“Be the Change” Unit Summary

Contributors: Julie Connors, Ashley DeRoy, Sara Peters

For our PBL unit, we decided to create a unit that could be completed over a long period of time building up to our final product and presentation. This unit was also created with the mindset that many of the elements could be used across the curriculum, specifically in Social Studies and English Language Arts. It was very important to us that the unit was meaningful and impactful for our students. We wanted to empower our students to be leaders in their community and fight for what they truly believe is right. It was also important to us to give our students the opportunity to express themselves in whatever way they felt most comfortable. We feel strongly that through a lot of hard work and collaboration, we were able to achieve these goals.

The “Be the Change” Unit began in January with our launch day occurring right around Martin Luther King Jr. Day. To launch the unit we read “Martin’s Big Words” and had a discussion about the various people in our world and in our community who have fought for change and what they believed in. We encouraged the students to think about their families and causes that are close to their hearts. The discussion was heartfelt and a lot of students were not only able to express what was important to their families but causes that were important to them.

As a continuation of the unit, we began the first project. The first project was a biography and was heavily supported by mini-lessons, student examples and conferencing. The only requirement when choosing a person to research, was that they had to have made an impact on the world. Many of the students already had people in mind and some needed time to look through books, and reference materials to find their person. Many mini-lessons took place during this unit on topics including but not limited to, introductions, conclusions, paragraph organization, citations and summarizing. The students met with teachers at various points during the project for conferencing which became a continuation of the mini-lessons as needed. The students were engaged in this project because they had choice in their topic and felt motivated to share what they learned with others. At the end of the unit, the culminating project was a presentation. Students were able to contribute an essay, a poster or a google slide presentation. There was a wide variety and each student was assessed using a rubric we created as a team. Although this was a project completed by individual students, the level of support given was the first step in our unit.

After the biographies, we transitioned into our second project. As a class we referred back to our initial brainstorm of causes the students believe in. As a group we narrowed down the topics to three and then voted on one cause that the students could research and work on. Collectively, the students decided on ocean pollution. As a launch for this particular project, we did a jigsaw of pictures and students wrote their thoughts and opinions as they traveled around the room. We continued by watching Tedtalks and reading various articles about the topic. We encourage our students to report out on news they heard on TV or articles they read at home. This process really brought us together as a class and the students looked forward to sharing what they learned. As a project, the students were asked to write an essay on their research and create a call to action. The students worked independently on their essays and were allowed to write about varying specific ideas they researched related to ocean pollution. Together they created groups to create a call to action. By the end, students were writing petitions, sending emails to corporate companies and creating posters to be shared with the community. It was amazing to see the different ways that the students really took this cause to heart. We had students sharing their metal straws, reusable snack bags and even bees wax paper. As a culminating activity, the whole class took a walk to the rail trail in town to collect trash on Earth Day. In total, we collected 19 bags of trash and the students had a blast.

Our final portion and project began just after April vacation. This was the culminating event that had been building since the beginning of the unit. Students now had the opportunity to choose whatever cause they wanted, research it and present it to the community. By this time students were familiar with the PBL process and were working more independently. We had a large range of topics including poverty, service dogs, effects of gaming, the impact of Lucille Ball on comedy and so much more. The students did all the research on their own, cited their sources and wrote a speech that was at least 90 seconds long. They worked independently and collaboratively to support each other through the process. Students presented to one another and revised their projects based on feedback. In the end, students presented to 3rd graders, 4th graders, various teachers and parents. They had a lot of fun and saw the purpose in all the hard work they put it over the unit. Ultimately, we are working on putting their speeches into a book that can be shared in our library at school.

This unit was a huge success in terms of the skills the students learned and retained and also their level of engagement. It included a lot of student choice and voice which really helped to maintain their attention and stamina. We are looking forward to continuing this work next year with a new group of students.