Advocacy
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.
In first and second grade, students are beginning to form their own thoughts and opinions based on what they hear their family talking about and what they see and hear going on around them. These experiences and observations help them establish who they are and what matters to them. As a teacher, it is my job to help them decide what is important to them, how to form and voice their own opinions and take action around what is important to them. While teaching advocacy is not a core subject in my school, I am able to teach my students about advocacy through project-based learning, read-alouds, community walks and awareness of the impact that change could make in our own school.
I strongly believe that students need to learn, at a young age, how to decide what matters most to them and then how to voice what matters. This could be as simple as learning how to speak up, in a constructive manner, about not being able to see the board or a student in class that is bothering them. Regardless, it is my job to guide them and help them discover their own voice and show them the importance speaking their opinions and thoughts. The emphasis of this guidance the early childhood grades is teaching them to use their kind words instead of their hands and other body parts or yelling at someone else. This means that they are working to understand what assets they have in themselves to make changes as well as what the community might be able to offer as support in their goals. As they find what they believe in and what they can offer for themselves and others, they can work towards making changes and fight injustices or inequalities that they see around them.
During Black History Month, students learned about many different African-American historical figures. During this section, you will see a lesson plan that shows how Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for himself and those around him through love and peace. I then asked students to complete a Black History Month project. Students were assigned many current famous or important figures, many of whom figures spent part of their life in Baltimore. It was important to be able to show that there are people who come from Baltimore who have made a difference both inside of Baltimore and out in the world.
The other way that I have been working with students about advocacy is through civic and community engagement. This is a focus on Wednesdays where we do a mini-lesson that highlights our school community and the community around our school. We talk about the problems that we see both within and outside school and what we would like to see change. The first thing that we decided to tackle was the amount of paper that we were not recycling and the amount of trash that is around the school building and on our playground. While students are working hard to make small changes and advocate for something that matters to them, they see that they can make an immediate impact.
Take a deeper look at these projects, advocacy lessons and how students are learning to speak out about what matters by clicking on the links below.
I strongly believe that students need to learn, at a young age, how to decide what matters most to them and then how to voice what matters. This could be as simple as learning how to speak up, in a constructive manner, about not being able to see the board or a student in class that is bothering them. Regardless, it is my job to guide them and help them discover their own voice and show them the importance speaking their opinions and thoughts. The emphasis of this guidance the early childhood grades is teaching them to use their kind words instead of their hands and other body parts or yelling at someone else. This means that they are working to understand what assets they have in themselves to make changes as well as what the community might be able to offer as support in their goals. As they find what they believe in and what they can offer for themselves and others, they can work towards making changes and fight injustices or inequalities that they see around them.
During Black History Month, students learned about many different African-American historical figures. During this section, you will see a lesson plan that shows how Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for himself and those around him through love and peace. I then asked students to complete a Black History Month project. Students were assigned many current famous or important figures, many of whom figures spent part of their life in Baltimore. It was important to be able to show that there are people who come from Baltimore who have made a difference both inside of Baltimore and out in the world.
The other way that I have been working with students about advocacy is through civic and community engagement. This is a focus on Wednesdays where we do a mini-lesson that highlights our school community and the community around our school. We talk about the problems that we see both within and outside school and what we would like to see change. The first thing that we decided to tackle was the amount of paper that we were not recycling and the amount of trash that is around the school building and on our playground. While students are working hard to make small changes and advocate for something that matters to them, they see that they can make an immediate impact.
Take a deeper look at these projects, advocacy lessons and how students are learning to speak out about what matters by clicking on the links below.
Conclusion
As an educator, it is my job to make sure that I am teaching the whole child, advocating for the child and teaching them how to advocate for themselves. This is conveyed through whole group, through hands on learning and experiences and having conversations with them about what is going on around in our community and what they care about. The harder conversations come once they have decided what matters to them, when we talk about why it matters and what they can do about it. These conversations are opportunities to discuss strategies and skills that will help them to advocate for themselves or others around them.
Incorporating these lessons at a young age allows for them to build upon skills and be more successful in the future. The voices of the students that I am teaching now, will be the voices running the country in 20-30 years. Starting their exposure to advocacy earlier allows for more practice and more time for students to determine what truly matters to them and those surrounding them. Teaching them how to understand and find inequities or injustices using what they have at such an early age makes the chance of success even greater.
Incorporating these lessons at a young age allows for them to build upon skills and be more successful in the future. The voices of the students that I am teaching now, will be the voices running the country in 20-30 years. Starting their exposure to advocacy earlier allows for more practice and more time for students to determine what truly matters to them and those surrounding them. Teaching them how to understand and find inequities or injustices using what they have at such an early age makes the chance of success even greater.
The photos used in this section are my own or are accessible via public domain search.