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Advocacy
Advocacy
Introduction
Introduction
An aspect of my teaching that is always at the forefront for me, is how am I teaching my students the tools to be social change agents (Payne, 2008.) As referenced in my teaching philosophy, my lessons are anchored in emphasizing student voice, limiting my teacher voice and power. In addition, I ensure that my students have the opportunity to learn and discuss real world problems and know they have the voice and power to enact change.
First, I had to explicitly teach my students what advocacy means. I did this within, planning a lesson plan, powerpoint, and a video that uses kid friendly language.
As seen in this video, there are countless people and groups within history that have advocated for themselves and others.
During our virtual field trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture students learned the horrific events of slavery, but also were able to get an insight at the people who fought against slavery. I decided to expand upon this prior knowledge and explicitly teach my students Mumbet, a Massachusetts slave, who advocated for herself to win her freedom. As Wiggins (2005) writes that students should not learn topics in isolation, rather in connection building upon one another.
After this lesson on advocacy, I had students respond in the google classroom to the question "What does Advocacy Mean?" Throughout student responses we see that students understand advocacy can look different, whether it is using your voice, or talent of forming a kindness movement, or painting for a cause. I also thought it was awesome how a student wrote that advocacy reminds them not to be selfish, as advocacy is not only for ourselves but others as well.
What does Advocacy Mean, Student Responses.pdfStudent responses to "What does Advocacy Mean?"
Students were able to give examples from the video such as, starting a be kind movement, and making posters. Students also noted that advocacy includes your voice and actions.
Mumbet Advocates for Freedom
Mumbet Advocates for Freedom
To further teach my students about advocacy, I wanted to explicitly make the connection to the content in our unit. By doing so we read a narrative of an enslaved women who advocates for herself and her liberation. This document displays my Advocacy Lesson Plan that focusses on systemic injustice. I do so within students reading and exploring a narrative of Mumbet. Maye (2013) in her work on integrating The Social Sciences and Literacy while presenting rigorous learning experiences, emphasizes using literature, such as historical narratives or fiction to develop understanding of historical context (p.30)
The document below is the scanned book "Mumbet's Declaration of Independence" in which students explore the historical narrative of an enslaved women advocating and fighting for her freedom.
MUMBET'S.pdfWithin this lesson students were exposed to a narrative biography of Membet’s life as an enslaved woman in Massachusetts. Mumbet was serving men one day as they spoke out about Britain trying to take their rights, and freedoms away from Americans. Mumbet thought to herself, “Do I have rights?” Mumbet would go to Mr.Sedgwick, a young lawyer, asking for them to appear in court advocating that Mumbet had rights, and deserved to be free. They went to court and won using the same language within the new Massachusetts constitution of 1776. Mumbet would then change her name to Elizabeth Freedman, followed by Ona Judge, and others as William Lloyd Garrison.
Following the reading of Mumbet's Declaration of Independence & Abolitionist:What We Need is Action, students then responded in their online notebooks to the question "How have different individuals and groups resisted oppression and advocated for themselves throughout history?
Student Work.pdfThis document shows student work responding to the question "How have different individuals and groups resisted oppression and advocated for themselves throughout history?
Students were able to share examples from teacher given resources of people who have demonstrated advocating for themselves.
Some student examples follow
"Stating your experience in the New Paper"
"The Liberator, in the first edition he wrote, I will be heard, and was"
"Got lawyer and went top court"
San Jose Homelessness
San Jose Homelessness
Next, as a class it was time to examine our community within San Jose. What are the needs of our Community and how could we advocate for change?
I created a quick survey to see what students felt was the greatest need within our community. It quickly became clear from the survey results that our class felt the homelessness population was the greatest need with 86.7 % of our class choosing homelessness.
The above results of the survey show that 86.7 percent of students felt strongest about the homlessness population within our community.
After the survey the class engaged in a conversation about their experiences with the homelessness in our area, and how that made them feel. Below is the video of this conversation
Throughout our conversation, as seen in the video, students identified actions they could take to help the homelessness. In particular, at the end of this second conversation, we hear students talking about gathering supplies such as socks, blankets, and food, to distribute to the homeless. We were ready to take action and follow through about this real world injustice.
That day a blast message went out to parents asking for support in gathering materials for the homeless.
This is text message that was sent out to families to partner in gathering materials for the homeless.
Families came in and we had a day to collect and organize our materials. Students were ready to help organize and sort the materials knowing there actions were part of the fight for social injustice within their own community.
Families and students organizing materials gathered for the homeless
Along with our material collection, students wrote letters to our San Jose, Santa Clara Representatives, advocating that something be done to support and limit the unhoused population.
Copy of Punctuating Your Letter.pdfThis lesson plan and example template was used as a guide as students crafted their letters.
Student Letters to Senator.pdfThis document shows student letters to Santa Clara Representatives, advocating that something be done to support and limit the unhoused population.
Students not only wrote what they wanted done to help the unhoused, but also their own experiences. One student said they noticed how homeless people are treated like criminals. Another student shaited, with their own two eyes, saw two homeless people without clothes. This same student also shared that they themselves were homeless before and something must be done. One suggestion this student gives, is to collect taxes and put money towards homeless shelters.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Students engaging in writing letters to local representatives shows students the power they have. Students are taught that we are a democratic country but often have to wait to participate till the legal voting age. Exposing students to the ability to write letters to representatives allows students to engage in social action before they are able to vote. Upon sending the letters out, students asked everyday “have they responded?” “Did they write us back?” As a transformational teacher, hearing students eager for a response from local representatives gives me hope for the future and what my students will advocate for beyond 5th grade.
Sacred Heart Community Service Partnership
Sacred Heart Community Service Partnership
Myself and the team had discussed that our students would greatly benefit from continuous volunteer opportunities to engage in advocacy by taking action.
Sacred Heart Community Service works to improve the lives of its community, advocates for justice, that would support in the ongoing action of students taking action against in justices.
I began emailing to inquire about our 5th grade class getting involved with Sacred Heart Community to take more action within the community against social injustices.
The documents shows the communication I engaged in with Cecilia Gold, a member of the Community Engagement Team.
I had organized for Scared Heart to attended our Mexican Heritage Event at our school. During the event, students and parents were able to communicate with a Scared Heart Member. The video below shows Cecilia, from Sacred Heart at our school event sharing information about volunteer opportunities with students.
One of the first volunteer opportunities that Sacred Heart was planning was a San Jose Stay Cleans event, in which students were to take action in cleaning up garbage in the community.
Plastic Pollution
Plastic Pollution
Before having students engage in the volunteer activity I had to teach the importance of what we were going to do, and give students the why. In addition, in order to get to the place where I was teaching students to speak and/or write about real-world problems, I first had to teach/expose students to current problems. One real world problem that affects us all is our waters, and the high amounts of plastic pollution. Being in the Bay, California, plastic pollution is at the forefront of our minds.
Plastic Pollution.pdfThis document to the left is the article from National Geographic Kids that teaches students the problem of plastic population.
We read this article as a class and then students were to complete a written assignment demonstrating what they learned about plastic pollution.
10 tips to reduce your plastic use.pdfIn addition, I provided students and families with a resource that provides 10 tips for reducing plastic use.
Below are the written assignments where students demonstrate their ability to write about the plastic population citing evidence from the information provided.
Plastic Polluation Student Work.pdfPlastic Pollution Student Work
Students wrote about reducing the amounts of single use plastics, no longer using plastic straws, and packing lunches and snacks in reusable containers vs plastic bags. These suggestions go beyond the classroom, into students homes with families. After this lesson, students brought in less plastic bottles and asked parents for reusable bottles instead.
San Jose Stay Cleans
San Jose Stay Cleans
On October 26th, the students engaged in a community clean up event! We met at the Tamien Park after school, and for one hour, walked around picking up trash, with a special eye out for plastics.
This is the flyer that was provided for students and families promoting the San Jose Clean Up activity.
Students engaging in collecting garbage at Tamien Park
Students engaging in collecting garbage at Tamien Park
Below is a video that I took asking students about their experience of taking action to keep our community clean. In this video students dicuss how It felt good to help with less pollution. One student named they helped to lessen the work for the people that it is their job to clean up trash. Students also named how it helps the environment and animals, because a dirty environment is not good. Lastly, students named the clean up benefits themselves and the others in the community to have a clean park.
Advocacy Section Conclusion & Reflection
Advocacy Section Conclusion & Reflection
As my students learned about the problems facing our community, it quickly became apparent that the need for teaching advocacy. Students must be given the necessary platforms and knowledge to be able to continue to fight these systemic injustices on their own. As a transformational teacher, going beyond what is in the curriculum, my job is to equip my students with the tools that they need in order to become successful in not only academics, but in their personal lives as social change agents. Through reading, writing, speaking, and action related activities, students increased their abilities to learn about real word problems and to advocate against systems of injustice.
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