Inquiry Unit (u14075.xml)

How Can We Advocate for Working Dogs?

Deborah Kozdras (demikoz@aol.com) (ready to use)

ASK Subject Areas

Education, Critical Literacy--Reading and Writing for grades 3-5.

Unit Keywords

How Can We Become Advocates for Working Dogs?

Rationale of the Unit

TASK
1)Read about working dogs through the various Websites.
2)Learn how to use Power Words (work, companion, service, therapy, perspective, advocate, rights, responsibility, heroic, power) when discussing or writing about working dogs.
3)Create written documents to advocate for working dogs.


	INVESTIGATE	Go to Top

Background and Resources

1)How do dogs work in our world? Who has power in these situations? How do humans compensate dogs for their work?
Interactive Slide Show about Working Dogs NOVA
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/dogs/working.html

2)Describe some heroic dog deeds noted in this site.
Working dogs are honored for their courage: Videos included (PBS)
http://www.thirteen.org/extraordinarydogs/

3)View the following (a-d). Do these dogs have rights? What are our responsibilities toward these dogs? How can we advocate for these dogs?

a)Kids Read to Dogs: Dogs as reading companions program
http://search.kaboose.com/framed.php?SID=479E9DF6-D996-4B46-BA95-0A828B812E63&LURL=http://www.midhudson.org/department/youth/DogTherapy.htm&searchcriteria=dogs

b)Dogs as actors: The Taco Bell Dog Story
http://www.everwonder.com/david/tacobell/story.html

c)Police Dogs (FBI): Service Dogs, Narcotics Detection Dogs, Search and Rescue Dogs and Chemical/Explosive Detection Dogs
http://www.fbi.gov/kids/dogs/doghome.htm

d)Greyhound story for Kids about Racing and Adopting
http://www.ajkids.com/main/followup.asp?aj_ques=snapshot%3Dkids%26kbid%3D755123%26item1%3D9846-9887&aj_logid=D7D7B051CD046C45BB3FA268F5E13F5A&aj_rank=1&aj_score=0.8&aj_list1=9846-9887&back=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ajkids.com%2Fkids42.asp%3Fask%3Dgreyhounds%26qSource%3D0%26origin%3D0%26metasearch%3D1%26Ask%2521.x%3D12%26Ask%2521.y%3D6&en=ka&qid=AA2B73AEFC9D9E478D24EE3BB45B3357&frames=1&adcat=news&ac=22&ask=greyhounds

HERE ARE SOME OTHER WEBSITES FOR YOUR INTEREST:

NOVA Interactive Game: Dogs around the world - Discover how they were bread for different "work" such as: hunters, racers, companions, rescue, pull sleds, sport fighting, herding, sport hunting.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/dogs/worl-flash.html

A kid's guide to dog care: Excellent site for info about dogs
http://www.loveyourdog.com/
PBS Web site about puppies
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/puppies/index.html


	CREATE	Go to Top

What I am discovering

WRITING PROJECTS:
1)A dog's perspective. Use this comic strip creator to make a story about a dog's perspective on one of the stories you read. The dog can "speak" to another animal or a human.
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/index.html

2)Use this tool to make a newspaper, booklet, flyer or brochure to inform people about these heroic dogs and to advocate on their behalf.
http://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=110&title=

SITES TO FIND ADDITIONAL PICTURES FOR PROJECTS:
Use these sites to get ideas or to print pictures for your projects
1)Greyhound pictures
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/greyhound.htm

2)Dog pictures and information for projects
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/dog/index.shtml

3)Dog coloring book: Responsible Pet owners (Pictures for projects)
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/coloring_book.pdf

4)Website from NOVA: interactive activity about dogs around the world
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/dogs/world.html
NOVA: Dogs and More Dogs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/dogs/potpourri.html


	DISCUSS	Go to Top

Dialogues, Discussions, and Presentations

ONLINE DISCUSSIONS-Contact organizations such as The Humane Society of the United States www.hxus.org or the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals www.aspca.org

PRESENTATIONS-Present your work from the above writing projects in class. These projects can be assembled together onto a poster board for presentations or scanned into the computer to create a PowerPoint presentation as a whole class project. These presentations can be made to your family/friends, or you can invite community members to the school.


	REFLECT	Go to Top

Assessment, Related Questions, and Story of the Unit

What do the words of power mean to you now?

Can you apply these words of power to other social issues?

Reflect on what you learned, how you felt, what you think. What form of social action would you like to take in these circumstances? What do you think adults should do?

What new questions do you have? What next steps might you take in your inquiry?
How do these words relate to other social issues? What are some other topics you would like to cover?

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