Teaching Sequence

20-30 minutes - Part A: Analyse and Reflect
30-60 minutes - Part B: What's Next?
30-60 minutes - Part C: Celebrate

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Analyse And Reflect

Preparation:

Collect a range of assets produced in your social action (such as printed photos of students participating in tasks associated with the social action process, your map or model and any other materials produced in the project).

Step 1.

Display your assets on the floor and invite students to gather around them. Work with students to order the assets in sequence and engage students in a discussion around the stage of the process each asset represents.

You could then use these assets to stimulate further discussion by inviting students to respond to the following questions:

Was our project a success? Why or why not?
What parts of the project were the most successful and why?
What parts of the project were the least successful and why?
How would we improve these parts?
How would we improve the project overall?
What challenges did we face and how did we overcome them?

Step 2.

Once complete, invite each student to select one of the assets produced in your social action (if you don't have enough assets for each student, invite students to work in pairs or small groups and give each group one asset). Students should then think about their asset and have a go at describing this asset in writing and explaining one of the following (younger students can write one or two sentences and older students can write more):

What was good about this (what they liked);
What was challenging about this (what they didn't like);
How they were involved; or
Anything else they found important or interesting about this asset.

Step 3.

You could then work with students to create a display of student work, with written pieces created by students accompanying the asset they described. Consider sharing your display with other members of the school community.

Part B: What's Next?

Step 1.

Explain to students that because of their work on their social action project, they will now understand that we can all take action to help our community and environment, and that we all have the ability to improve our communities through our actions. With this in mind, you could now invite students to think about how their completed social action project has inspired them to take action in their own lives.

Note: The Examples Of Action Factsheet could be used to encourage thinking of problems and actions that students can take to improve their school or neighbourhood. You may also like to set aside time to view the Roots and Shoots Australia website exploring recent projects.

Step 2.

Write the following questions on the board:

What do I want to do next? What other actions can I take to help people, animals and the environmental in our local area?

Work with students to create a mind-map of their ideas. You could do this on a white board or you could use an online mind-mapping tool like bubbl.us, mindmeister or padlet.

To help focus student ideas, suggest actions for:

Saving water - e.g. Collecting water from leaking taps to water the garden, having shorter showers, turning the tap off when brushing teeth.
Saving energy - e.g. Ride and walk to school, dressing for the weather instead of using heaters or air-conditioners, turning off lights and other devices when not in use.
Creating less litter and waste - e.g. Always using rubbish, recycling and compost bins, reusing things where possible instead of throwing them out, using reusable shopping bags, buying things with little or no packaging.
Improving habitats - e.g. Looking after the plants in the garden, building nesting boxes and bird baths in backyards, planting for native animals, birds and insects.
Looking after community assets, like parks, buildings, streets and footpaths - e.g. Hold a 'clean up your street' day, keeping litter off the streets, picking up your dog's poo.
Helping people in your community - e.g. Visiting an aged care facility, fundraising for a local homelessness or asylum seeker organisation.

To help focus students you could suggest they think of what might be needed in their own homes, in the street they live on or in the street the school is on.

Step 3.

Students should work independently to create a poster that describes one of these ideas for action that they would personally like to do. Each student should create a poster that:

Describes in writing what the proposed action is.
Includes pictures that support their idea.

Encourage students to think creatively about their idea for action and how it could be extended, explaining that the focus of this activity isn't on getting spelling right but rather on thinking creatively about how they could help their community.

Once complete, invite students to share their poster with a classmate, and to provide feedback on each other's posters by suggesting:

One thing they like about the poster.
One thing that could be improved.

Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback.

You could also work with students to create a display of posters to share with the school community.

Part C: Celebrate

With your project complete, it’s time to celebrate the change you made through your social action and recognise the accomplishments of your students. Take the time to think about the work you've done and to share your success with the school community. There are a range of ways you could do this:

Create a book that shows the journey your students took in planning and delivering your social action. You could incorporate your map, student drawings and writings, and photos of students completing tasks throughout the process.
Share your book with other members of the school community, particularly those who were involved in the project, such as other students, teachers and parents.
Create a video of students talking to the camera about their social action project to share with the school community.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Roots & Shoots - Assessment and Reflection

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

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