is given food supplies), project aid (when money and resources are
directed towards building a school or water project), or even technical assistance (when
professions like doctors lend their expertise).
 The Seoul Consensus was agreed upon by the G20 nations in Nov. 2010. It takes a new
approach to development by focusing on economic growth. States plan to invest in
infrastructure, job creation and the development of a skilled workforce among other
principles.
Key Terms

 consensus – majority of opinion

 infrastructure – the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area,
as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools
 investment – the investment of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as
interest, income, or appreciation in value
 micro-finance – a means of extending credit, usually in the form of small loans with no
collateral, to nontraditional borrowers such as the poor in rural or undeveloped areas
 poverty – the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support;
condition of being poor; indigence
 SIM card – a small card used in a mobile phone to store data about the network,
telephone number, etc.

For more information on the Seoul Consensus see http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2010/g20seoul-development.html

Global Voices Elementary Educator Resources

Note to Educators:
The following activities are designed to stimulate a current events discussion. Generative in nature,
these questions can be a launching point for additional assignments or research projects.
Teachers are encouraged to adapt these activities to meet the contextual needs of their classroom.

In some cases, reading the article with students may be appropriate, coupled with reviewing the
information sheet to further explore the concepts and contexts being discussed. From here,
teachers can select from the questions provided below. Activities are structured to introduce
students to the issues, then allow them to explore and apply their learnings. Extension and
conclusion activities are included to challenge students and finally, encourage them to reflect on the
issues at hand.

Ontario curriculum connections charts for grades 6 to 12 are included on the Global Voices
homepage, www.thestar.com/globalvoices.

Since these activities are designed as discussions rather than formal lessons, assessment
General
strategiesExpectations:
are not included.

Themes and Course Connections

 Technology, poverty, budgeting, finance, development, investment, NGOs,
communication, and infrastructure.
 Curriculum Connections: Social Studies, Science and Technology, Language, The Arts.

Materials
 Blackboard
 Writing utensils
 Monopoly money or construction paper
 Paper
 Global Voices column: Consensus

Specific Expectations and Learning Goals

Students will:
 Learn about methods of communication.
 Organize a school event.
 Learn the value of money, how to budget and the importance of banks.
 Develop their own point of view from evaluating and discussing various news sources.
 Develop and strengthen existing research skills.
 Participate in active group discussions.
 Practice their media literacy skills.

Knowledge and Understanding

1. Broken Telephone (estimated time: 15 minutes)
a. Ask the whole class to sit in a circle on the ground.
b. Explain to the students that they will be playing a game called “broken
telephone”. The way the game works is the teacher will whisper a sentence to
one person in the circle. This person must memorize the sentence and pass it to
the next person by whispering in their ear. The sentence will be passed down the

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 line until it finally gets to the last person in the group. This person will then have
to stand up and reveal the sentence.
c. Begin the game by whispering a sentence in one of the student’s ears allowing
the students to carry out the rest as instructed.
(Teacher Note: the sentence should be at least six words long, as the more
complicated it is, the more successful the game will be.)
d. When the sentence has made its way around the entire circle and has been
announced by the final participant, have a class discussion using the following
suggested questions:
i. Did the sentence change as it went around the circle? How?
ii. Why did these changes occur?
iii. How could we have ensured that the sentence didn’t change from the
first recipient to the last?
e. Move the discussion onto outlets of communication using the following
suggested questions:
i. What are the different ways that we communicate with the people around
us?
ii. Who in this room has a phone in their house? How does a landline
improve your communication with others?
iii. Who in this room owns a cell phone? Whose parents own a cell phone?
How do cell phones improve your communication with others?
iv. If you did not own a landline or a cell phone, how would your
communication with others suffer?
f. Explain to students that the game of broken telephone symbolizes
communication in the developing world. In many cases there are no landlines
and no cell phones, making communication much more difficult.

Thinking
1. Guided Reading: Global Voices column (estimated time: 20 minutes)
a. Have students sit in a circle and distribute one copy of the Global Voices column
to each student.
b. Pre-reading steps:
i. Make predictions: ask students to read the title of the column and view
the pictures. After doing so, ask them to make predictions over what the
column is going to be about.
ii. Introduce vocabulary: mobile phones, poverty, subscriber, customers,
pseudo, technology, financial, consensus, development, investment,
private-sector, foreign, NGOs, communication, revolutionized, rural,
looters, SIM card, text, infrastructure, and microfinance.
iii. Prior knowledge: ask students to discuss what they already know about
these topics.
c. Reading steps:
i. Go around the circle and have each student read a section of the column
to the class, giving each student a turn to read.
ii. As students are reading offer guidance and coaching by providing
prompts, asking questions, and encouraging attempts at reading strategy
application.
d. Post reading steps:
i. Encourage students to provide a summary of the column in order to
ensure they have understood the series of events.
ii. Ask questions about the text to judge comprehension.

2. Media Literacy (estimated time: 15 minutes)

a. Divide the class into small groups and distribute chart paper to each group.
b. On the chart paper, ask each group to write the heading “Consensus” in the
center of the page.

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 c. Creating a word web, ask each group to write out all the words that come to mind
upon reading the column.
d. When students have completed their word webs ask them to answer the
following questions in their groups:
i. What is the title of this column?
ii. Who created this message?
iii. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?
iv. How might other people understand this message differently than me?
v. What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in this
message? Which ones are left out?
vi. What statistics or facts are listed in the column?
vii. Why has this message been created?
viii. Do you agree with this message?
ix. What do you know? What are you unsure of? What would you like to
know?
e. As a class, discuss the students’ word webs as well as their answers to the
above questions. Address the reasons why it is important to understand the
source and potential bias of a website or print resource offering news
information.

Communication
1. Money (estimated time: 40 minutes)
a. Ask the students what they found most interesting in the Global Voices column.
(Teacher Note: lead students into a conversation about money and banks.)
b. Once on the topic of banks, ask students to discuss the following and their
purpose:
i. Money
ii. Banks
iii. Savings account and checking account
iv. Budget
c. Organize the class into groups of three and provide each group with a pretend
$20 bill.
(Teacher Note: these bills can be used from the monopoly board game or they
can be created out of construction paper.)
d. Explain to the students that the goal for each group is to sell all of the products in
their store and budget their spending money to purchase products they need to
make it through a school day.
e. Ask each group to find four items from their desk and/or back pack to price such
as a pencil, a book, an eraser and a pair of scissors.
f. Students within each group must decide on a price for each of their four
“products” and write the price on a sticky note that they attach to the item.
g. Each group will be responsible for deciding how they are going to spend their
$20 budget.
h. As a group, they must display their items on a desk as if it is their store.
i. Instruct each group to arrange themselves in the following roles: banker, shopper
and store owner.
j. The shoppers must wander around the classroom visiting each store and
determining what to buy while the store owners run their stores and try to pitch
the products to the shoppers. Meanwhile, the banker must track the money the
shopper spends and the money the store owner makes and act as a consultant
for the shopper determining whether or not to buy certain products or save the
money.
k. Continue this activity until the majority of the groups have sold all four of their
products. When this is complete, ask each group to present their choices to the
class, discussing how and why they decided to spend and save their money.
l. Debrief the activity using the following suggested questions:

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 i. In this activity, what did the shopper represent? When do you play this
role in your life? What about the store owner? What about the banker?
ii. What would have happened during this activity if you had not had a
banker? How would you have tracked your money? Where would you
have stored it? What problems would this have caused?
m. Revisit the Global Voices column and discuss the impact that the new banking
system has on the Kenyan people.

Application
1. Classroom Rummage Sale (estimated time: continuous project)
a. As an opportunity to learn about the value of money while incorporating social
action, have a class run a school rummage sale.
b. As a class, choose a cause and an organization to direct your earnings.
c. Divide the students into roles such as: advertiser spokesperson, banker, sales-
person etc. Empower the students in your class by encouraging them to take
charge in their role and decide what needs to be done to ensure that the event
runs smoothly and that the school is aware of what is happening.
d. Approaching the date of your rummage sale, ask students and teachers in the
school to bring in old toys, books, etc. to sell.
e. Then let the event unfold!

Additional Resources

In addition to the above lesson plans, you may want to share some additional resources with your
students. Listed below are some links to useful online resources:

Multi-Yeah Action Plan on Development - http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2010/g20seoul-

development.html
About the G20 - http://www.g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspx
The International Development Research Center - http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-1-201-1-
DO_TOPIC.html
Division of Sustainable Development United Nations -
http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/index.shtml?utm_source=OldRedirect&utm_medium=redirect&utm_co
ntent=dsd&utm_campaign=OldRedirect

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