Introduction
Last year I accepted the challenge of teaching a middle school leadership class without any curriculum or resources. I looked online, perused books, asked colleagues for ideas, and I was able to put together lesson plans for my students to develop their leadership skills and become a presence on campus. My students planned bake sales, dances, and field trips. Since this was the first year we had a leadership class, the students felt empowered about their ability to organize events.
I cannot help but think back to the first day our class met. I asked my students to write in their journals about what the perfect school would look like. After students shared their ideas, we compiled a list of changes we would need to make in order to make our school the "perfect school." My students came up with ideas including healthier school lunches, more sports and after school programs for the middle school, higher GPAs, more student engagement, more projects, less bullying, more novels for the library, and more field trips and dances. While I was able to teach students how to engage in collaborative decision-making, I only skimmed the surface of the rich ideas they brought on the first day of that leadership class. I realized that throughout the year, I had provided them with the tools they needed to communicate effectively with each other, but not with the larger school community. As a result, my students felt confident organizing and planning events such as dances and fundraisers, but tended to shy away from taking on more controversial issues. I heard students voice their concerns about the general apathy felt by their peers and the dismissal they perceived coming from the staff.
I want my students to be problem solvers and to learn to use their voices to create real change. This unit will guide my students through a process of engaging the school community, assessing the needs of our school, analyzing case studies of community activism and rhetoric, studying possible solutions, and ultimately using rhetorical devices to develop their writing and speaking skills to help launch campaigns to implement those solutions. I will use research-based strategies to ensure that my students meet the objectives that I will describe in detail.
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