How can we use literature as a vehicle to promote social change? Bridget, Jessica, & Lesley
In the Skin of a Lion gives a voice to the helpless immigrants who built Toronto, exposing the many struggles that they were forced to endure. Throughout this unit we will strive to use this novel and many other additional sources to show students how literature can help promote awareness of such injustices and provide a context for students to be motivated to make a change in society. At the end of the unit students will participate in a Social Activism Project, where they will get to research a topic of social in justice of their choice. With the research that students uncover on their social injustice topic, students will put together presentations that feature the creation of posters and pamphlets to showcase the information that they have found out. Students will then present this information in a "Social Injustices Workshop" that will occur during their school peers' lunchtime so that they will have the opportunity to inform and educate others on the topic that they researched. By putting students in charge of these presentations, students will gain a greater understanding of the society that live in and their new-found awareness will hopefully spark students to want to continue to promote social change in other various ways.
In this unit plan, we incorporate the reading of various texts about social change. Students then use these readings to think about and form their own ideas about society and what needs to change. In the social activism project discussed above, the letter writing activity, and the silent conversations on Ragtime we promote students to start thinking about change and making their voices heard. Teaching students about the struggles of others and then connecting that information to their life demonstrates to students the effect people can have by speaking up or acting out against something they believe is wrong.
“The growing demand for good writers requires more time and attention devoted to writing instruction and assessment in order to prepare all students for a changing world,” (Policy Brief 2). Throughout the unit, we have the students working on writing assignments in order to improve their writing. They will be completing an essay, service activism project, journal entries, worksheets, etc. in order to improve their writing skills. Learning how to improve your writing skill is important in order to make social change. The more literate and well-spoken you are in your writing, the more you are respected in the real-world. By improving student's writing, we can promote social change where the world will be full of well-educated writers.
In this unit plan, we incorporate the reading of various texts about social change. Students then use these readings to think about and form their own ideas about society and what needs to change. In the social activism project discussed above, the letter writing activity, and the silent conversations on Ragtime we promote students to start thinking about change and making their voices heard. Teaching students about the struggles of others and then connecting that information to their life demonstrates to students the effect people can have by speaking up or acting out against something they believe is wrong.
“The growing demand for good writers requires more time and attention devoted to writing instruction and assessment in order to prepare all students for a changing world,” (Policy Brief 2). Throughout the unit, we have the students working on writing assignments in order to improve their writing. They will be completing an essay, service activism project, journal entries, worksheets, etc. in order to improve their writing skills. Learning how to improve your writing skill is important in order to make social change. The more literate and well-spoken you are in your writing, the more you are respected in the real-world. By improving student's writing, we can promote social change where the world will be full of well-educated writers.