“Paying it Forward” is a year-long project broken into marking periods activities with a culminating project, and evening presentation, offered at the end of the year - where students may share their projects and results. See the schedule given to the students. Note: each "act" is an act of kindness.

• View the video “Pay It Forward” and complete comprehension and higher level thinking questions designed to help the students not only understand the story, but to interpret, infer, and extrapolate meaning from what is being presented to them.
  
• Have small group and whole class discussion of video and questions after viewing is completed. This provides students an opportunity to gather and share their own personal thoughts and feelings about the moving and idea of “Paying it Forward”.
  
• Brainstorm ideas for “Paying it Forward”: personally, at home, in school, in community, and globally. No idea is too “big” or too “small”. All are important and will make someone happy. The idea is choose acts that are different from chores around the house or ordinary daily actions. The chosen acts should make a difference in someone else's life.
• Bulletin Boards are set up with due dates and Web sites for student use such as: (actsofkindness.org , Pay it Forward Foundation & Pay it forward movement ). There is also a schoolwide bulletin board that exhibits the same information making it available to the entire student body and staff. This promotes “Paying it Forward” throughout our entire school family environment.

• Students are encouraged to invite guests/speakers to come to class to share information or stories that might inspire or commend classmates: e.g. an adult volunteer from our local Reading is Fundamental (RIF) organization representative from our township food bank, or a friend in another town whose mother was in the hospital.
• Students will then estimate the time it will take for each project, beginning with the shortest and finishing with the most time consuming. They will also spend time estimating the amount of money it will take for the "Pay It Forward" project (i.e phone costs, research materials, items needed to help project succeed). Also the cost of the materials needed to create it ( i.e. poster board, film, development costs, computer suplies, art materials). They use the Pay it Forward Diary to keep track of needs.
• Students have two weeks to come up with a written plan and choose a partner (if there is one) for the first “good deed”.
• At the end of the two weeks, students will use Inspiration, Tom Snyder’s Timeliner, or Paint software to create a map of their plan (what they will do, when, materials needed, people to contact, etc.)
• They will use the Pay it Forward Diary for each marking period with with information on the individual activity itself, and personal notes describing what they did and how they felt about it.
• At the end of each marking period, students will write a processed writing piece (using Writer’s Workshop) about their “Pay It Forward” act of kindness. It can be in one of the four forms of writing studied in 7th grade: narrative, expository, descriptive, or persuasive.

• The fourth marking period will focus on a culminating “Pay it Forward” presentation showcasing all three acts of kindness.
• The presentation may take many forms: video, photo poster, writing publication, PowerPoint presentation, books, mobile, or other ideas with teacher approval. It may also include a literacy portfolio of the three processed writings detailing each “Pay It Forward” Act of Kindness as well as the reflective writing piece.
  
• “Pay It Forward Night” may be an evening presentation held in early June at school. Students may invite others to participate, such as families, community, and other outreach organizations. The forum is to share how the project has impacted the student lives; how they have given of themselves to energize and inspire others in ways that will capture the hearts of their peers, schoolmates, families, community, and even strangers … encouraging others to “Pay It Forward”.