LESSON

PLAN TEMPLATE
MINISTRY EXPECTATIONS:
Strands: Research and inquiry Overall:

1
Specic:

analyse current issues relating to intimate relationships

use appropriate social science research methods in the investigation of issues affecting indi- viduals and families in a diverse society;

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING ADDRESSED: Happiness can be cul9vated by daily acts of kindness. ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S) ADDRESSED: What does living happily ever mean? How can we apply social research in our lives? KNOWLEDGE : SKILLS: Be able to: - Cul;va;ng happiness is a daily prac;ce - To express and manage our emo;ons. - - We can apply research about happiness to help us - Research and inquiry in our lives and rela;onships.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION: (Content/Product/Process/Environment)

1) Readiness What is the students current skill level and knowledge of the topic? 2) Interest 3) Learning Profile/Style 1) Readiness - Some understanding of marital satisfaction introduced; conflict resolution 2) Learning Profile: Differentiation through diverse reading methods, to self, reading strategies; students can choose to read a loud or listen. 3) Interest: Students can select their activities for their happiness log and their domestic violence lyric

ASSESSMENT TOOLS/ STRATEGIES USED: (AforL, AasL, AofL) A for L - giving descrip;ve feedback on happiness logs. A of L - rubric A as L - Self-assessment, discussion ques;ons, collec;on of material A for L - discussion during reading; taking up discussion ques;ons in class.

LEARNING GOALS: 1) To cul;vate habits and foster a posi;ve rela;onship and reect on these 2) To understand diversity of families and rela;onships and the controversy around these things 3) To develop our research abili;es, especially our ability to iden;fy bias MATERIALS/RESOURCES/PRE-PLANNING:
Print and electronic resources used should be listed according to MLA Pre-planning e.g. arranging the classroom seating, booking media equipment or computer lab, etc.

AGENDA: 1) Intro to TC 2) Short burst of wri;ng 3) Think-pair-share 4) Diamond Graph 5) Reading 6) Distribute assignment

INTRO/ Minds on (14 to 15 min) INTRO Intro to Teacher Candidate (5 to 6 minutes ) Ask me anything What were covering: Personal happiness and its connec9on to happy marriage Gay marriage, intermarriage, and other so called revisions or interrup9ons of the tradi9onal ins9tu9on of marriage Domes9c Violence Research Skills 9 classes Im learning; ask you for feedback at the end of my star MINDS ON (9 minutes)
Short Burst of Writing: What makes a happy marriage? or Who is a couple you admire? (2 min) Think-Pair-Share: What did you write? Teacher: Collects answers to make a MIND MAP on board (5 min) Ask students to do a DIAMOND of values using their answers or the words on the board. (2 min) Names and collect.

ACTION: Use Reading Strategy: highligh9ng, wri9ng key words on the side, or !;*;? (Teacher demonstrates these on the board), Read: The secret to a happy marriage small acts of kindness ar9cle (10 - 15minutes) DISCUSS: What did you star or highlight? Read Aloud: Happinomics (20- 25 min) - Teacher rst sec9on - up to happinomics - and students con9nue (volunteers) PAUSE @ #7 Nanaimo Sta;on bus, February 23 to review content so far. Ask class: Whats happening? look fors: Helliwells research shows that happiness can increase through more human interac?on. This author gages his happiness before and aDer talking to a stranger on a bus. Discussion Ques9ons (10-15) Begin Ques9ons in class. Take-up. Highlight number 4 especially. Why did I want to read this aloud? B/C its about connec9on, etc.

CONSOLIDATION: 5 TO 10 minutes

Distribute and explain assignment. Review due dates.

ACCOMMODATIONS & MODIFICATIONS: E.g. IEP, ELL - not aware of specics - will constantly review for understanding - lesson serves as diagnos9c REFLECTION:

APPENDICES: 1.1 Globe and Mail Ar;cle: Secret to happy marriage 1.2 Secret to happy marriage; Suggested Highlights for Teacher

1.3 Article: Happinomics 1.4 Discussion Questions 1.5 Answer Key 1.6 Happinomics Assignments

1.1

The secret to a happy marriage? Small acts of kindness

SARAH HAMPSON The Globe and Mail Published Sunday, Jan. 08 2012, 4:00 PM EST Last updated Thursday, Sep. 06 2012, 12:02 PM EDT

Forget the expensive bauble he gave you over the holidays. And its not about the trip your wife promised. Nor is it a mager of who wears the pants in the family. The secret to marital happiness is as simple as making your spouse tea in the morning. Turning down his side of the bed. Giving her a back rub. Small acts of kindness are not just what we should be prac9sing in the world at large, it would seem, but also right in our homes. The generous marriage has a much greater chance of being a happy one. Thats the nding of a recent study by the University of Virginias Na9onal Marriage Project, examining the role of generosity in marriages. Dened as the virtue of giving good things to ones spouse freely and abundantly, such thoughiulness adds a new dimension to our understanding of how couples can build a strong, stable partnership, say the researchers. Their ques9ons were directed in three areas. Did spouses oer small kindnesses to each other? Did they regularly express aec9on? Were they able to forgive? The researchers claim that this is the rst empirical study of generosity. A happy marriage is not just about sa9sfying sex, in other words. (Although, of course, its about that, too.) In fact, sexual sa9sfac9on came rst as the factor that cements a partnership, followed by a sense of commitment. Generosity was third. Other factors include a posi9ve aktude about raising children, social support from friends and family and spirituality within marriage. All 2,870 couples studied had children. Undertaken in co-opera9on with the Center for Marriage and Families at the Ins9tute for American Values, an organiza9on headed up by Elizabeth Marquardt, a famously pro-marriage family scholar who argued in her book, Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce, that even amicable divorces profoundly shape the lives of children in nega9ve ways, the study set out to counter what it calls the increasingly individualis9c tenor of modern life. In that way, the study can be seen as another backlash against the popular divorce culture, not unlike books such as Mark OConnells The Marriage Benet: The Surprising Rewards of Staying Together and Maggie Scarfs September Songs: The Good News about Marriage in the Later Years which cri9cized the consumerist aktude in modern marriage the idea that if a partner no longer pleases you as he did when you rst acquired him, you promptly trade him in for a dierent model. Since the 1970s and the advent of the Me Genera9on in North America, theres been a stress on seeing marriages as a vehicle for fullling individual needs as opposed to (at least in part) an opportunity to serve your spouse on a regular basis, something that is good for both you and your partner, comments W. Bradford Wilcox, associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. As marriage came under

scru9ny in the wake of feminism, the focus of most academic study was on issues of gender equality, he notes. And yet the Holy Grail of the equitable marriage is far trickier to nd than a hot cup of tea for your beloved. Among those parents with high scores on the generosity scale, 50 per cent reported their marriage as very happy. Among those with lower generosity scores, only 14 per cent claimed to be very happy. Its signaling to someone that you want to go above and beyond the call of duty. On a regular basis, its signaling that you value them, says Prof. Wilcox. Its really ligle acts of service that dont cost a huge amount. Feeling appreciated goes a long way to making someone feel good, even if he does have to clean up the kitchen every night. But its not about posi9ve reinforcement, the researchers quickly point out. Generosity is oren mo9vated by a desire to benet ones spouse, not to receive reciprocal benets, they write in the study. A generous marriage makes both the giver and the receiver happy. Kind acts help engender a sense of gra9tude, which research shows is linked to posi9ve feelings. And the giver benets from the altruism, another important factor in studies of well-being. It may seem self-evident a basic part of being human. But generosity toward loved ones or even friends is oren overlooked these days. Part of it is that people are very busy, Prof. Wilcox says in a telephone interview. Theyre on their Facebook page or watching TV, and theres ligle free 9me to devote agen9on elsewhere. It may also be a func9on of the child-focused family model, in which helicopter parents spend more 9me devoted to nurturing their childrens talents and interests than they do cul9va9ng their marriage. All marriages are opaque, but this study parts the curtain a ligle bit on those private, domes9c behaviours that make partnerships strong. Its a welcome respite from the popular pas9me of cooing over celebrity marriages, seemingly made in heaven, as a couple canoodles on the red carpet only weeks, or even days, before announcing their split. As a culture we underrate the importance of kindness in our roman9c rela9onships. We think its about how hot someone is, what kind of car they drive or what someone does for a living. We are enamoured of the grand gesture being whisked away on a Caribbean holiday at short no9ce. But the study shows its not the big displays of aec9on but rather the small, frequent, even mundane, ones that mager. Which reminds me of something Helen Gurley Brown, the former editor of Cosmopolitan, once said to me in an interview. Forget the charmer, she advised, wagging a nely manicured nger. Go for the man who is your best friend.
Hampson, S. (2012, January o8). The secret to a happy marriage? small acts of kindness . The Globe and Mail . Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/the-secret-to-a-happy-marriage-small-acts-of-kindness/ article1357638/

1.2 Suggested Highlights for Teacher

The secret to a happy marriage? Small acts of kindness

SARAH HAMPSON The Globe and Mail Published Sunday, Jan. 08 2012, 4:00 PM EST Last updated Thursday, Sep. 06 2012, 12:02 PM EDT

Forget the expensive bauble he gave you over the holidays. And its not about the trip your wife promised. Nor is it a mager of who wears the pants in the family. The secret to marital happiness is as simple as making your spouse tea in the morning. Turning down his side of the bed. Giving her a back rub. Small acts of kindness are not just what we should be prac9sing in the world at large, it would seem, but also right in our homes. The generous marriage has a much greater chance of being a happy one. Thats the nding of a recent study by the University of Virginias Na9onal Marriage Project, examining the role of generosity in marriages. Dened as the virtue of giving good things to ones spouse freely and abundantly, such thoughiulness adds a new dimension to our understanding of how couples can build a strong, stable partnership, say the researchers. Their ques9ons were directed in three areas. Did spouses oer small kindnesses to each other? Did they regularly express aec9on? Were they able to forgive? The researchers claim that this is the rst empirical study of generosity. A happy marriage is not just about sa9sfying sex, in other words. (Although, of course, its about that, too.) In fact, sexual sa9sfac9on came rst as the factor that cements a partnership, followed by a sense of commitment. Generosity was third. Other factors include a posi9ve aktude about raising children, social support from friends and family and spirituality within marriage. All 2,870 couples studied had children. Undertaken in co-opera9on with the Center for Marriage and Families at the Ins9tute for American Values, an organiza9on headed up by Elizabeth Marquardt, a famously pro-marriage family scholar who argued in her book, Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce, that even amicable divorces profoundly shape the lives of children in nega9ve ways, the study set out to counter what it calls the increasingly individualis9c tenor of modern life. In that way, the study can be seen as another backlash against the popular divorce culture, not unlike books such as Mark OConnells The Marriage Benet: The Surprising Rewards of Staying Together and Maggie Scarfs September Songs: The Good News about Marriage in the Later Years which cri9cized the consumerist aktude in modern marriage the idea that if a partner no longer pleases you as he did when you rst acquired him, you promptly trade him in for a dierent model. Since the 1970s and the advent of the Me Genera9on in North America, theres been a stress on seeing marriages as a vehicle for fullling individual needs as opposed to (at least in part) an opportunity to serve your spouse on a regular basis, something that is good for both you and your partner, comments W. Bradford Wilcox, associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. As marriage came under

scru9ny in the wake of feminism, the focus of most academic study was on issues of gender equality, he notes. And yet the Holy Grail of the equitable marriage is far trickier to nd than a hot cup of tea for your beloved. Among those parents with high scores on the generosity scale, 50 per cent reported their marriage as very happy. Among those with lower generosity scores, only 14 per cent claimed to be very happy. Its signaling to someone that you want to go above and beyond the call of duty. On a regular basis, its signaling that you value them, says Prof. Wilcox. Its really ligle acts of service that dont cost a huge amount. Feeling appreciated goes a long way to making someone feel good, even if he does have to clean up the kitchen every night. But its not about posi9ve reinforcement, the researchers quickly point out. Generosity is oren mo9vated by a desire to benet ones spouse, not to receive reciprocal benets, they write in the study. A generous marriage makes both the giver and the receiver happy. Kind acts help engender a sense of gra9tude, which research shows is linked to posi9ve feelings. And the giver benets from the altruism, another important factor in studies of well-being. It may seem self-evident a basic part of being human. But generosity toward loved ones or even friends is oren overlooked these days. Part of it is that people are very busy, Prof. Wilcox says in a telephone interview. Theyre on their Facebook page or watching TV, and theres ligle free 9me to devote agen9on elsewhere. It may also be a func9on of the child-focused family model, in which helicopter parents spend more 9me devoted to nurturing their childrens talents and interests than they do cul9va9ng their marriage. All marriages are opaque, but this study parts the curtain a ligle bit on those private, domes9c behaviours that make partnerships strong. Its a welcome respite from the popular pas9me of cooing over celebrity marriages, seemingly made in heaven, as a couple canoodles on the red carpet only weeks, or even days, before announcing their split. As a culture we underrate the importance of kindness in our roman9c rela9onships. We think its about how hot someone is, what kind of car they drive or what someone does for a living. We are enamoured of the grand gesture being whisked away on a Caribbean holiday at short no9ce. But the study shows its not the big displays of aec9on but rather the small, frequent, even mundane, ones that mager. Which reminds me of something Helen Gurley Brown, the former editor of Cosmopolitan, once said to me in an interview. Forget the charmer, she advised, wagging a nely manicured nger. Go for the man who is your best friend.
Hampson, S. (2012, January o8). The secret to a happy marriage? small acts of kindness . The Globe and Mail . Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/the-secret-to-a-happy-marriage-small-acts-of-kindness/ article1357638/

1. 3

Happinomics
What is the value of real-world social interactions?
By Ian Bullock The woman sitting opposite me on the #4 Powell bus is wearing a leather bomber jacket and stylized Armani glasses. Her fingers are crossed over the wooden handle of a corduroy shoulder bag. The words "PURL" and "KNIT" are tattooed across her knuckles in the same gothic lettering that Tupac Shakur used to tattoo "OUTLAW" on his forearm. I'm about to talk to someone who is, apparently, a gangster knitter. Im conducting an experiment designed by Canadas top subjective well-being researcher, Dr. John Helliwell. My assignment: to record my level of happiness and then get on a bus and initiate a conversation with a stranger. When I get off the bus, I will record my happiness level again. Helliwells research has proven that the more positive social interactions we have, the higher our happiness levels. To test this claim, I have decided that my subjective happiness level is six out of ten. If Dr. Helliwell is correct, a conversation with the gangster knitter will raise my happiness level to seven. I throw my best whats up? look across the aisle, but the gangster knitters gaze, hooded by thick brown lashes, is fixed out the window. Her gaze drifts to the Full Throttle energy drink advertisement above my head, to the floor, to the yellow safety bars near the back door. I remember what Helliwell told me. On a bus you think, Im being nice to these people by not invading their space. But research tells me that, in fact, if we shared a little more space, theyd be happier and Id be happier. So whos the loser? Ten minutes later, the bus pulls up to my stop. At the door I turn and say, I like your tattoos. She removes her iPod buds and looks up at me (hazel eyes. I love hazel eyes). Thank you, she says, a

smile dancing at the edges of her lips. As the bus pulls away from the curb, I record a happiness level of seven into my logbook.[1] Happinomics Dr. John Helliwell is the person who discovered the cash value of job satisfaction. (It takes a 40 percent increase in salary to counter balance a ten percent drop in job satisfaction). His research has also shown that good governance is the most influential variable explaining happiness levels in different countries: the more trustworthy your government, the greater your chances of being happy. The social context of well-being, he tells me. Thats my schtick. It all started back in the 1990s when Helliwell became involved with the revolutionary field of social capital. Unlike mainstream economics, which assumes that well-being can be sufficiently measured by the production and distribution of goods and services, well-being researchers use direct measures of life satisfaction to discover the importance of social as well as economic circumstances. Thus Helliwell and other students of well-being ask, How happy are individuals and societies, and why? One agency that collects data on subjective well-being is the World Values Survey Association (WVSA), a nonprofit collection of social scientists based in Stockholm. They claim to have polled over 350,000 people in countries home to 90 percent of the worlds population. Their survey, called the World Values Survey (WVS), asks respondents to gauge their life satisfaction. All things considered, the survey asks, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? Through 250 cognitive and affect questions, scientific data and mathematical wizardry, the survey measures happiness on a four-point scale, one being very happy, two being rather happy, three being not very happy and four being not at all happy. Helliwell and other researchers use this data to shed light on human behavior and society. The findings have even influenced public policy. For simplicitys sake, I decided to use a ten-point scale (ten being high) instead of a four-point scale and clocked my own happiness level at six. As soon as I started considering my own happiness, a red danger light whirred up in my head. I wanted my number to be higher than the world average (five). I wrote down a six not because I necessarily felt I was a six, but because six was modestly, yet safely, above the world average. #7 Nanaimo Station bus, February 23 Crossing north on Vancouvers Granville Bridge, I engage four different strangers in a conversation about our buss destination. Do we turn right on West Pender or on West Hastings? [2] Amazingly, four people volunteer very helpful answers. Two minutes later Im learning about software interfacing from my delightful neighbor with jet-black hair. My happiness level again blips up to a seven. The Great $20 Experiment

Defining happiness is like defining yellow, explains University of British Columbia (UBC) psychologist Elizabeth Dunn. Shes referencing Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness. We all know what yellow is, she continues. Asked if this is yellow, we can identify it. But asked to explain it, we get a little tongue-tied. Psychologists approach the question of ranking happiness levels very similarly to the WVS. The emotional component, Dunn explains, is how often do you experience positive feelings, and how often do you experience negative feelings? The cognitive component asks, looking at your life, how satisfied do you feel with it? In 2008 Dunn wanted to know if money could buy happiness. She gave a group of UBC students $5 or $20 and instructed them to spend the money on themselves. She gave another group of students the same amount of money and told them to spend it on others, in what Dunn calls pro-social spending. The next morning, subjects were asked how happy they felt. Those who spent the money on others were overwhelmingly happier. (A correlation study was conducted with people spending their own money and the results were congruent. The study is also being replicated in Uganda, and the authors expect similar findings.) If you use your money to promote social goals, Dunn explains, it can make you happier. Dunn also found that the amount of money, $5 or $20, is inconsequential. The really mind-boggling results came when participants were invited to predict the outcome of the survey. People thought that spending money on themselves would make them happier when, in fact, spending money on others is what makes them happier. 99 B-Line bus, March 14 Im sitting opposite a punk wearing a studded leather jacket, sporting a gelled Mohawk and reading Dantes Divine Comedy. He seems interesting, but Im too afraid to talk to him, to tell him I like his hair or ask if the Divine Comedy is good. Then I notice this other guy in a ball cap and Tshirt trying to make eye contact with me. He looks like the kind of guy that rides buses looking for people to talk to. I ignore him and start reading the Richmond Automall advertisement above his head. The punk to my left pulls out a baggie of snap peas and starts eating them like potato chips. Then the man in the ball cap says, snap peas? Yeah, the punk answers. Thats a really good idea. I should do that sometime. The punk looks up and they make eye contact. Theyre amazing, says the punk. Theyre so sweet. Sometimes, its like Im eating fruit. For the rest of the journey into East Vancouver, the guy throws me these glances from under his ball cap, inviting me into their conversation. What do I do? I focus my attention on the Richmond Automall advertisement. Why is it so hard to talk to strangers when research shows that it will make me happier? Why not risk a simple hello that could nudge me into the sevens? I suggest to Elizabeth Dunn that humans act counterintuitively in the chase for happiness. They spend money on themselves instead of each other. They sit quietly on buses instead of talking to their neighbors. There are two different mental systems that underlie a lot of our behavior, she explains. So you can recognize on an intellectual level that you shouldnt eat lots of fatty foods and you should give a

lot of money to charity, and then somehow you end up eating potato chips in front of your flatscreen TV. We recognize the value of something but we dont feel it. We dont internalize it. The Social Capital Theme Song I revisit Helliwell to discuss my experiment. I tell him that even though my happiness consistently increased, I continue to struggle to start conversations with strangers on buses, to push myself beyond my baseline level of happiness to achieve that delicious seven. Helliwell smiles and tells me about a recent conference at Torontos Massey College. He got on stage in front of hundreds of fellow economists and sang an a cappella version of what he and his friends call the social capitalist theme song. Without warning, he starts to sing: The more we get together, the happier well be. Because your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. The more He stops mid-sentence and focuses on me from behind his metal-rimmed glasses. If the audience just sits there like you are, grinning, then I stop. And I say, You dont get it. The whole point is its not about me singing to you. Its not about being amused. Its not about being entertained. Its about us singing the song together. Its doing things together that makes us happy. Back on the #4 Powell I realize that talking to the gangster knitter didnt just make me happier, it probably made her happier as well. Happiness is symbiotic. There is movement at the front of the bus. A woman in ankle boots carrying an oxblood shoulder bag gets on and, despite the absence of the driver, she swipes her bus pass and the machine beeps. She is walking towards me. She might not know it yet, but we each have something the other wants. [1]Before I wrote the seven, I experienced an increased heart rate, an increased body temperature and an observed opening of my sweat glands. These symptoms are also congruent with increased anxiety and the surge of endorphins you experience after achieving a perceived goal. These symptoms were not duplicated in later experiments. Instead I would come to know the happiness level of seven by the pinprick of light left behind on my heart. [2]I should note that asking my subjects mundane questions was normally counterproductive to my research. On a #4 Powell ride, which had the atmosphere of a funeral chapel, I said, quiet bus, huh? to the one person without an iPod. He peered through me and then returned his gaze to his hands, which were lying unused on his lap. Ian Bullock is a Vancouver freelance writer who is at work on his first novel. Lately his happiness levels have been blipping into the eights.
Bullock, I. (2009, June 17). Happinomics. Adbusters , Retrieved from http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/84/ happinomics.html

1.4

Discussion Questions

Happinomics
1. What does the author mean at the end when he writes that he and the new stranger entering the bus both have something the other wants?

2. What is the significance of a sing-along to Dr. Helliwell?

3. What is social capital and how does it differ from mainstream economics?

4. How does this article relate to the Globe and Mails The secret to a happy marriage? Small acts of kindness?

4. Read the footnotes. a) How does the author know when his happiness has increased to a seven?

b) What questions worked best when trying to initiate conversation with strangers?

1.5 Answer Key

Happinomics
Discussion Questions
1. What does the author mean at the end when he writes that he and the new stranger entering the bus both have something the other wants? look for: interaction leading to happiness is symbiotic (makes both people happy)

2. What is the significance of a sing-along to Dr. Helliwell? look for: Its about participation (or togetherness), not entertainment

3. What is social capital and how does it differ from mainstream economics? look for: Cash value of satisfaction; well-being measured by perceived satisfaction rather than just goods and services

4. How does this article relate to the Globe and Mails The secret to a happy marriage? Small acts of kindness? look-for: small daily acts; generosity; engaging with others

4. Read the footnotes. a) How does the author know when his happiness has increased to a seven? look for: physical reaction; feels it b) What questions worked best when trying to initiate conversation with strangers? look for: compliments and questions rather than commentary

1.6 Happinomics Assignment You will conduct a Happinomic experiment and record your findings in a research journal. Part 1 Experiment A: Find 3 occasions to speak to a someone that you normally would not speak to. Before you approach this person, record your level of happiness on the a scale from 1 to 10 (1=not happy; 10=very happy). Strike up a conversation with your selected person. Remember Bullocks example of what not to do (footnote 2); try to either ask a question or give a compliment. For each occasion, record your findings with the following information: 1) Your level of happiness before (1 to 10) 2) A description of the person you spoke to, where you were, what you said, and how they reacted (what did they say back?) 3) Your level of happiness (1 to 10) afterwards and a description of how this felt (physically, intellectually, and/or emotionally). Experiment B Spend some money on yourself and the same amount on someone else (a friend, family member, or stranger.) In your journal record: 1) How the money was used for both you and the other person. 2) How did each of these transactions make you feel? What was the difference? You Should have 4 Journal Entries in Total (3 from Experiment A and 1 from Experiment B)

Due dates: Tuesday, March 5th: 2 Journal Entries Happinomics Reading Discussion Questions Due Thursday, March 7th 2 more journal entries Self Evaluation and Summary