Writing For A Purpose You Believe In!
Do you know how to get your students writing for a social action?
In chapter 8 of Bomer, it gives teachers an outline of how they should step up the unite of writing for social justice. It has a lists of the 10 steps of how the social action writing/project should go. In the chart it gives the description of each part and how long your students should take on each section. (Figure 8-1 Outline of a Study on Writing for Social Action) (Bomer & Bomer, 2011, page 124).
1. Reviewing- students will look back through their notebooks to find previous entries that connect to social issues and mark them. Should spend one to two days.
2. Collecting- Students will collect in their notebook, their thinking in response to current events in the world around them, using lenses related to social justice. Students should spend two to three weeks.
3. Identifying topic- students will reread notebooks to see what topic has most captured their interest and passion. Students should take one or two days.
4. Initial research- students find out enough about their topic to be able to describe it to potential allies among their classmates. Students should spend a few days on this section.
5. Creating coalitions- students get one another interested in their topics, and decide, within newly formed groups, what they will work on. Students should take a few days.
6. Researching topic- teams other information about their topic, get their facts straight, and deepen their understanding, in order to plan action. Students should take a few days up to a week on this part.
7. Action plans- Groups plan what they are going to try to do, especially how they will use writing to do something about their issue. This should take only a few days.
8. Action- Groups carry out their plans, try things, encounter problems, reevaluate, revise, try something else, and so forth. This should take three to four weeks.
9. Shifts in focus- Some groups change groups. This is an ongoing shift.
10. Reflection and evaluation- Students reflect on and name what they have learned through their social action. This will take a few days.
This is a great starting point for all teachers, over this semester we discussed lots of social issues going on right now. This templet is a great way to start our students to becoming activists for what they believe in.
Get to Work as a Teacher Political Agent!
Corresponding with chapter 8, teachers are to chose text to bring into the classroom the introduce a critical conversation, where students can hear the issues happening around the world. This will bring the students awareness of the issues and as their teacher you will help them find issues that they want to advocate for, you will help them research and create a plan on what they can do next. In order to teach our students to be activist, we must first be the students of learning what the issues we are activating for change. We must first live as activist if we want our students to be activists. It is like telling our students to stop being racist but yet we let our biases control our actions of secluding ourselves from different races, which is an act of racism In Chapter 9, it discusses what you can do if you aren't in a hurry or ready to attend a rally, how can you still help the change? "WE NEED A PROCESS."(Bomer & Bomer, 2011, pg. 159). This process includes 5 step of thinking for teachers. 1. Building community 2. Identifying purpose 3. Developing learners 4. Taking action 5. Evaluating process. (Bomer & Bomer, 2011, pg. 159). These five stages are what a teacher should set their process of activism in their classroom. One main part in chapter 9, states that teachers must build this community, where they can be held accountable in order to work for change.
Questions:
- Being in the IUPUI school of education, focusing on urban education, now that you have seen and given tools on how to be an activist, are you willing to do so Why? or why not? (I'm curious since we are all teaching the children of the future)
- At what age do you think it is important to teach activism? Should we teach kindergartners about activism why or why not? Give some examples of how you would?
- If you are not up for rallying, how can you still advocate for change?
References
Bomer, R., & Bomer, K. (2001). For a better world: reading and writing for social action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Great Blog Nancy! I like how you included the steps that you can use with students to have them start writing in social justice focused projects! To answer your last question, I think there are many ways someone can advocate for change other than rallying, including ways you can encourage your students to advocate. For example, in Chapter 8 of For a Better World, it suggests that students can write things such as petitions, letters, press releases, posters, pamphlets, flyers, poems, songs, and stories (Bomer & Bomer, 2001). These are all things a teacher could be doing as well to advocate for a better and more equitable future for their students. I think its important for students to see their teachers as advocates as an example for them. I really liked how in chapter 8, it talks about having students family or community members come into the classroom and talk about ways that they have been advocates. This is a good way to incorporate people who are important to students in the classroom, as well as it gives students ideas of how they can become advocates.
ReplyDeleteCitations:
Bomer, R., & Bomer, K. (2001). For a better world: reading and writing for social action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Ilyssa, I agree that there are many ways that someone can advocate for social change, it doesn’t always have to be done through rallying. Chapter 8 of Bomer & Bomer gave many great examples. Especially now with such a big focus on social media, activism can come in many different forms. Teachers can easily have students advocate through petitions and surveys, they can present information online or in person to other people. While I think one of the most common views of activism is through a rally, students should be exposed to the multiple different ways so that they know their voice will be heard in more than one way. I also like how you talked about students seeing their teachers as advocates and how that is important in activism. I agree with you and I think that it is also important to show students through the different forms of activism how they can use their voice in different ways to create change.
DeleteBomer, R., & Bomer, K. (2001). For a better world: reading and writing for social action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
To answer question 3, I think you can definitely advocate for change in other ways if rallying is out of your comfort zone. One way you can do this is by committing to be a culturally responsive teacher in your classroom ad your school. Ensuring that you are spreading this knowledge and community around your school is a hands on approach to trying to reach people close to you. By doing this, you can help encourage other teachers and faculty to have the same approach you do.
ReplyDeleteTaylor, I think that is a great idea and something incredibly important for us as teachers to do within our classroom. If we show students how to be activist, how to do things out of their comfort zone, etc. will allow for them to grow in lots of areas. What do you think are some specific ways that we can do this within the school, community or classroom?
DeleteI also think that these are some good examples of ways to advocate for change in other ways than rallying. I like when you say that it can help encourage other teachers and faculty to advocate for change. I think that making a community that helps people feel more comfortable to advocate for change because then their collective voices are being heard and it allows people to stay in their comfort zone while still doing something that they are passionate about.
DeleteThose are great points! A couple ideas I picked up: even if you're not directly involved in a rally itself, you can model to your students how to support protesters by handing out snacks and waters. If you're unable or unready to rally outside the classroom, bring the rally to the classroom. Bring issues from the media, from the community, and anything that your students have a connection to. Communicate with people in the community and invite people who are in the midst of action to speak to the students.
DeleteThank you all for sharing your points over what one can do it if they aren't u for rallying!
DeleteTo answer your second question, I think we could start teaching about activism as young as kindergarten. As we have talked about in previous courses, we can introduce social justice issues by reading children's literacy. Using literacy to introduce issues would be something that captures the attention of the students in way that is age appropriate. While a teacher could have students read current news, it can be too graphic for a young student to read about or difficult to understand. It depends on the age group definitely when depending how to go about introducing the topic. In the book, For a Better World, it states how students can write petitions, letters, posters, pamphlets, flyers, poems, songs, and stories (Bomer & Bomer 2001). Students can take what they have learned and become activists themselves. For example, if a class in the first grade had a classroom that does not have a library, they can read about Marley Dias who advocated for more books about Black girls. She was able to collect more than 1000 books that have Black girls as the main character. Dias also has her own book so having students read excerpts from the book and see how she was able to be an activist. The first grade students can write letters to different people who are in charge of the resources provided to the schools to be able to have books in their schools.
ReplyDeleteJackie, this is a great example of how a student could become activist! And I agree, I think children as young as Kindergarten could definitely start learning about activism! As you said, and as described in chapter 8 of For A Better World, students could write things like letters, stories, or make posters (Bomer & Bomer, 2001). I think at the age of kindergarten, you could begin by having conversations. If you wanted to incorporate writing, I think maybe making posters would be good for this age group. If they are unable to write, they could still use illustrations to represent the meaning they intend.
DeleteCitations:
Bomer, R., & Bomer, K. (2001). For a better world: reading and writing for social action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Great blog Nancy! I loved how you listed out the 10 steps on how the social action project should be done. That is something I want to remember for my future. I think your point about how we must be activists as teachers in order for our students to want to be activists is very important. We have to remember to be examples for them at all times. Looking at number 2, I think that there really isn't an age that you should begin teaching activism. Kindergartener's are little and young but can understand a lot more than people realize. I think that we could have them think about something they don't like or that they would like to change and guide them in thinking about how they could do this. There could be many ways that they could show this understanding.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that students as young as kindergarten are capable of understanding activism. Students can be taught how to stand up for things that they feel passionate about at a young age. I think it could be very beneficial to introduce this idea to kids early because then they will start to see all the many ways that they can advocate for change, and can start to see which ones will work best for them.
DeleteAbby and Rylee, thank you for posting and disscussing on how it is never too early to start teaching about activism. Yeah, it is very too early to start, as a teacher we just have to be willing to do so. Abby, ever since we talked about how we must be living the way before we teach our students. I have been evaluating myself ever since.
DeleteI also liked how you listed out the 10 steps! This would be very helpful for visual learners and those who do well with organization and lists! In addition, if we, as educators, are motivated and passionate to be activists, this will guide how we teach our students, which will influence them to become activists themselves! Moreover, I also don't see an age where it's too young to introduce activism. Children can show basic understand in little ways and it's important for us to incorporate activism into our classroom to shape our students to become critical thinkers!
DeleteI love all of your questions. But in reference to the second question. I think that you could never start teaching about activism too early. Everyone should be able to fight or talk about what they want or what they think is right. Starting children early will allow them to know exactly what they want and not be afraid to ask for more.
ReplyDeleteNancy, to answer your second question, I think it's appropriate to incorporate activism in the classroom. Even in the kindergarten level, it would affect our students for their futures and shape their motivations. For example, creating lessons, discussions, activities, and games that push students towards creating positive relationships with those who share similarities and differences with them will lead to cultural awareness. Knowledge of cultural misconceptions and continually experiencing diverse cultures will motivate them to speak up and become activists in the future.
ReplyDeleteNancy, to answer question 1, I think any age is a bale to here about activism in the classroom. I think it would be great to start bringing in activism as a young age of kindergarten. I think one way you can incorporate this is by talking about social justice issues by using children books. One that we are using in our UBD is The White Socks. Our students were able to understand that what happened to the little girl was racist. Students are able to possibly rel;ate this to their own life or even something that they have seen.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I think this is a really good point. If we start students out young and allow them to see and call out injustices, they may be more likely to want to contribute to stopping such injustices. I remember my mom taking my sister and I to protests and rallies when we were growing up and I think that is one thing that made me go to the Red for Ed rally. It was out of my comfort zone even though I had already been to some, but I understood why it was so important because my mom introduced me to similar things at a young age.
DeleteI am definitely going to teach students how to be an activist when I am a teacher. I think with the tools outlined in Bomer, all teachers should, not just students focusing on urban education. I think that any age is available to start learning about activism. Even if you don't create a lesson on activism, just showing your students that you are an activist (for events such as red for ed), will help them see that an activist isn't some far away person, their teacher is one too.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Brandt that students need to be taught or shown how to be an activist. It's important that students seem themselves as someone who can stand up for themselves when they find themselves in a hard situation. I do believe that any age and any student can start learning about activism.
DeleteTo answer number 3 I think you can be activist by calling and writing to your senators, and by voting. You can bring this into your classroom by letting your students choose an issue and write about it. You don't necessarily have to get them to write to their senator, but getting them to write about something they believe in can get them started on having their own beliefs and opinions that they care about.
ReplyDeleteI think having your students write about an issue is a great way to introduce social injustice and activism. This is a great idea for students who might not be super confident speaking on issues and feel more comfortable writing about their feelings and opinions. That would make an excellent project as well-you could have students research an issue in their community and then write a research paper about their findings and a final letter to a senator or governor about how the issue could be fixed.
DeleteTo answer question 1, I would say before this time I wold have not been willing to be an activist for my students. I am not one that likes to stand up in front of people and speak my mind. Going through this program I have found myself becoming more open to the idea of standing up for what I believe in. I also have realized that it is beyond important to be an activist for our students, ourselves, and our colleagues. The Urban education program has changed my thought process on this and I do feel like I would be willing to be an activist. If you are willing to be an activist then you are willing to be there for your students. Also, if you become an activist then you are teaching your students to become activist and how to stand up for themselves in situations where they need to stand up for themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your third question, I think that rallying is one way to stand up for your students, but it can also be a deterrent for some people to see that you are advocating for something instead of just "causing a scene." I personally did go to the Red for Ed Rally, but I felt slightly uncomfortable as we bombarded the legislators as they walked in the door. Many of them seemed agitated and I found myself wondering if that was really the best way to get action. I think that in the future, I would start on a school level on order to enact change in curriculum. After that I would move to a district level. I think we just have to be persistent and have all teachers support each other in order to get the change that we are working so hard for. There are also ways to contact lawmakers and local representatives to express your thoughts and opinions about the way your school system is.
ReplyDeleteAt what age do you think it is important to teach activism? Should we teach kindergartners about activism why or why not? Give some examples of how you would?
ReplyDeleteI believe it is acceptable to teach any age about being an activist. Students should always know how and why to stand up for what is right. It can be difficult at times to find the right method to use or what to say but standing up for yourself should always be molded into the heads of our students. One way to teach about activism even to our younger students is saying if you don't agree with something you have the right to speak against it in a respectable manner.
In regards to question 3, I think that people can still activate for social justice without necessarily going to a rally. People can educate themselves and research various social injustices, attend workshops where they learn ways to combat these injustices and educate others about them, and teach their students about social injustice in their own community. I know that a lot of people didn't feel super comfortable going to a rally-but it's okay to still support a cause without being so bold about it.
ReplyDeleteResponding to question 2. One of my favorite quotes is by Frederick Douglass, who says, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." In saying this, I think Douglass is speaking on the importance of teaching social action, among other things, early. That way, children can grow comfortable engaging in social action early on in life so that it become second nature in adulthood. I aspire to teach kindergarten when I begin my career and social action will have a place in my classroom. To start them off in the direction of social action, I would have them pick an issue they notice in their school and brainstorm solutions to the issue. They would then petition the school's admin to let them know what the issue is and what they decided to be the best solution.
ReplyDelete