Social Action Immersion Lesson: What social issues are people fighting for?

Today's experience is designed so that you can see a wide variety social issues that people care about.  The links below combined with your handout will guide you.  These sites may even send you to additional links and organizations. It is important to go into this search with a serious attitude.  None of these subjects are to be taken lightly. The goal is for you to not only be exposed to a number of issues, but also to begin to narrow down topics that  you care about and want to pursue during our social action unit.  This post will also be a resource to you later down the road when you are researching.

General Searching for Issues and Topics
The Free Child Project chronicles ways that kids are trying to change the world.  This link will lead you to a list of social issues that kids have shown interest in.  Click through some of those issues to find basic information as well as further links to organizations doing something about the issue.  Remember that ultimately your audience will be a child, so keep that in mind as you are searching.

Environmental
At Our Earth, you can search for various environmental protection groups and find ones making a difference in New York City.

Animal Rights
ASPCA works for the rights of animals. Know ahead of time that some animal rights issues are hard to see. Click only on what you are comfortable with.

Local Poverty
The Robinhood Foundation works to fight poverty in New York City. Click on the link to see who they are helping and about their core mission.

 International Povery
 Scroll down to the bottom of this wikipedia entry on "World on Fire" to find links to all of the charities that were mentioned in the video.

Human Rights
Amnesty International fights for human rights. 


Human Trafficking:
If you are interested in this topic, please see Ms. Robbins for websites to direct you towards both international and local organizations.

At home (or if you have time) if you are interested in the arts and how they connect to social action, check out these links:

Art and Social Action: This link is actually to a lesson plan for an art class, but you can scroll down to the "resources" list and beyond to find links toartists who made social action statements

Great Protest Songs: This blog has a collection of songs and videos that show the history of what people have been fighting for and against by studying music. You will have to watch the video portion at home. A google search will also lead you to other websites that showcase protest songs.

Extra Credit Blog Post Assignment!

Write a response to either the lyrics or video of World On Fire as a way of continuing our discussion from class.  Must be posted by Tuesday, October 25th! Here is the video: 

What do I write about?

Here are some of the notes you took in our first unit that will help you find a topic to write about: 

1.   In life, conflict (and how it is dealt with) causes change in a person (for better or worse). Reading and studying characters helps us tap into the pulse of humanity.  

2. Protagonist-the main character in a literary work (not necessarily good or bad, which means you have to be a careful reader!)

3. Antagonist-the person or forces who oppose or contend with the protagonist (sometimes the antagonist can be like an inner voice or an unseen force…be a careful reader!)

.     4. Unpacking a “loaded sentence”

5. Noticing your protagonist’s journey: task, quest, loss of innocenceinterpret your protagonist’s emotional journey: 

• what positive people/events impacted him/her most?

• what negative people/events impacted him/her most?

• how is your character different now? What did he/she learn? What did the journey accomplish?

• extend your ideas to LIFE and humanity: what does this journey teach you about living

6. Noticing character patterns-archetypes

• The hero-displays courage, self sacrifice and is not perfect
•  The mentor-assists/guides the protagonist, symbolizing wisdom, knowledge, experience  
• The shadow-creates tension in story and represents the darker side of human nature  
• The shapeshifter-a character who keeps changing sides; can’t make up mind; represents uncertainty.

7. Theme: the statement about life that an author wants to share with the reader

8.  Cross-book inquiry: Make connections between your book and another you’ve read

    9. Setting-what aspects of the setting are significant and symbolic?

     10. Approach the book like an appreciation: what did you appreciate (or not appreciate) in your book? 

An introduction.

Welcome to the world of blogging!  There are a few basic guidelines to make sure that this experience is one that helps you grow as a reader, writer and thinker:

1. A blog post is due every Wednesday.  That means I'll be checking Wednesday morning to see who posted in time.  This counts as a homework grade. 

2. Each month (except October), you are required to write three posts about your independent reading book and one post in response to a non-fiction article that you have read.  


3. Generally, your posts on your independent reading book should be focused on micro details (observation+inference) if you are in the middle of it, and macro details (whole book interpretation+extension) if you have finished. You should be using vocabulary that we have covered in class, helping those concepts sink more deeply into your brain (see next post for ideas).


4. Your post should be FOCUSED and ORGANIZED.  Have one main idea that you are exploring.  Use purposeful paragraphs to elaborate on that idea.  


5. Your post should be TEXT BASED and specific. 


6. Even though you should be using CORRECT GRAMMAR (capitalize! no texting abbreviations!) your post can/should SOUND LIKE YOU. This is not a formal essay, but an informal way of conveying to your peers what you've been thinking about in your reading life. 

7. Use the labels on the side of this blog to find MENTORS if you need them. Refer back to this blog if you need help or direction.