Learning Fairness from a Nonfiction Text
Grade
Grade 2
UNIT
7
•
Fairness
Unit 7, Lesson 2, “Learning Fairness from a Nonfiction Text,” reinforces the vocabulary word fairness. Students will learn an example of fairness from a nonfiction text. Additionally, students will practice their reading comprehension skills by reading independently and hearing a reading from the teacher. Finally, students will create their own sentences that demonstrate their reading comprehension.
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SUGGESTED TIME:
20 minutes
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Practice reading aloud to a partner to support reading comprehension
- Compose sentences that demonstrate comprehension of the word fairness
- Demonstrate understanding of standard English sentence structure and grammar
- Practice reading and conversation skills by sharing sentences with classmates
REQUIRED MATERIALS:
- Inexpensive prizes (50-100 is suggested) for a class treasure hunt
- Video: Gail Johnson Honors Adopted Son Nkosi by ABC News (~3 min)
- Prohuman Grade 2 Unit 7 Worksheet 2: Learning Fairness from a Nonfiction Text
VOCABULARY:
- Fairness: I treat everyone the same. If someone has been left out, I bring them in.
ELA COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET
CHARACTER AND SOCIAL EMOTIONAL (CSED) NATIONAL STANDARDS MET
LESSON PROCEDURE
- Tell the students that we will have a class scavenger hunt to learn about fairness.
- Tell them that there are (give them the number) of prizes hidden throughout our classroom. Give them 10 minutes to find the prizes and put them on their desks once they find them.
- When the 10 minutes have passed, ask the students if how the prizes are distributed now is fair.
- Tell them that we need to find a way to divide the prizes fairly. Does anyone have any ideas? Give the students some time to figure out how to divide them evenly.
- Let’s continue to learn about fairness.
- Play the video: Gail Johnson Honors Adopted Son Nkosi by ABC News (~3 min)
- Have students read the nonfiction text on their worksheets independently, quietly to themselves. Circle the room to support the students.
- After giving the students 10 minutes to practice reading, then read the text aloud to the whole class.
- Have students answer the questions on the worksheet.
- Have students take turns sharing their sentences with a partner.
GRADE 2 UNIT 7 WORKSHEET 2: LEARNING FAIRNESS FROM A NONFICTION TEXT
Fairness: I treat everyone the same. If someone has been left out, I bring them in.
NONFICTION TEXT: NKOSI’S FAIRNESS
Nkosi Johnson was born in 1989 in South Africa. His mother had a virus called HIV and passed that virus to him when he was still in the womb. HIV is a virus that weakens your immune system. The final stage of HIV is called AIDS. At that time, many people in South Africa had HIV and AIDS. People were afraid of HIV and AIDS, even though you cannot catch it from being around another person.
In 1997, Nkosi’s mother tried to enroll him in school. When the boy’s HIV status was discovered, many teachers and parents did not want him to attend. Half of them said he should be able to attend and the other half said that he should not. His mother fought to get a new law passed to allow children with HIV to go to school.
Nkosi helped children with HIV and AIDS to be treated with fairness. His big moment came in July 2000, when he spoke at the 13th International AIDS Conference. A tiny figure in a suit and sneakers, 11-year-old Nkosi spoke to 10,000 people.
“Care for us and accept us – we are all human beings,” he said. “We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else. Don’t be afraid of us – we are all the same.”
Nkosi passed away in 2001. Part of him lives on through Nkosi’s Haven, which houses and supports HIV-positive mothers and children.
Source: https://nkosishaven.org/nkosi-johnsons-history/
ACTIVITY:
Write 1 sentence that explains how Nkosi showed fairness:
How do you think Nkosi’s fairness made a difference for other kids?
Prohuman K-12 Curriculum © 2025 by Prohuman Foundation is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/