CORTNIE BELSER'S MSED PORTFOLIO
A Student-Led Inclement Weather Policy
Action-Based Advocacy: Students have a knowledge of injustice in the world, have informed opinions about it,
and know their voice and actions have value. They can advocate for themselves and others.
Table of Contents
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Introduction to Action-Based Advocacy
Advocacy Lesson Plan Instruction
Introduction
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While I facilitated much of the conversation-based advocacy students experienced during our engagement with Councilman Cohen, my students utilized the critical thinking skills there to apply to a wider context of action-based advocacy concerning the City School's district policies for inclement weather closings. About a week or so following Councilman Cohen's visit to my classroom, schools were closed for wind chill one day, but opened on time a few days later even though there was snow fall during the time students travel to school. For that day’s warm-up prompt, I simply asked students if they agreed or disagreed with CEO Santelises's decision to not even delay an opening. As students lead the warm-up discussion daily, I began to hear responses from "This is a waste of a school day cause everyone isn't even here" to "I slipped this morning!" to probing, "Does she even talk to students when they make these decisions?" In effect, a typical day's instruction turned into a student-led action-based advocacy project.
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Advocacy Lesson Plan Instruction ​
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As my students begin to develop their ability to move from conversation-based to action-based advocacy through their own interests, it is still my role as a teacher to facilitate explicit instruction that guide their critical thinking as agents of change. One of the pivotal ways I am able to accomplish this is not through my own analysis, but rather exposing my students to other young people who are advocating for student rights.
The lesson plan above was developed as a "Raise the Bar" instructional planning lesson with the purpose to introduce and engage students in a rigorous lesson that exposes students to local and national injustices, while reinforces content. With the 8th grade unit text focus on the National Anthem, I lead students in a discussion on NFL quarterback's Colin Kaepernick's protest and this history of athlete's activism. Alongside this, students evaluated claims and warrants on the ACLU's Know Your Rights info sheet, and the Anti-PARCC music video of student organizers in Baltimore as evidence and practice of how they will develop their action project. The lesson's annotations are my analysis of how each component of the Instructional Focus areas facilitated not only a more rigorous discussion but also initiated my own students' action-oriented advocacy.
The document above is the preliminary notes from my Assistant Principal who observed this lesson as my formal observation. My AP's notes reflects how I initiated instructional strategies for students to feel empowered about speaking, thinking, and writing on student rights and activism so that they can also engage later in the week on their own advocacy interests. On page 3, the red box highlights disagreeing responses students felt about the Baltimore students' test protest. Since my students felt that this form of protest was powerful but possibly misunderstood by district leaders, it was natural for them to develop a more structured policy proposal.
Opening Student Discussion
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As mentioned, my students lead the warm-up discussion. During this particular day's prompt, my students utilized the opinions developed from their own experience and our conversations with Councilman Cohen to draw connections and analysis on the injustices students and families face when the district ineffectively opens and closes schools due to weather conditions.
The slide above is the warm-up question students are responding to in the audio clip below. I posed these two questions to continue to build the critical thinking skills in my students for them to develop claims and evidence to support their opinions.
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The documents above represent sample student responses to the two questions. Prior to discussing aloud, students spend 4-5 minutes writing the daily objective and answering the prompt questions. As the student sample demonstrate, over 60 percent of my students disagreed with the decision to open schools on time. In addition, they were able to integrate personal experiences as well as their observances to defend their opinion.
The clip above is a voice thread of my students discussing the issue of whether the district's weather policy is fair and equitable for all students. In my classroom, informal class discussions are integral to building a strong class culture that all students can participate in my classroom to some capacity. While some students reference specific reasons why they believe the CEO's decision was fair and reasonable, other students participate in the discussion because they feel they have a perspective she is not considering. By allowing students autonomy in how they construct their discussion, I reiterate to students that their voices are a collective asset worth hearing. In addition to sharing their opinions, my students pose various questions such as, "Why aren't students and parents a part of making the decision?" As students began brainstorming, it was clear that they ready for the leadership of taking action.
Planning for Policy Proposal ​
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I did not write a full lesson plan because I wanted this advocacy experience to be authentic and centered from the organizing work of students. Although there was not a lesson plan, I did want to teach students valuable skills in organizing and action-based advocacy. However, I structured the learning experience build on a shared responsibility for the advocacy project that they were eager to begin. To support but not lead students, I requested for one of them to remind me to make a handout that would help them begin their weather policy proposal. From there, my purpose was to strengthen the individual and collective assets of students offering my support and resources as needed for them to successfully navigate and challenge the injustices they experience.
The image above is a screenshot from a text a student sent me following our opening class discussion. This evidence demonstrates how students engaged in the action planning from the beginning of this advocacy project. Additionally, although I was on a field trip, the students continued working on their project while I was not present as the student asks for a photo of the groups found on the Powerpoint above Slide 5.
The PowerPoint above was used to initiate and support students' organization, critical thinking, and planning for this project and a guide to the introductory student handout. As shown in Slide 3, the video clip of Superintendent Santelises is from the community meeting held with Councilman Cohen earlier in the year, but is integrated into this advocacy experience because her points are relevant to this discussion. I utilize Dr. Santelises' speech to initiate a deeper understanding for students about how weather closing procedures work; students engage through the Stop N Jot and Turn N Talk activities to vocalize their reflections on her words. From there, students decide to follow through on designing their own policy proposal. My Powerpoint presentation to students is intentionally simplistic as I wanted students to use their individual and collective assets instead of relying on a guided instructional plan.
The student work samples above represent evidence of how students utilize conversation-based advocacy skills, such as close reading analysis, to construct a narrative of the current effective and ineffective policy practices. The information I provided students was taken directly from the district's website. While I modeled an analysis of the first paragraph for students to understand how to relate their experiences and insights into clear comments and questions, students then were released into their teams to annotate, analyze, and initiate their proposal planning from there. As pages 3 and 5 show, the back of the handout separates the planning into three student teams: Creative Team, Research Team, and Policy Team. While the entire advocacy project focused on designing a student-led weather policy, students self-selected their team assignments based on the specific responsibilities and contributions of that team. By initiating team assignments, this reiterated how individual student assets would be impactful to the collective impact of the group as each student has their unique contribution to the project.
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Click on each image above to learn more about what student actions were taking place to support their action-based advocacy work.
Supporting Documents of Weather Policy Proposal
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To support students, I created a shared Google Drive file for students to access documents and resources. Here, students moved from brainstorming to writing and editing their draft proposals
The Excel sheet above is evidence of how the Research Team supported the collective efforts of the class's policy proposal. The three graphs included in the table are visual representations following the student surveys administered to the middle school student. As indicated in the student's analysis next to the graph, student data supports their policy suggestion that schools should still serve students breakfast when there is a 2-hour delay since the majority of that time is spent traveling to school safely.
This is a sample of the student work documents constructed using the shared Google Drive folder. The document above to the left is the Policy and Creative Teams' collaborative final representation of their inclement weather policy proposal manifesto to be sent to the school district leaders. The document above to the right is the Policy and Research Team's collaborative idea of creating an online platform where students and teacher can continue learning even though schools are closed. In these two products students demonstrate how they have internalized instruction focused on student-driven advocacy and demands to district leaders. As a reflection of students' analysis of the Anti-PARCC music video and other student movements, they have crafted a clear and concise representation of their demands and interests, both in academic and accessible language.
This is a sample of one of the student letters drafted to the district leaders to highlight the effective and ineffective aspects of the current inclement weather policy and the student amendment changes.
Student and Teacher Reflections ​
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My students are aware of the multifaceted layers of building an effective advocacy movement. With a record breaking Winter season, my students returned from Spring Break with classroom temperatures continuing to be below 30 degrees. As students begin to prepare for closing activities, standardized tests, and their final days in middle school, it was inevitable for us to naturally reflect on the advocacy work built throughout the school year. While many students assumed their inclement weather policy proposal would be most relevant going into next school year, the frigid classrooms temperatures in April further ignited the their sense of agents of change. It is evident that I do not have to empower my students as they have developed a strong sense of self-efficacy amongst themselves, in which they are both passionate and critical of how they represent themselves as student change makers. As my classroom's temperature continues to plummet in mid-April, student reflect on the process of receiving a response on their policy proposal. As directed by my students, every week I continue to resend their "We, the Students, believe" policy proposal and data to different district leaders weekly, hoping that garner to response before they go on to various high schools across the city. Ultimately, this action-based advocacy project, has far exceeded my instructional expectations of student engagement, as student reflections demonstrate how the young people in my classroom are not merely thinking, speaking, and writing about the injustices that they face, but have sustained a sense of responsibility to work towards eradicating harsh conditions for themselves and peers to come after them.
The PowerPoint slide above is the selection of questions I presented to students to stimulate conversation and written reflection on the follow-up of their policy proposal. While a student led the whole-class discussion, I also wanted students to articulate their sentiments and project next action steps in a written format as well.