#Activism and Protest

Students read and watch a number of speeches by prominent youth activists campaigning for issues including the rights of girls and women and climate change. They will learn to identify, analyse and explain the effective use of rhetorical techniques in speeches.

Key Concept: Communication

Related Concepts: Structure, style

Global Context Exploration: Personal and cultural expression - argument

Statement of Inquiry: Using a specific structure and style can effectively communicate arguments

Inquiry Questions:

Factual: What stylistic and rhetorical devices can be used in speeches?

Conceptual: How are arguments communicated effectively?

Debatable: What role can social media play in communicating youth activism globally?

Text to Go: Greta Thunberg Speech

Here is a list of some suggestions for this unit:

GRASPS Summative Assessment

Goal: To use a specific structure and style to effectively communicate an activist argument

Role: You are a youth activist for a cause of your choice e.g. climate change, girls’ education

Audience: Young people at a TED event

Situation: You have been invited to speak at a Youth TED event that is being organised in a nearby city about an activism topic you are campaigning for

Product: Write and present your five-minute speech. Write a short reflective statement in which you explain the stylistic and structural choices, including the use of rhetoric 

Link to online Summative Assessment task:

#Activism and Protest - GRASPS Summative Assessment 

Student Task Sheet to Download:

 GRASPS #Activism and Protest

Success Criteria: 

Criteria B: Organising

• Employ organizational structures that serve the context and the intention

Criteria C: Producing Text  

• Produce texts that demonstrate insight, imagination and sensitivity while exploring and reflecting critically on new perspectives and ideas arising from personal engagement with the creative process
• Make stylistic choices in terms of linguistic, literary and visual devices, demonstrating awareness of the impact on an audience 

Criteria D: Using Language

• Use appropriate and varied vocabulary, sentence structures and forms of expression
• Write and speak in a register and style that serve the context and intention
• Use correct grammar, syntax and punctuation
• Spell (alphabetic languages), write (character languages) and pronounce with accuracy

If your students write a short 200-300 word rationale in which they explain their creative choices and justify their ideas, it is also possible to assess:

Criteria A: Analysing

• Analyse the effects of the creator’s choices on an audience
• Justify opinions and ideas, using examples, explanations and terminology

ATL Communication Skills

Organise and depict information logically

Teaching Strategy: Provide students with a graphic organiser to support them in writing a speech that is organised logically.

ATL Critical Thinking Skills

Consider ideas from multiple perspectives

Teaching Strategy: Use the visible thinking strategy of Facts or Fiction to help students increase their awareness of the many issues of truth and what to consider when exploring the truth of the topic(s) you and they choose to focus on in this unit.

Action

Content

Stage 1 - introducing students to rhetorical techniques and youth activism speeches

You could approach this unit from several different perspectives, including conceptual lenses such as mistaken identity; concealing a true identity; young people figuring out their identities; the relationship between our identities and interpersonal relationships or changing identity to fit in with others etc.  Begin by either picking a conceptual lens and choosing appropriate texts or choosing texts and identifying the particular identity conceptual lens focus for the unit.

Stage 2 - reading and analysing speeches; beginning to plan what students will know, understand and perform in summative assessment(s)

Consider carefully exactly what it is you want your students to be able to know, understand and do by the end of the unit. Use backwards planning to connect the summative assessment(s) with the statement of inquiry and ensure they are a performance of understanding of the SOI or part of the SOI.

Stage 3 - developing writing and critiquing skills

With all the above thought out, you are ready to begin to plan the unit. I have chosen some short stories to recommend to you from my list of teaching favourites and provide you with some suggestions for other stories and resources. However, there are many other possible short stories with the theme of identity you can choose and if you have any personal favourites you would recommend to us, please do post them in the comments below this post!    

You will assess your students formatively throughout the learning process in the unit. We constantly judge our students' knowledge and understanding during lessons and provide them with positive verbal feedback. I recommend always preparing students for each summative assessment, possibly by giving them a similar mini-formative assessment prior to the summative assessment, for which you provide verbal and/or written feedback goals that your students can work on.

Ideas for formative assessments that you can use to provide students with feedback to feedforward during this unit:

• Students analyse short sections of speeches and write/speak about how the speech writer effectively communicates their message to the audience
• Students write different parts of a speech and receive feedback on their use of rhetorical techniques and effective appropriate language

Some ideas for differentiation:

Content

Choose appropriate speeches to support or challenge individual student needs. Consider simplified or shorter versions of speeches.

Process

Provide additional questions, explanations, scaffolds, vocabulary lists etc.

Product

Modify the final product in ways such as reducing word count, increasing time allocation, providing additional clarifications or modifying the assessment criteria and strands in Years 1-4. Offer students the opportunity to film or record an audio of their speech if they are challenged by presenting it in class.

If you choose to focus on environmental issues during this unit there is a clear link with the MYP Service Outcome: Engage with issues of global importance. Perhaps, your students could write their own poetry to raise environmental awareness, perform it for others or create short films in which their environmental issues poems are presented with appropriate visuals to create an impactful message for others.

OPEN-MINDED - They understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories and are open to other individuals and communities' perspectives, values and traditions. They are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view, and are willing to grow from the experience...

Use some questions below to support your reflection at different stages of the unit. A detailed list of pre, during and post unit reflection questions are available on this page. Below are just a few questions to get you started.