Advocacy
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in my classroom, I emphasize the power of a child’s voice. My vision for my classroom includes empowering students through and within their learning. I introduced my students to significant youths who have used their voice, and their important role in this world. I use this to help students see their own power. Changing students’ perspectives on their own role within the world can empower them and engage them in their learning. I focus on empowering students by giving them the language they need to stand up for what they believe in, the space to discuss real world problems in our community, and the opportunity to take action and do something about it. I taught my students to use their individual and collective assets to address the real-world problem of littering in our world.
Students have knowledge of injustice in the world, have informed opinions about it, and know that their voice and actions have value. They can advocate for themselves and others.
As a first grade teacher, it is important that I teach my students not only how to read and write, but also how to use these skills to make a positive impact on the world. Krasnoff states, “Culturally responsive teachers help students to understand that knowledge has moral and political elements and consequences, which obligate them to take social action to promote freedom, equality, and justice for everyone” (2016, p. 9). In order to be a truly culturally responsive teacher, I needed to first teach my students what social action looks like. I created a lesson to introduce students to what it means to be an advocate. This foundational understanding of what advocacy looks like helped prepare my students for learning about environmental injustices occurring throughout the world. By framing social injustice through the lens of advocacy, I am able to empower my students to look at problems through the lens of what they can do to solve them.
Advocacy
The follow-up work shown here are student responses to the lesson plan shown above. Students came up with their own examples of how they can be an advocate in their life. This gave students an opportunity to write about how they can find a solution to a real world problem. The videos show students reading and explaining what they can do to be an advocate. They were actively engaged in not only thinking of a problem they have seen, but also how the can use their individual assets to address it.
The lesson plan shown here is how I introduced the topic of advocacy to my students. I often use the phrase "use your big voice" in the classroom when encouraging students to communicate their needs. I connected the word advocacy to this to build on students' prior knowledge. I then introduced young advocates from around the world to show students that age does not determine how effective someone can be. I explicitly taught the world "advocate" and asked students how they can be an advocate themselves.
The recording here shows how students responded to the prompt, "what can you do when you see a problem?" Students started this conversation with a turn and talk, sharing ideas with a partner. We then shared whole group. I categorized the responses I heard into three main forms of advocacy and activism. The first was using our big voice, the second was to take action, the third was to share what we know with others and ask for help.
The social issue I have focused on in my class is environmental justice. This connects to littering, which is the real-world issues my students addressed in their advocacy. I explicitly taught students about a form of systemic injustice, and gave students an opportunity to consider ways they can take social action to fight against it. I began this lesson by introducing students to the idea of “Earth care,” as well as the why and how of taking care of our planet. Giving students background on the importance of taking care of our planet and making sure all living things are able to thrive on Earth ensured students had the prerequisite understanding needed to be successful when learning about environmental injustice. I taught students about environmental justice, and the issues that face many communities around the world. I specifically introduced students to the Flint, Michigan water crisis. This allowed me to explain to students that littering, pollution, and environmental injustice are systemic issues because it impacts low-income communities more so than any other communities. As a result, low-income families experience the negative side-effects more so than other families. I explained to students that there are environmental problems, some as big as the water crisis, and some as small as garbage on the playground, occuring in communities across our country and around the world. I asked students to think about an environmental issue in our school community and what we can do to confront it. This gave students an opportunity to engage and lead the process of problem solving.
Environmental Justice Conversation
This lesson plan shows my introduction to Earth care and environmental justice. The interactive lesson plan taught students new vocabulary to use in discussions, as well as provided opportunities to share their ideas and perspectives. I connected this lesson to our prior learning on advocacy to help students build on prior knowledge. This lesson plan introduced students to a real-world social issue of pollution in communities around the world.
The video to the right shows a student responding to the question "what can you do when you see an environmental problem?" The student gives an example of a problem he might encounter, and gives three steps he will take to confront the issue. This shows the student is able to articulately speak about a real-world problem he may see, and explain what he can do to be an advocate.
The clip here shows the beginning of my environmental justice lesson. Student responses show they are able to articulate what justice means, and are able to participate in a guided conversation about real world issues. I presented students with a real world problem, the Flint, Michigan water crisis, and asked students to think about why it is such a devastating problem. Students were able to respond to the issue with empathy and articulate their understanding and perspective on the issue.
The picture shown here are of the student responses to the question "what environmental problems do you see?" Students were asked to think about our own school community and respond to the question. These responses then prompted the conversation that helped us choose our green school project to work on as a class.
Students self-selected an Earth commitment to make to help keep our Earth safe and clean. The video here shows a student reading his response and explaining how his commitments will help the Earth. This student was able to articulately write about how he can address environmental injustice, and articulately explain how his actions can have a positive impact on the Earth. The pictures below show additional responses to this prompt.
I introduced students to two potential green school projects we could participate in, and asked students to come up with their own. Students voted on which plan they wanted to focus on. Fifteen students voted to participate in a school clean-up, four students voted to participate in planting a school garden, two students voted to plant a classroom garden. I taught students the importance of working together to use our collective assests to make a change, and used this voting system to select the one project we would work on. Since most students decided they wanted to participate in school clean-up, that became out project. This project challenges systemic injustices as pollution and climate change disproportionately impact low-income communities. Taking individual and collective action to protect the Earth is vital not only to advocate for future generations, but also to advocate for the individuals being directly impacted.
Student Action
The video below show students discussing why it is important to take action to address littering, and why it is important to share what we have learned. Student responses show that they understand the significance of using their individual asset to clean up trash that they see in the world. When students were asked why it is important to clean up our school's playground, they were able to articulately explain a real-world problem, then explain how their actions can have a direct impact on the problem. Students recognize that they can affect real change in their community.They provided the following answers:
1: "The earth keeps us healthy, and if the we don’t take care of the earth the earth can’t take care of us."
2: "We’re cleaning because the earth can be clean and when I see a trash we can put it in the trash."
3: "Because if we don’t clean it up and there is already trash on the floor there will be pollution in the world and the earth is not going to like it and we cannot breathe good and the plants aren’t going to grow anymore."
The pictures and video shown here are of students finding trash on our school playground, and cleaning it up. Students selected this project as our advocacy project, and were engaged and enthusiastic throughout the process. Students were shocked by how much garbage they found in the field and blacktop, and were proud of their final work when they saw the bags filled with trash. They used their collective assets to address a real-world issue.
I intended to have students reflect on this lesson by drawing a picture of the experience and answering the following questions:
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What did you find during the playground clean up?
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How did you feel while you were cleaning the playground? Why?
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What will you do next time you see trash outside?
Due to schools closing, students were unable to complete this assignment. Based on discussions and observations, I noticed students were very surprised to notice all of the trash on the playground they use everyday. Students had not previously realized that this was a problem, and were saddened by how much trash they collected. If students were to complete this reflection task, I believe many would explain that they felt proud that they were helping the Earth, and sad that there was so much trash. I believe they would also express their dedication to continuing to clean the environment when they see trash outside.
Follow-Up
While the playground clean-up was the project students chose, they were so enthusiastic about the learning they were doing, they asked to create a video to share with other classes in our school to help educate others about the importance of keeping our school and our Earth clean. Students took initiative and came up with their own ideas for what they wanted to share with their schoolmates to make sure others could become advocates as well. They created a video to share with other classrooms and communities to encourage others to also clean up our school and their communities. The video shown here is the final product of our education project.
The voice clip below is of a student explaining why taking action themselves isn't enough. He shares why it is also important to share our new knowledge with others in the school so we can all work together to address the problem. I have taught my students the importance of using our collective assets to work together to effect greater change. This clip shows students learned that they can use their collective assets to challenge systemic injustices and environmental injustice by confronting littering in their community. The student explains that when more people know about the issue, we can work together to fight for what is right.
I intended to send this video to the Kindergarten team for them to share with their students. However, with schools closing, it was no longer a feasible option.
I create space in my classroom for students to use their empowerment to seek opportunity to and make change in the world around them. Students identified an issue relating to sustainability, created an action plan on how to address it, then made their plan a reality by working with their peers. This brought our classroom learning to life and truly empower students to be change-makers in our classroom, our school, and our community. The discussions students had and the writing activities they completed have shown the significant understanding students gained through this project. Empowering students in my classroom sets them up to be leaders for the rest of their lives.