Teaching Students Advocacy

As an educator, I believe that students should be supported and encouraged to exercise their potential to enact change in the world. Through hands-on lessons which incorporate student voice and choice, I can ensure that my students develop the skills necessary to navigate and challenge systemic injustices and inequity of opportunities while celebrating their pride in their cultural and regional identities. One way to make the process of teaching and practicing student advocacy more meaningful and culturally-relevant to the lives of children is to make connections to real world situations which illustrate the underpinnings of an unjust society. In analyzing and critiquing the societal structures which allow these inequalities to persist, educators can ignite a student's passion of justice and equity and bring about advocacy in an organic way.

This topic is considerably relevant to my students; as the residents of a densely-populated city, my students are also disproportionately impacted by and exposed to environmental injustice through the form of air, water, and land pollution. According to Cushing et al. (2015), a relationship exists between the existence of social inequality, poor environment quality, and an individual's availabilty to access clean water. This idea is further supported when one considers the evidence which proports that People of Color (POC) and those who live in impoverished conditions are disproportionately exposed to hazardous, fine particulate matter and are more likely to live in close proximity to known cancer-causing hazards, such as landfills, factories, and waste facilities when compared to their affluent, white peers (Peña-Parr, 2020; Newkirk II, 2021; Cushing et al., 2015). As children attending a Title I public school within the nation's capital, it could be argued that the need to teach advocacy to my fifth grade students to combat enviornmental injustice and inequality is as great as the need to teach them literacy and mathematics. Fortunately, students can be taught advocacy through practical means which also align to the academic demands of mathematics and literacy instruction. In this way, I consider the process of engaging in speaking knowledgeably to an audience of their peers with the purpose of educating them and the experience of grant writing to combat inequality to be a form of liberatory instruction which empowers my students to address the problems affecting their communities. As a direct result of these experiences, my students learned to authentically develop their own ideas and opinions beyond the limited scope of the classroom and become citizen leaders and change-makers in their own right.

In this section, evidence will demonstrate that my students learned to use their individual assets and self-advocacy skills to navigate and challenge inequitable opportunities which existed in our local environment. I will detail the process by which my students advocacy in the classroom through the development of a student-led Eco Action research project. This research project prepared students to consider the causes and effects of pollution within our local watershed of the Potomac and Anacostia River and to propose solutions to address these problems. Furthermore, I will explore the process by which I prepared three students to enact meaningful environmental change to combat inequality through the grant writing process. As a reward for their effort and extensive research, these students were awarded a EcoRise grant to mitigate the impacts of water pollution on local wildlife. In the end, this allowed them to extend their learning and transformational impact beyond the classroom and to enact change. As a result of their collaboration, data collection, and proficiency in developing a compelling argument with supporting evidence, these students were awarded a $593 student grant to purchase streaming supplies and technology and direct their own environmental science education programming within our school community.

Eco-Action Research Project

Planning for the Lesson

Before designing this lesson, I considered the specific needs of my students as it relates to advocacy in the classroom and community. In order to achieve this goal, I first designed a lesson to instruct my students about advocacy and conducted a needs-assessment with my class by using planning materials and student resources from Learning for Justice. I then provided my students with a needs-assessment to ensure that the action plan addressed community concerns and issues identified by the students to ensure that the action plan truly centered student voice and opinions to drive meaningful student-led advocacy. After I analyzed the results of the needs-assessment, I met with a small panel of students to devise a concrete plan which would have a positive impact in effecting a change in their local community.

In my Advocacy Action Plan, I considered an identified need which was named by the students in their panel discussions and the results of the needs assessment. I then created a goal which would empower the students to solve the problem they identitied, collaboratively created the action steps which would allow students to reach this goal, carefully considered the roadblocks and timeline for implementation, how I would measure student success by the end of the project, and how the action plan would align to the Common Core State Standards and the DCPS Scope and Sequence for ELA.

To provide students with maximum opportunities for student voice and choice, I opened the research project's design to incorporate any topics which address a problem facing our local watersheds. I decided to shift the focus of the research topic because students were required to explore the impact of human activity on the environment and aquatic ecosystems, however; I explained that if my students could provide a compelling reason why their chosen research topic could connect to our learning about the watershed, they could have the freedom to choose their own topic and project. This allowed for the students who wanted to focus on food insecurity, food deserts, and nutrition with a practical way to consider the environmental impact of their garden and how they might minimize harm to our watershed.

AdvocacyActionPlan_Wolf_Octavia.docx

Advocacy Action Plan

Lesson Overview

The findings of the Needs Assessment and the resulting Student Action Plan allowed me to develop a lesson which addressed the area of need identified by the students while also ensuring curriculum alignment. The subsequent lesson I designed addressed the Advocacy domain of the Social Justice Standards which were developed by Learning for Justice. These standards were considered in lesson construction because of their alignment in ensuring that the experiential lesson properly encouraged students to "challenge inequality by raising [their] consciousness" while improving the life outcomes for marginalized groups in their community (Learning for Justice, 2018, p. 7). By aligning the projects to these advocacy standards, it also reinforced that the experience equipped students to learn to use a combination of individual and collective assets to learn about an environmental issue that negatively impacted their community. Through the exploration of research materials, analysis of their student-collected and class-collected data, and the composition of a fully-funded grant which provided the students with the funding necessary to produce their own compelling educational videos for an authentic audience of their peers within the school building, my students demonstrated that they could effectively use their collective and individual assets to successfully navigate and challenge systemic injustices through a targeted educational campaign about water safety and the impact of human-created pollution.

An element of this lesson that guided my students in their ability to advocate effectively were the specific lessons in which I modeled and taught students about the importance of communicating effectively when speaking and writing about the real-world problems facing their communities. During this lesson, students utilized accountable talk stems and reflective statements such as, "I heard you say..." "I understand that..." and "I wonder if..." when addressing their classmates. This allowed students to validate one another's ideas and beliefs respectfully and attributed credit to those students who shared those perspectives. Furthermore, we utilized silent hand signals to demonstrate support of ideas, to build on the ideas of others, and pose questions respectfully to clarify a misunderstanding. Finally, we discussed the importance of vulnerability and how respecting the experiences and beliefs of others in the classroom was critical to ensure safety and security in our sacred classrom space. This practice was imperative for the subsequent lesson's success.

The lesson was conducted virtually, using NearPod to increase student engagement and to provide multiple modes of representation and participation for students in the classroom. The lesson began with a collaborative board activity which asked students to share a social issue or topic which was important to them. Students shared their ideas using pictures, gifs, voice recordings, video recordings, and typed text and as a class, we discussed the importance of these various social issues which impact their lives and the lives of those they care for. I then shared an interactive page link which presented past environmental justice projects designed by 5th grade students to highlight the importance of selecting a topic which was important to the student. After exploring in small groups, the class came together and shared their reflections and wonderings about the various projects and the upcoming research project before them.

Lesson Plan - Student Advocacy in Environmental Action Project Design

AdvocacyLesson_Wolf_Octavia.docx

Using prior knowledge from the Living Classrooms lessons regarding our watershed and their Science notes, the students developed a mind-map of their beliefs about the environment, collected the knowledge they already had on the topic of our watershed, the impact of a healthy watershed on the community, and their individual strengths which could be leveraged throughout the development of their research topic and project. A teacher-created exemplar was accessible for students to help them organize their ideas and meet the expectations for the task and small-group support in the form of breakout rooms was provided for students who required extra support and accommodations for the completion of the task.

Student Reflections

As a result of the lesson, students were able to write and verbalize their ideas about the enviornment, our watershed, why these topics were important to them, and considered their unique gifts and talents which could support them during the execution of their research topic. These reflection boards became a focus point throughout the research project and allowed for me to hold students accountable to their own expectations and predicted outcomes. Students were able to utilize a variety of multimedia sources and tools in the development of their mind-maps and many continued to use the idea of mind-mapping throughout the research project as an easy way to capture their ideas and thoughts in an organized, visual manner.

Instructional Strategies for Teaching About Advocacy

Student Eco Action Project Reflection & Guidance Plan

Student Passion Projects.docx

In the following student facing resource, I leveraged other students' projects from a previous passion project assignment to demonstrate how these students conducted self-reflections about the complex topics and challenges facing their communities. In the assignment, I guide student reflection through the use of open-ended reflection questions which get the students to first connect the issue to themselves and those they care for. The guiding questions, which helped students think and write about these real-world problems began with a exercise in introspection about each student's beliefs, values, strengths, and potential areas where they'd need support to succeed. In acknowledging challenges, this question encourages children to consider their unique needs and learning differences and identify key areas where they anticpate that they may need greater supports and scaffolds to achieve success. By identifying these areas before beginning the research process, it allows the students to also consider how they might leverage some of their strengths to address the challenges they anticipate.

I then provided students with access to sentence starter stems to alleviate any potential challenges that writing constructed responses could have in limiting the reflection process. This was a tremendous help for scholars with English Learning needs and ensured that the language throughout the development of student projects remained consistent between projects, allowing students to also provide one another with feedback and helpful critiques. Finally, I asked students to consider the knowledge they already had about their environmental issue and to consider what knowledge gaps did they notice in their construction of this information. This process helped students to generate meaningful and compelling research questions which would sustain student inquiry and investigation into the topic research area.

EcoRise Student Video #1.mp4

Student Presentations

As a result of the careful considerations and reflection questions posed in the guiding research topic selection lesson, students were able to lay the foundation for their student-selected research project and the importance of research, speaking & listening, and writing skills. To conclude the unit, each student gave a 4-5 minute presentation of their research, findings, and subsequent impact project to an audience of approximately 70 students in grades 3-5, as well as guest teachers and administrarors within the school building. The project presentation to the left demonstrates how students used their individual assets to enact change and grow their proficiency in speaking, listening, and writing. Students presented projects using recorded powerpoint presentations which showed the process of inquiry, investigation, and creation. Recording their presentations allowed the videos to be uploaded to a video dashboard in the main atrium of the school and played throughout the school day and student lunch and passing periods to educate their peers beyond the initial classroom presentation video. Furthermore, the students used the recorded video footage as content for their video channels. Recording videos and uploading them gradually over time, allowed the students to drive additional viewer traffic and views to their respective channels, increasing their viewership and the overall educational impact of each video.

Furthermore, students found collaborative ways to use their individual assets and knowledge to more effectively enact and achieve their specific project's proposed outcome. For example, one student determined that the best way to make a lasting impact to reduce water waste and limit runoff pollution from the roof and rain gutters of the shcool building during periods of heavy rainfall would be to construct a rain barrel. By collaborating with a classmate who determined that the construction of a green garden could offset the excess carbon dioxide emissions in the courtyard by our classroom, they realized that the collected runoff water collected in the former's project could be used to water the plants in the latter's project, negating the need for the use of the gardening hose. This, in turn, further reduced the overall water consumption required to maintain the garden and found a purpose for the diverted rain water.

EcoRise Student-Led Grant Application

Planning for the Opportunity

To prepare students for the grant writing process, I began by analyzing the parts of the EcoRise grant which were required for successful submission. This allowed me to plan and execute well-designed lessons with a small group of students to develop their grant application with all of the necessary components. By utilizing cross-curricular planning opportunities with the 5th grade science teacher, I was able to design a Design Thinking unit which would teach students the critical scientific steps for empathizing, ideating, and designing a prototype which would address the environmental problem impacting our local waterways.

Over the period of three days, I introduced students to the parts of Design Thinking and had them practice each step of the Design Thinking process collaboratively with their peers. Part of the process required students to empathize with the animals and people of our community who were being negatively impacted by poor management and pollution of our local waterways. This helped establish a purpose and sense of urgency for students in the development of their research projects and helped them to develop a series of research questions that would help them uncover some of the primary causes for the issues they were researching. Through engaging video activities, roleplays, checks for understanding in the form of multiple choice questions, polls, and open ended questions, students became immersed in the process of Design Thinking and synthesized the information about its application with the design of their Eco Action Projects and the potential impact of their projects, should they be fully funded by EcoRise.

Intro to Design Thinking.pdf

Development of the Eco Audit Grant

One of the greatest barriers for enacting change is acquiring the funding to see the project actualized. In this way, I supported my students through a student-led grant writing process with the organization, EcoRise. EcoRise's mission is to inspire "a new generation of leaders to design a sustainable future for all". Using the research and data collected in our environmental action unit, the knowledge and application of the Design Thinking process and additional research gathered, analyzed, and interpreted by the students, students successfully submitted a grant application to EcoRise to support their desire to solve a problem which impacts our local watershed.

Using the information gathered in their Eco-Action Research Projects, I worked with three students whose potential for a fully-funded project was well-supported with evidence of research, data collection, and synthesis of ideas to create a meaningful solution to the problems they identified. As a group, the students considered the most meaningful items which we could argue would make the largest impact and students provided a rationale for each item to justify its inclusion in the grant application. By meeting with these students twice a week in small groups, these students were able to identify a unifying theme between their three topics, a common desired outcome, and projected impact within the community should the project recieve its funding. Below is their culminating, fully-funded grant application.

CensoredEcoAuditGrantApplication.pptx

Student Reflections

One of the most important aspects of the grant writing process was how students learned crucial skills which could help them overcome systemic barriers to a just and equitable life for all. Prior to the grant writing process, students did not know that coorporations and non-profits offered grants and awards for innovators and designers who can design a better tomorrow. Furthermore, economic inequities for the students, such as a lack of personal technology in their homes, was remedied through this grant submission process. Unlike other programs which provide teachers with technology for their classrooms, this grant allowed for these students to recieve the technology they needed to enact meaningful change in their community. The access to this technology will have long-lasting impacts on these students' lives long after their 5th grade year and will help bridge the technology divide which was made glaringly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the present school year, I have extended the partnership to include a collaboration with the organization, Buddy Bison. This organization provides students with hands-on real-world experiences in nature to learn about the environment and become stewards of the Earth through service, advocacy, and policy. It is my hope that these opportunities address the systemic inequity facing my students at a Title I school with limited funding for paid partnerships and excursions which would unlock their passion for the environment. Excursions and partnerships such as these will surely bolster student-led advocacy efforts in the spring semester when the students begin this unit of study again in ELA.

The three students who secured grant funding for their streaming project report that their new middle school schedules and demands make it very difficult to maintain their streaming channels as sixth graders, but have found that the technological resources which allowed them to create the video content for the school building's atrium dashboard have had the unexpected benefit of supporting their learning. Prior to the end of the school year, all students who borrowed technology from the school were asked to return these devices. The grant-funded devices which the students used to create the original content for the school's dashboard and begin their video streams later addressed an inequity of opportunities which was made apparent upon the return of the school laptops. The students now have working technology which they say enables them to complete their school work and experience academic success. Two of the three students who recieved grant funding demonstrated an interest in presenting their research again and teaching the current fifth graders how to design and upload their own video content to the school's dashboard at some point during the school year. While reflected upon the importance of educating yourself and taking steps to advocate for the changes that they wish to see in the world.

Students conduct a wilderness walk as a part of their watershed excursion with Buddy Bison.

Students learn about symbiotic relationships and the important roles of plants and animals in the watershed.

Students learned to catch and identify local fish using a taxonomy inventory and their observational skills.

Conclusion

In conclusion, providing my students with the tools necessary to enact change in the world around them has greatly improved their engagement in class, their overall skill and knowledge acquisition, and has empowered them to see themselves as pivotal stakeholders in the community, their educations, and the world, at large. By considering student-named needs and interests and incorporating them into the curriculum and design of my units, lessons, and partnerships in the community, I can continue to empower my students to make meaningful change to address the systemic inequalities which pervade our city, our country, and our world.

References

Cushing, L., Morello-Frosch, R., Wander, M., & Pastor, M. (2015). The haves, the have-nots, and the health of everyone: The relationship between social inequality and environmental quality. Annual Review of Public Health, 36(1), 193-209. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122646

Peña-Parr, V. (2020, August 4). The complicated history of environmental racism. UNM Newsroom. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from http://news.unm.edu/news/the-complicated-history-of-environmental-racism.

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