Lesson Summary: Students will work with partners to draw an irregular shape described they their partners through writing. Students will raise questions about the process and outcome of this activity for philosophical discussion. Activity: Materials: Steps:
In the book Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, a group of animals refuse to produce for a farmer until he meets their demands. Read the story together (or watch a read aloud of the book online), then ask the students to make their own list of demands. Give them full freedom … What Are Your Demands?
Many 4th, 5th, and 6th graders have read the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio and will be familiar with Mr. Browne’s monthly precepts. These are inspirational sayings the teacher, Mr. Browne, puts on his board monthly for his students. For example, the precept for September is “When given a choice between being right or being … Mr. Browne’s Precepts
Lesson Overview Has anyone ever corrected you on your grammar? In this lesson, teachers will encourage students to explore their use of grammar. We all use it, but why does it matter? In looking further into their grammar use, students will consider the role that grammar plays in different people’s lives. This lesson breaks down … Does Grammar Matter?
This activity is an excellent accompaniment to our book-based Knuffle Bunny lesson plan. The lesson plan refers to the character Trixie in Knuffle Bunny. The exercise works with either reading Knuffle Bunny first as well as without reading the book (just eliminate the questions about Trixie in the latter case). Activity: Charades! “Does everybody know how the game of … Knuffle Bunny Charades Activity
On the Beautiful and the Sublime…Aesthetics as Subjective Experience One of the longstanding questions that’s been debated in the field of aesthetics involves the nature of Beauty; one question in this area asks us where Beauty lies, in the object or in our eyes. Taking this further, if Beauty is in us rather than in … On the Beautiful and the Sublime
Can a computer think? Do computers have minds? John Searle’s Chinese Room argument can be used to argue that computers do not “think” because computers do not understand the symbols that they process. For example, if you’re typing an email to your friend on the computer, the computer does not understand what your message to … Do computers think?
To introduce this lesson, the instructor will draw a line on the board with marks from 1 to 10. 1 is “completely fiction,” 10 is “completely non-fiction,” and in-between might be marked, “based on a true story.” The class will be asked where on the number line a standard newspaper story might fall. At the … Examining Perspectives in the News
Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre in Nausea Students will be introduced to Existentialism through discussion and excerpts from Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel, Nausea, which describes a certain vague feeling that the main character, Roquentin, calls “nausea.” This feeling is a result of suspecting that there is a reality behind what we perceive as reality, an objective and … Angst and The Self in Social Media
The first half of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley depicts a socially programmed society in which advances in science and technology have created a world full of people who are biologically human but may not be fully human in other ways. This lesson sequence can be done after a few days of initial work on … What is a Human Being?
PLATO is part of a global UNESCO network that encourages children to participate in philosophical inquiry. As a partner in the UNESCO Chair on the Practice of Philosophy with Children, based at the Université de Nantes in France, PLATO is connected to other educational leaders around the world.
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