More student videos:

• Safe and Accessible Abortion
• Campus Fence
• A Home for the Homeless

What did students create and share?

The students created one minute videos which were addressed to specific individuals in government regarding the students’ concerns.

Goals/Objectives:

• Civic engagement through problem solving and a better understanding of communicating with public officials and public organizations and institutions.
• An understanding of policy, policy building, and policy analysis
• The accessibility of government through communication with humans working in government.

Devices: Our school is a 1:1 laptop school with Apple Macbooks. Our students usually use the cameras on their laptops, but often use their phones to shoot their videos. If they don’t have a phone, they use a friend’s phone to shoot the video and upload it to their laptop.

Digital Video Tools: Google Drive and/or YouTube are really the only online tools that we use for the project to keep it simple and accessible. The focus of the project is on the message, so we did not use digital tools to edit the video.

Context and Classroom Rollout

During this project, students critically look at their communities, neighborhoods, and schools and propose realistic, fact based solutions to the problems or issues they see and propose them to the people in government who can help make them happen.

It connects perfectly with the Government curriculum as it requires students to create a project that asks students to “participate in a community service activity, or observe and report on the policymaking process of a governing body.” Throughout the school year students have the opportunity to practice communicating with local, state and federal officials via classroom visits or with calling and speaking with members of the office of different officials 

I adapted the lessons for this project from Teach Democracy’s Civic Action Project Lessons and Resources and had students submit their finished videos to KQED’s Call for Change Youth Media Challenge as well as send them to local government officials and politicians.

Why video?

The students like this project as they like the ability to communicate with local, state, or federal officials through a short video. They like the clear process of learning what their issues are, learning what policy is, and then using policy to address their issues and concerns in an engaging way. If they reach out to the people in government in a reasonable and substantial way through video, they will get responses to their questions and concerns.

Project Timeline

Step 1: We start broadly with what the students care about personally and what matters to them and how that connects to politics. Students participated in various activities that helped them figure out their political beliefs and typology and narrow down their views on issues that would like to see changed at school, in their community or nationally.

Step 2: Before jumping into researching their issues, I led students through activities to help them with identifying and using reliable sources. They practiced the skill of lateral reading on various sources including the Economic Policy Institute, Employment Policy Institute, and KQED. They also explored the websites Allsides and Media Bias/Fact Check as resources to use to help in choosing reliable sources.

Step 3: Students explored the concept of public policy by engaging in daily writing prompts exploring specific issues like Should Felons Have the Right to Vote and Borderland/Immigration. 

They performed their own public policy case study analysis and did their own news search. 

Step 4: All this practice in understanding a variety of issues and public policies in action laid the groundwork for students to create their own public policy recommendation based on an issue they care about. Students used these guidelines for the policy recommendation and this evaluation form to understand how they would be graded.

Step 5: Using the work done in the previous activities and assignments, students created their videos that clearly stated their issue, proposed policy solution and goal. Students turned in their videos into KQED’s Call for Change Youth Media Challenge and 

Students had flexibility when creating their videos. Some students filmed their videos in the hallway or outside at school and while some others filmed at home. Beyond the shooting of the video, all the other work was done in class.

The biggest factor that determined how students worked was whether the students decided to produce a selfie video or a visual video. I tell students to produce their videos where they feel most comfortable and confident.

If they’re producing a selfie, students were looking for quiet and a basic background, which most felt was at home. If they’re producing a visual video, they usually create a slideshow, which they play while they do a screen recording in class. Later they recorded voice over narration on iMovie, which was usually done at home like the selfie video.  

With that said there is very little organizing needed to be done beside allowing the students time to get their work done whether that be scriptwriting, visual gathering, or shooting the video. Students generally had two or three class periods of independent work time to get their work done in class.

Modifications

As the focus of the video is the message, students who were English Language Learners were able to create videos that focused on visuals and using straightforward language and text. I was able to scaffold some of the text with students to help them develop their academic vocabulary, but as long as the message was clear and focused on the issue, problem and solution, students were able to be successful.

I also had a push-in SpEd aide in my classroom who helped support my students. We would constantly circulate and check-in with students and each other to make sure we were seeing and understanding the students and their comprehension of the project.

Students were given this rubric for their video project. As the focus of the video is the message, that was the focus of the rubric. Students who are more tech savvy or had access to more tools, did not have an advantage grade wise in this project. Students were given a choice of producing either a selfie video like a Tik Tok or a visual video, which was often a slideshow with a voice over. 

Civic Action Project Unit Plan (with links to all assignments and activities)