taking action: Learning to take action as leaders
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GOALS:Goals/Objectives:
RATIONALE:In the first experience, Leadership Qualities, students analyzed famous leader’s strengths and determined their own strengths and abilities as leaders. In experience two, students made connections to underprivileged children and themselves. In experience three, the students reflected on ways they could use their leadership traits and ideas to answer questions raised about a variety of aspects of homelessness. The first three experiences helped develop student thinking to see that they are leaders and can make changes to things around them.
The fourth learning experience will be the culmination of the foundation that was laid during the first three experiences. The goal is for students to see they are leaders who can take action toward change and help those who are experiencing hardship. Students will do this by developing and presenting an action plan in a mock town hall meeting. MATERIALS:· Movie: The Little Red Wagon
· IPads/Printing access for Graphic Organizers · Internet access for Graphic Organizers and research on Roles for Drama · Research books, articles, magazines and articles related to work done by and responsibilities of a mayor, resident, business owner, homeless person, Policeman, secretary, or student. · Trading Cards from Experience One (Civil Rights and other Culturally Diverse Leaders) · Box of Props (Flag, Hats, Suit Jackets, culturally diverse articles of clothing, backpack, etc.) BEFORE THE READING EXPERIENCE:Students will be given an entrance slip when they arrive to class. The question they will be asked is: Think about a time you thought something was not fair. How did it make you feel? What did you do about it? Did it solve your problem? How did you feel after?
This question will be asked to activate prior knowledge. The teacher is looking for students to tell how they felt emotionally, how they solved the issue and how they felt afterwards. The teacher is also looking for students that took multiple attempts to solve their problem. The teacher will use those students to show that even though the students were able to solve a piece of their problem, they had to go back and think of ways at solving other pieces to their problems. The focus of the entrance slip is that the students were leaders for changes in their personal lives. Students will then be told they will be watching a film about a boy named Zach who became a leader in the fight against homelessness. They will be introduced to who the main character is in real life. Today we are going to be watching a film about a very young leader. The film is about a boy named Zach Bonner, who is a real person. He founded The Little Red Wagon Foundation when he was only eight years old. He has been an advocate for helping children in need, specifically homeless children. Today he is nineteen years old and still continues to raise awareness about homeless children. The film is about him and how he first started to get involved and how it evolved into what it is today. As we watch the film I want you to take notes about how Zach first got involved in helping. How did he get others to help him? How does his help evolve throughout the movie? How is he a leader and how did he use that to help children? Teacher will start the film and observe that all students are taking notes. Start movie. Pause at 17:35 min.
Continue watching. Pause at 52:26.
Continue the film to the end.
DURING:Zach’s story is powerful. He shows us that anyone can be a leader and that you need help from others to make things happen. You are going to get the chance to lead change.
You will be getting into groups of four that I have assigned. Like in the movie, you will be creating an action plan and presenting it to your classmates. As a group, you need to research your topic and write a script for what you want to say. Give students several minutes to read and decide on their role. Your group needs to select a topic that we used in our silent gallery. After choosing one of the topics, you will work together to create and present an action plan. As you are forming your action plan, you need to keep in mind what questions or concerns stakeholders would have with your plan. You will have two days in the computer lab to gather information. After you will have another two days in class to work on and practice your script. In one week we will start our town hall meetings. On the day of your town hall meeting each group will present your action plan. Your classmates and I are the stakeholders to your action plan. The mayor, residents, and the homeless will be present. Make sure that your plan will address each of these people. The teacher is observing that the students have provided evidence to support their claim and are able to justify it by removing doubt to the stakeholders. AFTER:What was it like to create an action plan?
What was difficult about the process? What questions came up through this experience? What questions do you still have? Could you use what we did here to make other changes? Like what? DIFFERENTIATION:The lesson supports linguistic, academic and cultural diversity in a few ways. The students will be watching a film so those students that have low linguistic skills can visualize and hear how dialogue in regards to homelessness can occur. They will be developing language skills with brief discussions during the movie. The same is true for lower performing students. These students will be able to model the town hall meeting in the movie. Cultural diversity is supported in the lesson because the lesson is centered on an underprivileged community; that of the homeless.
This lesson includes a variety of instructional approaches. The students will be listening and observing during the film. They will also be discussing key questions. During the roleplay, the students are writing a script, drawing on posters and creating a dialogue. The lesson builds on the linguistically and culturally diverse by creating similarities to themselves. Their personal backgrounds help to bring a different perspective and to help contribute to different points of view. For example, a foreign student may have experienced isolation and may be able to empathize with the homeless. The lesson supports the English language learners by having them create a script prior to presenting the mock meeting. This allows those students to see and write the words prior to presenting. Those students have the opportunity to practice the words. During this process the students are able to think creatively because they are able to pick the topic of their choice in regards to homelessness and they are responsible for deciding what role they want to play. During this time the students are developing their own leadership skills as they become responsible for the content of their mock meeting and the points of view each of them represent. They are becoming independent learners as they explore an issue in depth. This also promotes a variety of learning styles. Students are able to contribute in a variety of ways like researching, typing the role play, creating posters, or creating the dialogue. u will have another two days in class to work on and practice your script. In one week we will start our town hall meetings. On the day of your town hall meeting each group will present your action plan. Your classmates and I are the stakeholders to your action plan. The mayor, residents, and the homeless will be present. Make sure that your plan will address each of these people. The teacher is observing that the students have provided evidence to support their claim and are able to justify it by removing doubt to the stakeholders. ASSESSMENT: There will be multiple forms of assessment during this experience. Formative assessment will be done during the discussion of the film. During this time the teacher will be looking to see if the students’ answers are showing that they can identify key leadership characteristics of Zach. The teacher will also be looking for students to identify the issues that the homeless child and mother are experiencing and the effect Zach’s contributions had on their lives.
Performance assessment will be measured with a rubric. The rubric will be used to assess the students during the mock town hall meeting presentation. The teacher will be looking to see evidence based research. Teacher will also be looking to see that the students have prepared for the meeting and have taken on their role as a leader. Summative assessment will be used to assess an overall understanding. The script will be used to measure that key concepts have been identified. The teacher will be looking to see that the students have identified an issue in regards to homelessness, have developed empathy for their role and other roles, and are able to verbalize an argument. The script should be written in a way that can identify leadership attributes. Observations will be done during the research and script development. The teacher will be walking around and listening to the dialogue occurring during the process. The teacher will observe and take note of student’s active/passive participation and their dialogue among the group members. CLOSURE AND NEXT STEPS: The lesson will end with a discussion on the experience. Students will discuss their different roles and how it affected them. The discussion will lead us to identifying what leaders do to facilitate change and how they contributed to change within their own groups. They will also write a short reflection on what it was like working in their group.
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