Learning About Activism

This unit has “made me want to take part in more things I believe in,” said one 3rd grader who explained that  activism is “something that you believe in and want to help.” 

3/4 teacher Tess Ross Callahan explained that “the overall goal of this unit was to 1) live out our Quaker identity by making connections to the founding of Quakerism and putting the SPICES into action, and 2) offer a transferable model for advocacy that students could take with them in the future. We used Generation Citizen's Advocacy Hourglass model to help organize our thinking about the change-making process.”

“My students came up with a newspaper for the class and practiced persuasive writing in a letter to Angela (the Head of School) asking to create this new publication,” explained Ania Hendy, another 3/4 teacher. This unit brought some surprises for her about her students. “I didn’t know they were aware of so many things going on around them and I didn’t realize how impactful this would be for them for wanting to see changes in their school and for seeing a role for themselves in something larger as well.”