Delivering Happiness

Student Objectives
• Understand how delivering happiness through giving nudges of kindness creates a boomerang effect and delivers happiness in return for self and others.
• Describe how the work of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people inspire others to become ripplemakers in re-creating our world one kindness at a time.
• Compare and contrast the works of an everyday hero and a classmate or family member and the effect on other people’s happiness.
Materials
• Computer with Internet access
• DVD
Procedures
1. After watching the Pay It Forward video, review important facts about happiness and kindness. Define each term. When are you most happy? How does it feel when someone does something kind for you? What people in history inspire you to do good? Find clip art or sound clips that support your position. Take photos of people in action performing acts of kindness.
2. Ask students to research events in history that showed how one person’s kindness started a ripple effect, a movement to transform a difficult situation into one with hope and new life. What was unique, innovative, or shocking about these situations? Ask students to compare and contrast the acts by the warriors of goodness/light versus the warriors of evil/darkness. ie.,
• Harry Potter vs, Lord Voldemort
• Holocaust: Elie Wiesel versus Hitler
• Child Slave labor in Chocolate Industry: Willy Wonka versus Dark Side of Chocolate
• Dalai Lama versus Saddam Husseim
Tell students that they'll work in two groups to explore the works. One group will develop an online monthly newsletter with photos and the other will create a visual blog and podcast. Each posting/news edition should include at least two visual works of different kindnesses and their effects on self, others and the community. One famous hero and one unsung hero ( classmate friend/family member/someone in community).
3. Once students find their selected works/photos, they should also create a label for each work that includes the Warrior of Light or Warrior of Darkness name, title, date, and description. The description should answer at least one of these questions:
• How does this person’s actions reflect the places, people, or events in their life at this time?
• How does this action affect movements of happiness for self and others, and what can you do to start a new movement?
Have students create a powerpoint, podcast or blog post for a website or class presentation.
4. To conclude the lesson, have students compare and contrast the subjects and develop a plan for delivering happiness.
Assessment
Use the following three-point rubric to evaluate students' work during this lesson.
• 3 points: Students demonstrated a strong understanding of how the delivering happiness can positively impact and transform society; developed a clear, thoughtful description of how the work of an Warrior of Light reflected his life and times and how he/she inspired new movements of kindness; provided at least one similarity and one difference between the Warrior of Light and Darkness.
• 2 points: Students demonstrated a satisfactory understanding of how the delivering of happiness impacts society; developed a complete description of how the work of an individual reflected his life and times and how he inspired new kindness movement.
• 1 point: Students demonstrated a poor understanding of how the delivering happiness can positively impact and transform society ; had an unclear description of how the work of an individual reflected his life and times and how he/she inspired new kindness movement.
Vocabulary:
Define Happiness; Transformation; Light; Darkness; Kindness; Evil