Lesson Plan 5

Title: How Can Students' Actions Make a Difference in Social Justice Issues?

Grade: 11

Time Requirement: 80 – 120 minutes

This lesson could also serve as a service learning project for the class or school.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Understand the positive social changes possible through participating in politics/public service.
• Develop a plan of action that addresses one of Robert F. Kennedy's social justice issues.
• Explain the connection between citizenship and active participation in addressing social justice issues.
• Assess how their knowledge, ideas, understandings and beliefs about social justice have changed as a result of this unit.

New York State Learning Standards

• Social Studies Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government KI 4, PI 1-7
• English Language Arts Standard 1 Grade 11 - Information and Understanding Reading PI 1-5,
• Writing pi 1-4, Listening PI 1, 3, Speaking PI 2, 6
• English Language Arts Standard 3 Grade 11 - Critical Analysis and Evaluation Reading PI 1-3, Writing PI 2, Listening PI 2-3, Speaking PI 1-3
• English Language Arts Standard 4 Grade 11 - Social Interaction Reading PI 4, Writing PI 1-2, Listening PI 1-3, Speaking PI 1-4

SOCIAL STUDIES CORE CURRICULUM

• United States History and Government
• Unit 7: World in Uncertain Times: 1950–Present
• VI. Approaching the Next Century, 1986–1999
• Participation in Government
• Unit G: Selecting a Culminating Question

SKILLS

• Thinking skills - Comparing and contrasting ideas, identifying cause and effect, drawing inferences and making conclusions, evaluating, handling diversity of interpretations
• Research and writing skills - Getting information, analyzing information, synthesizing information
• Interpersonal and group relations skills - Defining terms, identifying basic assumptions, recognizing and avoiding stereotypes, participating in group planning and discussion, assuming responsibility for carrying out tasks
• Sequencing and chronology skills - Using sequence and order to plan and accomplish tasks

CONCEPTS

• Change
• Civic values
• Decision-making
• Diversity
• Justice

Technology Requirement

This lesson does not require any specific technology beyond access to the Internet for responses and lesson materials.

Background

This lesson serves as a culminating lesson of the unit. The lesson is intended to help students explore and plan how they as students can become actively engaged in activities to end social injustice. The lesson could also be used independently. It is based on the National Council for the Social Studies CiviConnection Program (Wade 2006).

Relevance to Current Issues

Robert F. Kennedy was committed to a number of social justice issues, including voting rights, civil rights, fighting rural and urban poverty, the rights of farm workers and desegregation in education.

These issues were addressed by activism in the 1960s and are similar to the issues being tackled by activists and government leaders in this century.

Student Activities

Anticipatory Set

Why Robert F. Kennedy believed that politics could have a positive influence.

The teacher asks students to independently read an excerpt of a speech by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (See student handout 1) and respond to the following questions:

• What are your attitudes toward politics and the influence it has on social justice changes?
• What do you think about the claim that politics is an "honorable" profession?
• If this is a stand-alone lesson, the teacher should refer to the introduction of this unit, which summarizes Robert F. Kennedy's social justice philosophy and actions.
• What would you say in response to statements such as: "My vote does not count; politicians are corrupt"?

Activity 1 - Developing a Plan of Action:

The teacher presents New York state Learning Standards 5, Civics, Citizenship, Government, on a poster or chalkboard and asks students: "Since being a good citizen includes the responsibility for us as citizens to be actively engaged, what actions and things could you as an individual, our class or community do about one of these social justice issues?"

Activity 2 - Types of Social Actions:

The teacher provides a handout (page 35-36) that addresses three different types of actions that students could take to bring about social justice (see student handout 2). This is adapted from the work of Rahima Wade. (See the materials section for a citation of this work.)

• The teacher divides students into pairs or groups of three to four and asks each group to choose several actions to address a social justice issue. Their choices and the reasons for them should be recorded on newsprint, that will be displayed around the classroom.
• Each group shares its recommendation and the reasons for it during a large group session.

Culminating Activity

The teacher asks students to answer one of the following questions on a 3x5 card and return it to the teacher prior to exiting the classroom:

• How has your attitude toward Robert F. Kennedy's claim that "politics is an honorable profession" changed?
• What have you learned about Robert F. Kennedy's legacy of social justice and present-day issues of social justice?
• How has your attitude and understanding about politics and citizenship changed?

Extension Lessons

• The teacher asks students to implement one activity in their plan of action. The student would be required to write a brief paper describing the activity, its impact on the social justice issue and a reflection on what the student learned about social justice and citizenship.
• The teacher could ask students to reflect on the degree to which their attitudes about social justice and citizenship issues have changed by answering one or more of the following questions adapted from the 2008 article "Community Service – Learning for Democratic Citizenship" by Rahima Wade.

A. Social Justice Issues

• On which current social justice issue(s) do you believe Robert F. Kennedy would be most committed to taking action? Why?
• What new knowledge have you learned about this issue?
• What human needs or problems are created by this issue?
• What historical events have been connected with this issue?

B. Citizenship

• What is a good citizen?
• What are the ways that citizens help their communities?
• What should you do to help your community?
• What would happen in our democracy if everyone participated in public life?
• What would happen in our democracy if only a few individuals participated in public life? (Wade, 2008, page 17)

Additional Resources

• "To Seek a Newer World: The Life and Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy" Newseum, Washington, D.C., May 27, 2008
• Community Action Rooted in History, the CiviConnections Model of Service-Learning. Edited by Rahima C. Wade, NCSS Bulletin 106, National Council for Social Studies, 2007.

Student Handout 1

Excerpt from speech by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

To Seek a Newer World: The Life and Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy

My father loved politics passionately. Politics was central to who he was. He often cited John Buchanan's claim that politics is the most honorable profession. The book of remembrances written by our family and friends is entitled "An Honorable Profession." He loved Pericles' funeral oration praising those who give their lives, whose discussion leads to action, whose virtues are greatest, whose nobility serves the country.

Yet, I suspect that the reason that my father's political nature is neglected has less to do with my father and more to do with the cynical temper of our times. To our 21st century ears, "honorable" and "politics" seems an oxymoron, incongruous. It is not just that the word "honorable" is a virtue more associated with a patrician past, but that politics today is depicted as just the opposite of noble. It is seen as dirty, debased, tainted, unworthy and perverse.

But my father loved the honorable profession of politics and he admired those whose courage shines brightly. One example stands with us today. In 1961, the Freedom Riders risked their lives in the Deep South to show that blacks and whites should be able to travel together peacefully. My father, wanting to stop the violence, asked his assistant John Siegenthaler to go to Montgomery, to go to the bus station and to stand as a representative of the attorney general of the United States so that the protesters could feel protected and the police closely watched.

Many years later, as lieutenant governor of my state, I worked to make Maryland the first state in the country to require community service as a condition of high school graduation. I had seen the great good that comes from believing that one can make a difference and that everyone should try.

What I heard over and over again: While volunteerism is good, politics is dirty.

One high school teacher invited me to his school and his program of student service, which was renowned as one of the best in the state. The students took turns telling me of the good works they had done. They served in a soup kitchen, tutored younger students, participated in peer counseling. One young man described how he had served meals on wheels to an elderly woman, but that at one point he stopped because she had a problem with Social Security. As I listened to [what] the other students were doing, I kept wondering why he had not helped her with the Social Security.

So, at the end of the presentations, I asked.

His response: "Well, that would be getting involved in politics," as if that was an obvious explanation as to why he must not get involved. I know my father would have strongly disagreed.

Student Handout 2

Actions Leading To Change

Direct Service - Working directly in the community with people. Examples: bagging groceries at a crisis center, reading to homebound senior citizens or preparing and serving a meal at the local soup kitchen.

Indirect Service - Holding a fundraiser or collecting various materials. Examples: canned food drive, movies and popcorn fundraiser, clothing drive, bake sale, adopt-a-needy-child activities.

Advocacy - Writing letters, petitions or mounting campaigns to influence people's views on an issue. Examples: letters to the editor, proposals to the local city council, petitions for a new local policy or law or writing to government officials.

Service learning allows students to engage in community service to meet the needs of their community. It prepares students to become knowledgeable and informed citizens while engaging them in working for the common good within the political system of their community. Through service, students participate in creative problem-solving in a collaborative setting that brings about a positive change in the community.

Directions:

Choose several social justice issues. Using the definitions of the three actions leading to social change, choose an action for each social justice issue and record the reasons for your choice on the newsprint made available from your teacher.

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (R) with Walter Wetzel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, and unidentified woman. (Photo by Francis Miller//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)