Teaching Sequence

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

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Analyse

Step 1.

Invite students to collect the range of assets they generated during the process of designing and implementing their social action project. These could include:

Maps
Rough drafts and sketches
Brainstorming sheets
Photos
Materials produced for the action, such as posters, flyers, videos etc.

Display these assets on the floor and invite students to gather around them. Engage students in a discussion around which stage of the process each asset represents, focusing in particular on:

Why was this important to our project?

You could then use these assets to stimulate further analysis 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.

Break the class into pairs or small groups and invite them to further analyse their completed social action project by completing a SWOT analysis of their project using this template: SWOT Analysis.

While students are completing the SWPT analysis, the teacher can roam the room and offer support to groups. If any groups are having trouble completing the task, the teacher can encourage them by asking prompting questions.

Once complete, invite students to share their ideas with the class, and look for similarities and differences between student responses.

Part B: Reflect

Step 1.

Now invite students to spend five minutes reading and making notes in response to the following questions in Column A on the table on the Student Worksheet:

What was the best part of working on this project and why?
What was the worst part and why?
What skills and qualities did I bring to the group (e.g. writing, the ability to think of things from different perspectives, drawing, focus on details, big-picture thinking etc)? TIP: If students have completed the Roots & Shoots – What Makes A Great Leader? lesson, you could adapt this question to reflect the leadership qualities examined in this lesson e.g. What leadership qualities did I have the chance to develop in the group and how did I do this?
What am I most proud of in this project?
What would I do differently next time?

Step 2.

Once complete, invite students to team up with a classmate and to interview each other using these questions. The person asking the questions needs to record key points in the answers of the person they are interviewing in Column B of the table on the Student Worksheet.
Allow 10 minutes for each student to answer the questions (five minutes for each student to respond = one minute for each question).

Step 3.

Students can then sit down and compare their responses to these questions, looking for similarities and differences using the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

How were our experiences of this project similar?
How were they different?

Part C: What's Next?

Step 1.

Break students into new pairs or small groups and invite them to work together to discuss their answers to the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

How has this project inspired you to take more action? What do you want to do next?
What other actions can we all take to help improve our school, including the human-made, animal and environmental features?

The ABC production 'War on Waste' could be used as a prompt to inspire future school or community based actions.

Allow students several minutes to discuss their thoughts. As they discuss their ideas, prompt students to consider actions for the following (suggested examples also provided if students need further ideas):

Saving water
E.g. Fixing leaking water fountains or taps, installing water tanks on top of the public toilets and using the water to flush the toilets, installing drip watering systems in a local park, adding compost to street trees.
Saving energy
E.g. Get more kids to ride and walk to school, encourage people to dress for the weather instead of using heaters or air-conditioners, encourage a local business to install solar panels.
Creating less litter and waste
E.g. Clean up a local park or creek or beach, install rubbish and recycling bins in places where there is lots of litter, encourage people to use reusable shopping bags.
Improving habitats
E.g. Tree planting in a local park, nesting boxes 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, propose a site for a community mural, propose places where access for pedestrians (especially kids) could be improved.
Helping people in your community
E.g. Visiting an aged care facility, fundraising for a local homelessness or asylum seeker organisation.

They should then team up with another group to share their answers.

You could then invite groups to share their favourite ideas with the class.

Consider using student ideas to stimulate further inquiry and action with students in the future.

Step 2.

You could then invite each student to select one idea they would like to pursue in the future. Students should create a piece that:

Describes their idea
Includes a justification for this idea (e.g. Why do we need this action? Why is this action important?)
Incorporates information from their neighbourhood map in support of their idea (where relevant).

Students could present their idea as a:

Video
Audio recording (e.g. spoken or song)
Poster
Infographic
Written piece (e.g. story or report or letter)

You could invite students to share their ideas with other students at their school to see if any other students would like to work with them to develop these ideas further and then design and deliver these projects.

Part D: 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 celebrate your success with the community.

An important part of real-world learning, such as in your social action project, is the opportunity for students to present their learning in a public arena. This could mean:

Hosting people from the local community at an exhibition where the process and final products of students’ projects are displayed as posters.
Sharing a newsletter about students’ projects and distributing it to families and community members.
Producing and screening a two-minute film that documents students’ projects.
Creating a picture book that describes the processes involved in planning and implementing the project.
Planning and creating a presentation to share with the school community at assembly.
Another idea of your choosing.

Students should use this celebration to demonstrate how successful and important student social action could be, even where the project met with challenges. Students could also incorporate their ideas for future action into the presentation of their work, and use it as a platform for generating support for future projects.

The main objective is that work (including the process) is presented publicly, thus making it authentic and real.

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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