Ideas
So you want to incorporate Activism in your school lessons or youthwork activities, but where to start? Activism can be about anything from encouraging students to vote for their school council members to organising a fundraising campaign for a charity. If you're not ready to engage in a full blown campaign don't worry! Simply educating young people about activism is a fantastic starting point and necessary to prepare young people for if they encounter activist action in the future such as protests or strikes.
ActivismEducation can be incorporated into any subject in school and into various activities in youthcentres. As this page is both for teachers and youth workers you will find ideas appropriate for both settings dependant on the resources available to you. These may be as short or long as you like as it's upto you to plan these around your learners. Not got the time to plan? Check out the 'Prepared Lessons' or 'Community Resources' pages.
Debates
Why not debate an issue in class? It can be anything from if school uniforms should be done away with to if Brexit is good or bad for the country. Debates give students a chance to share their opinions, work as team, consider other viewpoints all along with building their speaking and listening skills! They work fantastically in English and could be a good starting point in learning writing to argue but can fit well with most subjects, debating a historical issue for example womens' right to vote to better understand the suffragettes? What about drama, students could be given a role to play in the debate they may need to play the part of Theresea May for example. These can be informal to in a small group in a youth work context.
Music creation
Do you have access to musical instruments? Maybe even just computer based tools like garageband? Can you find karaoke versions of popular songs on youtube? Then you can create music! Music is a fun way for students to express a topic and you may find some unexpected talent in your school or youth club! You could ask students to create a song for example about equality. At a previous school of mine a student wrote a song for a unity challenge and it built his confidence so much that he was brave enough to perform it in front of the whole school! He didn't even need backing music, it was an acapella rap. For struggling students you could find a karaoke version of a song on youtube and ask young people to change the lyrics to fit the theme you want.
Poetry writing
Similar to music students could write poetry about the chosen topic, for example what it would be like to be a fish in an ocean filled with plastic.
Story writing
Students could write a fictional story or a news report about an activist issue, such as how residents have been forced from their homes to make room for a third runway at Heathrow.
Poster or display creation
Why not put your young peoples creativity to the test and ask them to make posters about an issue or even something they've learnt on this website? Why not ask students to make posters about what it means to cross a picket line? Posters can be a creative and fun way for students to express themselves and consolidate and display their learning, who knows people looking at the posters may also learn something!
Research presentations
Why not set young people on a research task to find out as much as they can about something or set a central question they need to research? You could split them into small groups, giving each different question or topic related to the same theme, for example trade unions - one group could be asked what they are another could be asked for examples of trade unions and who they are for. You could even send them to this website and the useful links page for their research. Students can use their research to create a presentation to deliver to the rest of the group as peer-led learning. This one works best in a school setting but may be appropriate for some youth groups.
Scene or film creation
Why not ask students to create a play about an issue or a short film? For example students may act out someone on strike and show an example of a right and wrong way to treat them? Or why not create an awareness video about the dangers of smoking? As a media teacher I've ran several similar video projects from anti-smoking, anti-bullying, positives of diversity and other similar video school wide campaigns, students generally enjoy them and they can learn a lot from research put into the projects. These projects encourage team work, speaking and listening skills, planning skills, compromising with others and they can involve everyone - those students not confident enough to appear on camera for example could direct the play or operate the camera.
Flashcard or quiz creation
Why not ask young people to make their own flashcards to teach others about the activist issue you are looking at? They could also make quizzes to test each other on their knowledge of an issue? They could do this using physical resources e.g. card and pens - or they could use an online tool such as 'Quizlet'. (See online tools page for more information on Quizlet).
Got a better idea?
Tell us!
Use the contact email button at the bottom of any page, click here, or copy and paste this email address into the 'to' feild: ActivismEducation@gmail.com and put 'idea' in the email subject. If you would like yourself and/or your school to be credited please write in this format: 'idea text' - Name, School . Please only include details you wish to be displayed on the website in your email.
Images of ideas being put into action / photo of teacher/ youth worker and quote about putting the idea into practice will be in this slideshow.
Cartoon animation of character turning on lightbulb then smiling - the character will blink now and then but rest will remain the same
