To Teach Civic Engagement, Students Have to Practice It in the Classroom

Young people may not have the power to cast a vote, but more and more youth are engaged to make their voices heard in politics. Young people are motivated to see changes in policies and they offer different perspectives that have the potential to move ideas forward. Their participation in politics is invaluable to the future of democracy—and yet “their civic and political commitment is the lowest of all demographic groups, judged by traditional standards” according to the MacArthur Foundation.

At the same time, young people gravitate to social media and other technology that spreads their points of view via peers and influencers. This trend has given rise to youth participatory politics: interactive peer-based acts, which give both individuals and groups the power of voice and the ability to influence laws and policies. As an educator, you can meet your students where they are with new media and social networking by sharing with them the power of engaging civically with the tools and channels they are already using.

The modern phenomenon of youth participatory politics and “e-democracy” has engaged students across the globe to get involved in issues they want to see evolve.  Examples include events like poetry slams or near-peer workshops and forums as well as writing blog posts, sharing political cartoons, participating in mock-voting and sharing petitions. These are all civic engagement opportunities students can do before they are able to vote. 

Moreover, these activities reach large audiences and engage others either in person or on line. A survey of 2,462 Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) teachers by Pew Research showed that 96% agree (including 52% who strongly agree) that digital technologies “allow students to share their work with a wider and more varied audience.” Students are empowered to share facts about a cause to start a dialogue that can shape agendas and provide feedback to decision makers. 

When you give young people the opportunity to voice their opinions and share their beliefs whether through the sharing of information, the creation of materials (a blog post, letter to the editor, or informational video) or the circulation of links, petitions or polls you will likely see enthusiasm and excitement in learning because these tools have real time metrics that enable students to measure their influence.

Some suggested activities for young people who may not be able to vote yet are:

·       Get involved locally: volunteer on or start a campaign.

·       Attend a city council or town hall meeting and talk to your council members.

·       Start or participate in a petition. Petitions allow you to voice your concerns with local, state and national issues.

·       Find and research your state and congressional representatives. Who are they? What do they stand for? What bills have they voted for/against? Do these policies best represent you and your community.

·       Learn deeply and share information with you peers. All change begins with knowledge.

·       Use social media to share what you are passionate about and the changes you wish to see.

 

The American Immigration Council suggests participating in a petition to the White House. Petitions to the White House are an effective way to have voices heard and to have a demonstrated impact. Be a part of history and help us launch the National Museum of the American People (NMAP). It is destined to become one of the greatest and most dynamic immigration history museums anywhere.

NMAP will tell about the making of the American People, our nation’s central story, and will be a must-visit on every school trip to Washington. The museum will focus on all of the ethnic, nationality and minority groups in our nation beginning with the first humans in the Western Hemisphere and proceeding through waves of immigration and migration until today. It can facilitate learning nationwide and help bind us as a nation.

Please go to http://wh.gov/iV98W and sign our petition on the White House web site and provide your name, email and zip code. You will then be sent an email for you to verify your petition signature.

Then, as a further step in participatory politics, you can forward the White House link to your social networks. We, of course, invite you to make this a class project. We want thousands of teachers and students, especially new immigrants, to endorse this museum.

Stay Connected!

We offers free lesson plans, resources, book/film reviews, and grants to teach immigration. We also welcome teacher and student book reviews and contributions to our blog. Email us at teacher@immcouncil.org and follow us on twitter @ThnkImmigration #teachimmigration

A Student-Centered, Project-Based Approach to Teaching about Immigration

On Monday, October 26th, we invited more than 50 students and their teachers from selected Long Island schools to come together to discuss immigration law and policy at our Teach Immigration Student Forum, a full day event held at Nassau BOCES, Garden City, NY.

Their teachers, Dr. Steven Burby and Ms. April Francis, applied for our two-year program where we provide educators with free and current educational materials on immigration law and policy and pair them with volunteers who are immigration lawyers. Together the teacher and lawyer teams co-teach at least two classroom lessons and then help students find their point of view in the production of student-created materials that connect to what they have learned and to share with their school and communities.

At this student forum, seventh-grade students from Lawrence Road Middle School in Uniondale and ninth-graders from the Brentwood Freshman Center engaged in concurrent workshops about visas for immigrants and the President’s executive action regarding immigration. Students worked in groups to learn deliberative dialogue via a partnership with Street Law, Inc., a non-profit education organization, to help them examine immigration reform and issues in the upcoming presidential election using evidence and logic.

“The information the students are learning will effect change in their own community,” said Ms. Francis, Lawrence Road Middle School Social Studies teacher.

 “This is an opportunity for project-based service learning. These students are motivated” said Brentwood English teacher Dr. Steve Burby.

What follows are photos from the forum highlighting the work of participating students. We look forward to continue our work with them and their teachers as they develop service-learning projects. 

Students listening to a session on visas for immigrants and visitors. 

Students writing monologues to explore varied responses to the President’s executive action on immigration.

Students working together to complete the writing task.

A student group participating in a deliberative dialogue on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Additional Resources:

• Teachers interested in the program attended free trainings in the summer of 2015 and the fall of 2014 and were supplied with teaching materials and recommended activities. To learn more about our previous training, please click here.

Stay Connected!

The American Immigration Council offers free lesson plans, resources, book/film reviews, and grants to teach immigration. We also welcome teacher and student book reviews and contributions to our blog. Email us at teacher@immcouncil.org and follow us on twitter @ThnkImmigration #teachimmigration.

Teaching Fairness, Freedom, and Equality on the Anniversary of the March on Washington

On August 28, 1963, over 200,000 demonstrators participated in the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” It was the largest demonstration for human rights in United States history and it unified several civil rights organizations. It was on that day that Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr. delivered his infamous “I Have a Dream” speech, and it was on that day that Americans of various races and religious creeds shared speeches, songs, and prayers led by clergymen, civil rights leaders, politicians, and entertainers. 

Dr. King activated the power of voice and helped people understand that you have to possess passion and be equipped with knowledge to make critical, well-informed decisions that improve our society. With social media and technology at times taking the place of marches and protests and augmenting others, the young activist of the new millennium has the power to have the issues of their community heard and seen globally. It is the responsibility of all who teach and mentor them to be sure they know how to get correct information and know how to critically analyze it.

In "The Purpose of Education" (1947), Dr. King wrote, "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." 

In the U.S., our political framework requires citizens be involved, informed and engaged. A ‘government of the people’ cannot function if there are no avenues for civic involvement, no methods for community deliberation, or no opportunities to influence government decisions. Elections, petitions, and public deliberation are all a form of civic participation. It is the role of the people to exercise these rights to participate, and the responsibility of the government to respond and respect them. 

In this light, immigration is one of many topics where the need for factual information, dialogue, and youth voice are integral for understanding our past and present as a diverse nation. We developed an immigration and civic engagement lesson plan for high school students where they wrestle with the essential and “American” question: how deep is our commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Using our nation’s founding documents and Dr. King’s words as a launching point, students will learn about five historical examples of restrictive immigration law and policy and also about the value of young people’s voices in movements to secure rights. This Common-Core and C3 Framework aligned lesson plan has an adaptable Prezi presentation, Cornell Notes handout, and opportunities for student writing. It would make a great companion to a close read of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech.”

To access our “Teaching Freedom, Fairness, and Equality” lesson plan, please click here.

We thank you for the work you do and wish you a great start to the school year!

Our Teacher and Community Grants Recipients Inspire Us

The American Immigration Council is pleased to present the outcomes of our 2014-2015 Teacher and Community Grants. The grant program is an initiative to provide educators and community organizers with the resources they need to implement a successful immigration curriculum or an immigration-themed project. Grants are awarded on a bi-annual basis. The deadline for the next grant is June 29, 2015, so it’s not too late to apply by clicking here.

This year’s grant recipients epitomize both facets of our program in that they offer an easily reproducible Common Core aligned curriculum for teaching about immigration in the classroom as well as fulfilling a civic need for immigrants in the local community through the completion of a student-driven, student-led service project. The awardees are teachers Kerri Fenton and Debra Moreau from Joseph A. DePaolo Middle School, Southington, CT and Delia Lancaster from Saint Joseph Catholic School, Palm Bay, FL. We want to share their work with you to inspire similarly creative, engaging, and rigorous learning on immigration in your own classrooms and communities.

Educate, Celebrate, and Empower: This one-week immigration community outreach project and lesson plan developed by Kerri Fenton and Debra Moreau meets three objectives: 1) to educate students on the experiences of the immigrant population; 2) to celebrate and welcome immigrant students; and 3) to empower all students to implement a social justice project.   

Through research, interviews, reflection, and project-based learning, students wrestle with these essential questions over the course of the project: How do immigrants contribute to our school community? How can we create a welcoming school climate for individuals and their families of diverse backgrounds? What are commonalities and distinctions of immigration experiences?

One student wrote empathetically in response to what she learned that “the guest speakers [featured in this project] opened my mind to how hard it is for immigrants to come to a new country (learning the language, adapting to new culture and ways of life).”  

To view the lesson plan, please click here. Schools are encouraged throughout the year to discuss the diverse contributions of immigrants within their own communities. Some ideas are provided at the end of the lesson plan. Adaptations and extensions are encouraged.  

To read the students’ book review of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival we published, please click here.

Students creating "Welcoming Brochures" using Google Docs

Health First, Protections for Migrant Workers: This video and service-project created by Delia Lancaster brings awareness and assistance to those persons who perform the “unseen” and risky jobs of bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to our tables. As teacher Delia Lancaster says, “What began as a grant funding a simple video project, turned into a significant fundraising and service project, after our students learned of the extreme conditions faced by farm workers who live and work within twenty miles from our own comfortable homes.”  As the students researched, learned, and questioned the community that served them just 20 miles away, they became more invested and engaged to “do something.”  

Projects like these can happen organically, when students, teachers, and community members recognize an unmet need and feel compelled to act. This is the heart of social justice and service-learning in action. Take a cue from these students, Ms. Lancaster, and the Saint Joseph Catholic School community for a model of an immigrant-based, service-learning project by learning more about what ended up being a year-long project here.

To watch a short video of their first semester where students interviewed community members and created a news broadcast, please click here.

To watch a follow-up video of their second semester where students initiated and completed a fundraising drive for badly-needed toiletry items, please click here. 

As a result of their health care drive, students collected 258 hair care products, 507 dental care products, 475 body care products, 22 bottles of sunscreen 146 sticks of deodorant, 20 wide-brimmed hats, 30 pairs of sunglasses, and an assortment of baby products.

Top Photo Adults Pictured from Left to Right: Delia Lancaster, Art Teacher & Enrichment Facilitator, Saint Joseph Catholic School; Colette Heid, Communications Director, Treasure Coast Community Health; Moses Santos, Outreach Director, Treasure Coast Community Health; Claudia Stokes, Principal, Saint Joseph Catholic School

Treasure Coast Community Health Center is a non-profit organization that provides medical, dental and mental health services for people who could otherwise not afford those services. You can visit their website at www.tcchinc.org

Our lesson, Interpreting the Impact of Cesar Chavez’s Early Years, is primary-source, Common-Core aligned lesson that asks students to analyze how Chavez’s own words and early life experiences led to his later achievements that features the news broadcast produced by Saint Joseph Academy students and is an excellent model for social justice in action today.

We invite book reviews written by teachers or students and we offer free lesson plans, resources, and grants to #teachimmigration. Stay connected! Follow us on twitter @ThnkImmigration