Advocacy

Introduction

The vast majority of my students come from a disenfranchised population, be it due to their race, their socioeconomic status, or a combination of these factors. Because of this, they live in a world that is working against them, setting them up for failure. In fact, there are many societal issues they will face every day. They have to learn to how to become advocates to make sure that they are standing up for themselves, requiring society to improve and create a more equal playing field. However, this does not come naturally. Through these advocacy projects, students should become more aware of the issues around them and practice advocating for themselves and others.

Advocacy: Conversation

Introduction to Voting Rights

Even though they will not be able to vote for about a decade, my students have already shown interest in the voting process. In an ELA story, they had the chance to learn about what voting is and why people vote. One aspect that really caught their attention was a surprising fact that women and people of color gained the right to vote many years after White men. Since this piqued their interest, I decided to go more in depth on the topic, even going into the current issue of low voter turnout. If students are able to articulate the importance of voting, it will not only encourage them to be active citizens as adults- it can also help encourage those around them to take an active part in the voting process as well.

Advocacy Lesson Plan

Lesson plan for voting rights that connects what students had learned previously learned about in their book Vote! to issues we face today such as low voter turnout

Explicit Teaching: Lesson Plan Materials

In my lesson plan, students get to participate in collaborative conversations to expand their ideas of voting rights beyond the story they read. In these collaborative conversations, they start by reviewing the historical obstacles around voting, particularly for women and people of color. From there, they learn about the current issues that voters face. They discussed why voters may not exercise their rights, even if they are allowed to vote. They built out reasons for why people should vote if they have the chance, even if they are not sure it is important.

After building out these ideas, students used graphic organizers to build a full argument that could help convince someone of the importance of voting. They thought of a specific audience, and organized reasons that were relevant to that specific person. This way they were able to build a coherent argument that they could actually use in their lives outside the classroom.

The insighting image to get students excited about voting rights. This is pulled from the story we read, and features the fact that originally sparked conversation. I will bring this image back to remind students of what we discussed, and then continue to move the conversation forward towards present day.

After we discussed the fact that many people still do not vote even though they can, students came up with reasons why it is important for adults to vote. They started by addressing an adult they knew would be able to vote, to ground their work. They then individually came up with reasons that they should take an active role in voting. This would equip them with concrete reasons for the importance of voting. Especially since the students themselves cannot vote yet, having reasons to discuss with adults can help them guide the conversation and communicate the importance of voting to those who can.

Lesson Evidence/Student Work Samples

My students used collaborative conversations to explore their thoughts about voting. This gave them the ability to brainstorm ideas and get peer review to refine their reasoning. They could get inspired by each other's ideas and practice actually having these conversations. This is especially helpful for students who have a hard time articulating their ideas into fully formed arguments. I also make sure they used sentence stems as part of their collaborative conversations to help with this skill. Students might not know how to start, so giving them a template such as "I think you should vote because..." creates a scaffold for them to articulate their ideas.

Though this student struggled with the third reason, she felt very strongly about voting making you a mouthpiece for the ideas for community improvement. She also pointed out something specific to Hawai`i: voting for candidates who place an emphasis on working towards Hawaiian values. Considering many politicians in Hawai`i did not grow up there and often receive donations from large real estate companies that receive major tax breaks, it is a very relevant issue to Hawaiian voters.

This student was most captivated by the history of working towards voting rights for all. In class, she was captivated by the protests and hunger strikes that it took for all people to receive the right to vote that were explained in the texts we read, and so she reflected this in her graphic organizer by saying that people "worked very hard" to be able to vote. Beyond this, she also had read that voting was fun to do which also stuck with her.

This student was also struck by the fight for the right to vote, and decided to include it as her third reason why adults could vote. In our class discussion, she had mentioned that she thought the voting age should be lowered so kids could get a say as well. When I asked her about her first reason in her graphic organizer she explained to me that if she could not vote as a child, she wanted the adults who took care of her to do so for her.

Lesson Follow-Through

Once the students had built their graphic organizers, they were able to share with a partner in class as practice for the way they would talk to others with whom they could potentially have their discussion of voting rights. Afterwards, they were encouraged to take their work home in order to share with their families. Many students had actually named specific family members who they thought would be good candidates for voting. This way, they were actually able to share their work and even present their arguments to said family members.

Conclusion and Reflection

In going through this project with my students, I realized that my students do not always realize that the problems they face societally are solvable. They often either feel that the problem is fixed, or that they cannot do anything about it. Having them explicitly think about the why behind their feelings around an issue can help them transform their passion into something usable that will make them feel more empowered to address these issues head-on. However, by doing this activity I realized that it might be difficult to build out their arguments and make explicit connections. For example, many students were upset to hear about how difficult it was for everyone to get the right to vote, and they were upset to learn that not every adult voted. However, they could not always explain why those two things were linked. They also struggled to articulate why voting was so valuable, despite wanting to lower the voting age. Moving forward, I will continue to help students flesh out their reasoning, which will in turn give the confidence to make these arguments and advocate for themselves.

Advocacy: Action

Introduction to Hawaiian Culture and Hula

My students are steeped in a world where it is perfectly normal to learn hula and have Hawaiian Studies classes. However, they do not know the struggle from years past to get them to this point. They will be learning a history of hula, its importance, and even zoom in on the significance of one specific hula. From there, they will educate the rest of the school on the importance of this hula and lead their peers in this hula. This way they are participating in the revival movement themselves and increasing their cultural pride.

Hula/O Iwi E Lesson Plan

This lesson plan guides students through the history of hula, when it was banned, and the way that we view it today. This will help give students a clearer context of why we would discuss these issues and what we can do about it moving forward.

Explicit Teaching: Lesson Plan Materials

This lesson will take place over several days. Students will start by reflecting on their knowledge of hula, then its importance as a part of Hawaiian culture and history. From there, they will form a small speech to share their learning with the rest of their peers. They will explain the value of learning hula today as young Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiians), and why we need continue passing on these traditions. They will touch on the banning of hula as well as the way that this practice was maintained. From there, they will focus on `Oiwi E, a well known hula and explain its importance. Then, to reinforce their point, they will lead the rest of the school in singing and dancing `Oiwi E.

Hula Lesson Clip.MOV

The students practiced collaborative conversations in order to articulate the importance of hula. This takes place on the second day of our lesson, so it served as a recap of what they had learned on the previous day. However, it also allowed them to articulate their own learning which would be valuable for the second half of their learning where they would have to build out an explanation for the rest of the school to communicate their learning.

Morning Piko Script

The students summarized and reflected on their learning, turning their new understanding into a small speech that they could deliver to the school. They dictated to me what they wanted to communicate to the rest of the school, making sure that it was accessible from Kindergarten to fifth grade. From there, they decided to split up the speech, and have two designated speakers to represent them. However, they wanted to perform `Oiwi E as a class with the rest of the school.

Lesson Evidence/Student Work Samples

Although I knew they would have a certain level of engagement with the material and the topic at hand, I was thrilled with the way this lesson was carried out. Most of my role was facilitating conversation and helping students articulate their thoughts that they were able to form independently. It became very clear very quickly that hula was an important touchstone for them. They could see the connection between themselves and ancient Hawaiians who first created these hula by explaining that they performed the same hula as their ancestors, but also with those who kept the art form going even when it was banned. They were able to provide insightful responses to each other and to me when reflecting on hula. Even when we were showing videos of people dancing hula, some of my students were up out of their seats trying to dance along. Beyond this, my co-teacher and I were able to show the students videos of ourselves dancing hula, which made the students even more excited. They were thrilled to be able to share this new knowledge with their peers at school. Even though they were nervous, they decided to write out statements and then have a few students deliver the message for the class. They also all articulated that when they danced hula after this lesson, it felt more special because they knew about its history and importance. They applied this knowledge by focusing on a hula called `Oiwi E. They looked at the translation of the hula and pointed out that it was being proud of their island and their ancestors, something that was amplified by their new understanding of the context surrounding the practice of hula.

Lesson Follow-Through

During our monthly schoolwide assembly, students shared their knowledge about 'Owi E with their peers. They had a few students as "spokespeople" to read the statement they had formed as a class. Their pride in their work was obvious as they led the school in a performance of 'Owi E. Many of them sang louder than usual, or performed the motions with more excitement. They also spoke eagerly about their next Hawaiian Studies class, ready to learn more mele (songs or chants) and hula that they could then teach their families and friends.

Here my students are performing the hula to `Oiwi E. Having the movements of the hula combined provided an opportunity for kinesthetic learners to be able to process and remember their learning better. The hula can act as a trigger for their retrieval process, helping the learning be more "sticky".

ʻŌiwi e.m4a

Conclusion and Reflection

Because my students are so isolated on the island, Hawaiian culture is a fact of life, not a source of pride. This lesson helped change their perspective from the former to the latter. They solidified a deep connection to their history, and gave them a broader lens through which to view something that they had seen as relatively mundane. They grew to understand the necessity of their cultural pride, and their responsibility as stewards of Hawai`i. Though they did have some idea of the purpose of hula, this lesson helped them more fully embrace their role as cultural practitioners and even future leaders. Moving forward, the students will be able to approach other Hawaiian practices with the same appreciation, because of their new knowledge. To further empower them, my classroom will continue to emphasize place-based learning, discussion of more recent Hawaiian history, and even incorporation Hawaiian language in my teaching.

Explicit Lesson on Advocacy

After my students had finished these projects, they still were not connecting them. They saw both as causes that were important to stand up for, but other than that their work was unrelated. In order to make sure they understood that these two projects were linked, we had an explicit lesson on advocacy. I introduced them to the word "advocacy", and related it to them in student-friendly terms. We then talked about historical advocates, and practiced identifying our actions as advocacy. This allowed students to shape their perceptions of their own agency and their ability to continue this action of being an advocate throughout their lives.

Advocacy Lesson Plan

The lesson plan I created encourages the students to reflect on their learning across these projects. They then use their knowledge of voting rights and hula to understand what advocates looked like historically. From there, they were able to come to the conclusion that their own actions advocated for the same things that those historical advocates worked for. They would then use sentence stems to fully articulate their thoughts and identify themselves as advocates.

Advocacy.pptx

In the lesson, students came to identify themselves as advocates, independently citing Rosa Parks' actions. It then led to a discussion of what advocacy can look like. They came to the conclusion that advocates are not always the people getting arrested, going on hunger strikes, or teaching hula in secret. Their own work that they performed in class was a form of advocacy, and this was something they would continue doing for the rest of their lives.

Conclusion

Because of these opportunities, my students certainly became more conscious of the issues around them and the importance of advocacy. They practiced discussing issues that were meaningful to them, and learning what they can do about these issues. They also became more aware that they could effect change and become teachers to help others in their advocacy. I do think going forward that I will continue to use cultural or societal issues that they already feel strongly about. These helped ignite their passion and allowed them to become more articulate. However, I would also like to work on making sure they are better able to talk about the why aspect of these issues. Although they can identify injustices, I would further practice understanding their reasoning around these causes. Overall, I do feel that their ability to talk about societal issues increased as did their pride in their cultural identity.

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