Embedded Files
Introduction
Introduction
Social Studies has never been a more hotly contested topic than in this moment. From "Don't Say Gay" bills in Florida to the overwhelming pushback against critical race theory and discourse in schools, freedom of speech has become wildly political. I created our school's very first Civics curriculum from the ground up in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other social injustices plaguing the 2020-2021 school year. While understanding history and information is critically important to recognizing a challenge, this information can feel incredibly overwhelming, depleting, and discouraging without tangible actions steps and mindsets that can lead to liberation. Scholars understand that most challenges don't have a singular or best solution, but rather can improve, shift, or progress overtime through the contributions of many.
I chose to began this lesson series by discussing the events on January 6th as they had just occurred at the time these lessons were created. Students had spent the entire fall understanding the structure of our government, researching California State ballot measures, and waiting with bated breath to see the election results. Coming back from winter break into Zoom school, where students felt that much more alone, disenfranchised, and helpless, I knew it would be important to provide clear examples of advocacy in action so that students can understand the many ways they too have the power to stand up for what is right.
Students originally engaged in the following lesson through Zoom due to the nature of the pandemic at this time, and I have continued to modify and refine this lesson in the following school years, which you will see below. Advocacy is still being taught through our Civics curriculum following the original model and adjusted to be more timely for present topics. As such, scholar work samples, screenshots, videos, and submissions serve as evidence of student engagement.
Understanding Student Funds of Knowledge
Understanding Student Funds of Knowledge
At the time of this original lesson in January 2021, students had been in Civics class twice a week since the start of the year. I engaged students in a simple Civics interest survey in August to gauge their preferred topics and present level of understanding. As it pertains to advocacy, I had students answer the following two questions as part of the larger survey:
I understand what "freedom of speech" means.
I can name at least three ways I can advocate for myself and my community.
It is worth noting that most students knew very little about civics from an academic standpoint ahead of this survey as they had never engaged with a formal social studies education at Triumph. As the results indicate, only a handful of students shared they understand what "freedom of speech" means and 64% said they couldn't name at least three ways they could advocate for themselves and their community. In collaboration with the 3-5 Humanities team, I internalized this data to plan out the following lessons to engage student funds of knowledge as best as possible. Further, I made these two points the lesson objectives to ensure students would be able to answer both questions through a number of modalities presented in the unit plan.
Data collected from 4th graders in the 2020-2021 school year on Zoom.
Data collected from 4th graders in the 2020-2021 school year on Zoom.
In the 2021-2022 school year, I conducted a similar survey on August 12th (the first week of school) to better understand how ongoing Civics learning over the last two years has contributed to student growth. I was disappointed to learn that student responses in the 4th grade were largely similar to my initial data collected in our first year of formal Civics instruction. When I brought this to my site supervisor and our Lead Team, of which I am a member, it became apparent that more work needs to be done in the "Justice" and "Action" sections of our scope and sequence. More information about ongoing work to mitigate this knowledge and information gap can be found in the "Ongoing Work and Next Steps" section below.
Data collected from 4th graders in the 2022-2023 school year in person.
Data collected from 4th graders in the 2022-2023 school year in person.
What is advocacy and how can we advocate?
What is advocacy and how can we advocate?
I began this lesson by leveraging prior learning from the school year and knowledge of a major current event to start the conversation. At the time of the U.S. Capitol Insurrection, students had been on winter break and did not necessarily have the language to make sense of the horrific event. While using a social atrocity to amplify a conversation can be reactionary by nature, I wanted to ensure that students were given the space to process, background information to understand, and tools to take action in such a challenging, emotional time. Further, while we have discussed the importance of identity, diversity, and justice, we had yet to enter our action portion of our Civics instruction. As such, I made a clear point of introducing the terms "civic responsibility," "freedom of speech," and "advocacy" in the guided practice portion of the lesson.
The following annotated lesson plan from the 2022-2023 school year provides some insight into the various ways I engaged students in building their thinking around civic responsibility and advocacy as our country still grapples with the debate over what is "free speech" and what is "hate speech". Most specifically, I tried my best to provide opportunities for students to frame their learning in direct instruction and finally work in small groups to collaborate and share ideas more thoughtfully.
In planning this instruction, I knew it would be critical to provide clear structure for student discourse and dialogue without pushing my own beliefs and political agenda. While voting rights and individual freedoms should not be a matter of politics, I also want the key takeaway of this lesson to be the importance of free speech, democracy, and speaking up for what is right. For example, students were able to discern the explicit differences between how Insurrectionists and BLM protestors are treated in media, public opinion, and by police. To support students in handling these challenging, nuanced topics, the lesson begins with a brief introduction to the event which happened a year prior and quickly turns into the importance of individual acts of civic responsibility and advocacy.
Outline used to guide me through the lesson.
Above are the slides used to present our learning. Our guided practice included a brief overview and many opportunities for student discourse. For small group practice, students were given a Venn Diagram and multiple images, articles, and videos posted on Google Classroom. At the end of the lesson, students complete the individual activity by answering prompts on their work sheet and sharing allowed to the class.
Student Work
Student Work
As the lesson progressed, students had the choice of writing their responses on a classwork assignment on paper or via Google Classroom, depending on their preference. I found that most students preferred to complete their assignment on their Google Slides document. The first two images below showcase student work completed during the small group practice in which students shared similarities and differences between media portrayal and police response to BLM protestors and Capitol Insurrectionists. Here, students note the ways in which freedom of speech and advocacy are described and policed differently depending on one's identity. This portion of the lesson prepared students to deep dive into critical conversation around race, class, and rights of different demographic groups in the United States. The last two pictures showcase student exit tickets before ending the lesson. As seen, students have different beliefs about what freedom of speech really means in different contexts and noted that advocacy is discussed and handled in disparate ways in our country. The answers to these prompts led to the student discussion section, where students shared where else they see inequality like this in their community and everyday lives.
Samples of student work during introductory advocacy lesson.
Student Dialogue and Discourse
Student Dialogue and Discourse
Students working collaboratively together in small groups to analyze different artifacts from the different events.
To ensure student's were given enough space to process and make sense of the jarring images, news articles, and videos they watched, I tried to create as much opportunity for student discussion as possible. To make student conversation as meaningful as possible, I provided students the chance to share with a partner or in a small group of three students after viewing initial images and videos in guided practice. I supported their discussion by providing sentence stems, key vocabulary on the board, and timers so they knew how much speaking and listening time each partner should receive.
While students shared and worked in small groups, I walked around the classroom joining in on conversations and monitoring student discussion to ensure they stayed on task, were citing evidence from what they had seen or read, and giving equitable talking time to each partner. I positively narrated the words and positive conversation skills students were using and also gave out green points on Class Dojo to encourage students. After each partner share, we also shared as a whole group by students raising their hands or by playing four corners so that they can see how different students understood the ways advocacy, freedom of speech, and voting looked different depending on identity. The images to the left provide evidence of students building connections through small group discussions and meaningful discourse as they compared and contrasted the response to the different events.
Student Quotes
Student Quotes
"I just don't get why they don't like us so much. How come white people can have freedom of speech to protest but Black Lives Matter gets people so angry. Like, everyone can have their opinion, but no one needs to get hurt."
4th Grader (Block One) in response to "How are these artifacts similar and how are they different? Are these both examples of free speech?"
"People get killed or put in prison or get hurt. Protests are good, like I went to one with my uncle for BLM and people were singing and cheering and it was happy. But the [pointing to a Fox News article] people say everyone is so dangerous. It's like, only some people get to say what they think and that isn't fair."
4th Grader (Block Two) in response to "What happens when free speech does not occur equally for everyone?"
Student Feedback
Student Feedback
Before moving on to the next part of our unit plan, I wanted to check in with students around what they think advocacy is and is not. Separate from their exit ticket, I did a quick, anonymous student poll using Post-It notes to gauge whether students grasped how protest movements can look different and are represented in stark ways in media. The next lesson would provide multiple examples of protest movements and a celebration of successful activism as they prepare to take action themselves. As indicated by results below, most students seemed to understand what it means to advocate for what you believe in and use their voice to take action.
Ongoing Work and Next Steps
Ongoing Work and Next Steps
Since this lesson series and the first year of Civics, my work has continued to expand, grow, and dive deeper. I have since developed a partnership with the UC Berkeley Center for Cities and Schools to execute their Y-Plan for elementary school students in the 2022-23 school year. This program engages a similar scope and sequence as the original Civics curriculum, but digs deeper into hands-on, advocacy oriented lessons and learning opportunities for our students in the community. To support students in bringing this learning to life, I have also arranged a field trip to the Oakland Museum of California to better understand the history, ongoing action, and opportunities for individual advocacy happening here in our hometown.
Further, as part of the Y-Plan, students will be creating a policy proposal or project in response to a community challenge that they have identified, researched, and interviewed community members about. To make their advocacy project feel more meaningful in the spring, I have already laid the groundwork for having representatives from the Mayor of Oakland's office come to sit on a panel to hear our students' presentations. While writing a letter is meaningful, speaking to a major stakeholder in person is much more exciting and impactful. Finally, to support our students in independently taking action in their community with their families, I have developed a partnership with the East Oakland Collective for a Triumph-wide work day to prepare meals and care kits to distribute in West Oakland ahead of the holiday season.
Y-PLAN Elementary Field Guide small.pdfAbove is a copy of the Y-Plan provided through UC Berkeley for authentic, rigorous Civics instruction.
The above images show ongoing correspondence with the UC Berkeley, The Oakland Museum, and East Oakland Collective, respectively.
Conclusion and Reflection
Conclusion and Reflection
The purpose of this introductory lesson was to teach students the importance of advocacy, standing up for what is truly just, and taking action on behalf of others. Further, students engaged in a deeply meaningful and nuanced conversation about the ways in which freedom of speech and advocacy is viewed different in the United States along racial, socioeconomic status, and political lines. The critical discourse and student work in this lesson effectively prepared students for approaching the action-oriented piece of this unit in a culturally responsive, sensitive manner. Given the severity and complexity of the artifacts analyzed and discussed in this lesson, I wanted to ensure students knew that hope is not lost, there are many people out there fighting for true justice today, and that they have the power to encourage change. Students had already had a semester of Civics learning in the classroom ahead of this lesson and developed a strong classroom culture of trust, honesty, and respectful debate, which made this lesson feasible as an introduction to taking action.
In reflection, I might adjust the scope and sequence of our learning in the future to provide greater context around presidential elections and the U.S. government more in non-election years to support schema building. Further, I do not necessarily think that this is a lesson that could be copy and pasted to work in any context at any time. There are many traumatizing, sensitive, and alarming images, videos, and language used in our artifact analysis, so proper trigger warnings, culture-building, and support systems must be in place so that students know how to process this mature content. I have learned not to underestimate how much information students take in around their identity and current events, so providing a safe space to process, make sense, and advocate in a classroom setting is more important than ever.
A copy of our school's vision. As I plan for student-led advocacy, I anchor myself in the core values and aspirations as a school community to strive to be a culturally responsive, safe, and welcoming place for all students and families to be themselves.
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