Essential Questions

1. How do experiences in youth shape you?

2. What does ‘finding your voice’ mean?

3. Why is it important for every student to have a voice in decision-making?

4. How can the school classroom prepare you for life?

5. How can you practice civil engagement?

Learning Intentions Upon completing this Module, students will:

1. Revisit experiences and describe the importance of speaking up on issues important to you.

2. Articulate your current positive impact and potential to make a difference in your life and community.

3. Recognize democratic values such as inclusion, voice, representation, and participation.

4. Identify issues of personal importance and ways to use your voice to question and share your perspective.

5. Interact with digital storytelling as a learning tool.

6. Practice civil engagement through activism and art.

7. Expand, share, and experiment in our democracy.

Success Criteria

1. I believe I can make a difference and will use my voice to actively and creatively participate in society.

2. I will use my skills to seek truth and communicate across differences.

Learning Outline

This 3.5-hour module is based on a video presentation by John Arthur. It can be taught as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows:  

• 10 minutes: Launch Activity– Pre-Viewing: Video I: School Memories

• 15 minutes: While Viewing– Video 1: I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul

• 15 minutes: Post-Viewing– Video 1: Jumping Ship

• 5 minutes: Pre-Viewing – Video 2: Student Creators 

• 20 minutes: While Viewing– Video 2: No More Waiting

• 15 minutes: Post-Viewing– Video 2: Finding Your Voice

• 15 minutes: Launch Activity– Video 3: Ditch the Label

• 15 minutes: While Viewing– Video 3: Fearless For Love

• 5 minutes: Post-Viewing– Video 3: Skin in the Game

• 25 minutes: Demonstration– My Impact

• 60 minutes: Making Connections–Integration Project–Democracy & Love Letters

Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Video 1: School Memories

[10 min]

[Learning Intention 1]

Procedures:

1. Hook: Put students in pairs and ask them to share their most vivid memory that happened at school. Ask them to discuss 

   1. Why do you think this event had such an impact on you?

   2. What did you learn from it?

2. (Optional) Ask a few volunteers to share their school memory with the class.

3. Tell Students: We are going to watch the first of three videos featuring 6th-grade teacher John Arthur.  Read the unit and/or module introduction aloud to the class. 

While Viewing: Video 1: I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul

[15 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,5]

Procedures:

1. Give students the I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul Student Worksheet and have them read through the questions under the Video 1 section.

2. Play Video 1: Introduction: How Young John Arthur Became ‘Captain’ (11:45 min) and tell students that after watching they will have a few minutes to answer the questions. 

Post-Viewing: Video 1: Jumping Ship

[15 min]

[Learning Intention 1]

Procedures: 

1. Tell Students: You just heard John share his earliest childhood memory and how it impacted him. You also heard his account of the Korean MV Sewol ferry sinking and how that impacted him. 

2. Give students 5 minutes to answer the Video Section 1 questions. Discuss.

   1. What was John’s earliest memory in school and how did it impact him? His teacher wouldn’t let him go to the bathroom and he peed his pants. This traumatic event made him angry not as much because it was embarrassing, but rather because it seemed like the teacher didn’t believe him. Now as the teacher, he believes that it is essential to listen to students when they are trying to tell you something. Whether big or small, if they have the courage to use their voice and speak up for themselves then we need to listen. 

   2. Why do John Arthur’s students call him “Captain?” Students call him Captain after the last line in the Invictus poem by William Ernest Henley, “ I am the master of my fate, I am the CAPTAIN of my soul.” After John learned that 150 Korean high school kids drowned when the MV Sewol ferry sank because they stayed in their rooms and didn’t question the Captain’s orders- they didn’t stand up for themselves. From then on his priority was to empower student voices. 

   3. (Optional) Ask Students: Would you have left your room against the Captain’s orders and saved yourself from drowning? Why do you think so? Point out that John talks about putting on a big smile for the camera despite not being excused to use the restroom and peeing his pants. He explains that his father was a soldier and he was a very obedient kid. Ask students if anyone can relate.

3. Tell students: John shared these intimate stories with us to explain why it is important for students to speak up, ask questions, and share their perspectives on things that matter to them, big and small. In the next video, you will see how he and his students go about doing this.

Pre-Viewing: Video 2: Student Creators 

[5 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,2 ]

Procedures:

1. Ask Students: Do you believe that things you create can make a difference? Discuss. Then ask them whether things they create in the classroom can make a difference.  Even if students aren’t posting or promoting their work outside the classroom, writing, presenting, and art projects, for example, help them establish their voice. Probe other ways students are finding their voice in the classroom. 

2. Tell Students: We are now going to watch Video 2 called The Classroom: A Place to Find Your Voice and revisit this question after watching.

While Viewing: Video 2: No More Waiting

[20 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,2,3,5]

Procedures:

1. Tell Students: In this video, John Arthur shares how his classroom is like a workshop or laboratory and his students are creators. As you watch, jot down how students are making a difference.

2. Tell Students: In the last 5 minutes of this video, you will watch a student-produced music video called No More Waiting. Pay special attention to the message and how it impacts you. Write your responses in the space provided on your worksheet.

3. Play Video 2: The Classroom: A Place to Find Your Voice (16:31 min)

Post-Viewing: Video 2:  Finding Your Voice

[15 min]

[Learning Intentions 2,3]

Procedures: 

1. Give students 5 minutes to respond to questions 1 and 2 only under the Video 2 section of their worksheet.

2. Ask Students: What did you note about students making a difference? Discuss.

3. Tell Students: Let’s take a closer look at the music video No More Waiting we just watched: (Discuss as a class)

   1. What is the central message?

   2. How did it make you feel?

   3. Who is the message intended for? / Who is the target audience?

   4. What techniques are used to make the message credible or believable?

4. Tell Students: When we discussed whether things you create in and out of the classroom can make a difference, you had some ideas and thoughts about it. Take a few minutes to write what ideas you had previously. On your worksheet, complete this sentence: ‘I used to think…’

5. Now, think about how your ideas have changed after learning about John Arthur’s students and how they find their voice. Write down what you think now. Write the sentence as ‘Now I think…’”

6. Share and discuss.

7. Tell Students: We are now going to watch Video 3 called: Ditch the Label and Speak Out!

Pre-Viewing: Video 3: Ditch the Label

[15 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,2,4,5]

Procedures:

1. Ask Students: The title of this next video is: Ditch the Label and Speak Out! What does ‘Ditch the Label’ mean to you? Discuss. 

   1. Society labels people into categories often related to personality, behavior, physical appearance, intelligence, social skills, or cultural background.

   2. Labels can shape our perspective of the world and ourselves.

   3. Labels can lead to stereotypes- fixed overgeneralized beliefs about a particular group of people. Though stereotypes may have some basis, they never tell the whole story and can be extremely harmful.

2. Tell Students: I am going to play a short video called Ditch the Label to clarify this idea. Play Ditch the Label (1:15 min)

3. Tell Students: Under the Video 3 section, take a few minutes to jot down labels you feel have been used to define you. Think about whether you believe these labels truly describe you. Invite students to share. 

4. Tell Students: John Arthur says that youth often don’t speak out, question, and share their perspectives and this can be harmful. Remind them of the sinking ferry and the death of 150 students.

5. Tell Students: Write down reasons why you might not want to offer your voice and perspective. Invite students to share and discuss how they can ‘ditch’ the labels that define and limit them and shift to thinking of themselves as creators, artists, and influencers. It is time to acknowledge and transform the fear and anxiety into positive energy.  During her ‘Fearless’ tour, Taylor Swift said, “Fearless means having fears but jumping anyway.” Let’s watch Video 3 where John Arthur gets fearless!

While Viewing: Video 3: Fearless For Love

[15 min]

[Learning Intentions 3,5,7]

Procedures:

1. Tell Students: In this video, John is inspired by the success of his students speaking out and decides to use his voice in the political arena for something he loves. 

2. Play Video 3: Ditch the Label and Speak Out! (13:27 min)

Post-Viewing: Video 3: Skin in the Game

[5 min]

[Learning Intentions 3,7]

Procedures: 

1. Ask Students: What was the message of this video?  Find and use your voice to engage in society/Speak out on things that are important to you/ Youth can have an impact and make change and even teach adults a thing or two!

2. Tell Students: What John was doing was participating in democracy. His love letter to public education expresses his love and concern about the state of education and his way of putting ‘skin in the game.’ In this next section, we are going to explore how you can ‘put skin in the game’ and participate. 

Demonstration: My Impact

[25 min]

[Learning Intentions 3,4,6,7]

Procedures:

1. Ask students to think about something they do for their family and/or community. (e.g., recycling, fundraisers, art, helping others)

   1. Daily?

   2. Weekly?

   3. Monthly?

   4. Once a year?

2. Introduce and play the following StoryCorps episodes:

   1. One of the Greatest Tools I Learned was that I Have the Ability to Truly Change Someone’s Life. (2:27 min/StoryCorps Episode/ audio only) Jamel Massey and Tyree Hicks were both arrested when they were teenagers. Now they mentor people from their neighborhoods, including those who were formerly incarcerated. 

   2. How a Shared Language Helped Two Young People Find Their Voice (2:55 min/ StoryCorps Episode/ audio only) In 2006, Luis immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic. He was a child and didn’t speak any English, so bullied because of it. Four years later he met Angel who reminded him of his younger self and the two formed a close bond.

3. Tell Students: There are many ways you can have an impact and make a difference in your community. There is a fancy term for this: Civic Engagement. 

4. Tell Students: Civic Engagement or Civic Participation is about communities working together or individuals working alone.  It includes both political and non-political actions around issues of public concern, to protect public values and make a change in the community.

5. Ask Students: How were John Arthur’s students practicing civic engagement and using their voices on issues that concerned them? Music videos about losing parents and the struggles of immigrants that they shared with the public.

6. Tell Students: The list of how you can engage and deliver your message is endless. But as John Arthur tells us, it needs to be a labor of love. 

   1. Play a segment from Video 3 of John Arthur talking about how his students share their message and try to make the world a better place. (4:30- 6:30 min) 

OR

2. Read this excerpt from John Arthur Video 3 aloud: “There’s a tone and a grace that you have to bring to conversations that is really hard. And as you’ve seen on the news, adults scream when they should be talking; they accuse when they should be listening. But the thing I learned watching my kids create their content is that these are labors of love. My students when you watch their music videos, they don’t call names, they don’t say anything unkind or rude, they just lay out their honest truth. And then they invite you to engage with that and tell them, now that you know who I am and the kind of person I am, how can you possibly ask me to either leave or to sit silent?” 

7. Share the “I AM” List Poem Template with students and ask students to contemplate the issues they care about and respond to the prompts. In groups of 3, have them share their poems. (Optional) Have a few volunteers share with the class. 

8. (Optional) For more inspiration, click the Dig Deeper section in this curriculum and show students:

   1. Examples of young civic leaders

   2. Student-produced newspapers

9. As a class, have students share their ideas for practicing civic engagement and finding their voice. 

Democracy & Love Letters

[60 min]

[Learning Intentions 3,6,7]

Procedures:

1. Ask Students: What does democracy mean? Democracy is a system of government in which state power is vested in the people. Democracy means run by people. This leadership style means making room for multiple people to participate in the decision-making process

2. Tell Students: In the last video (Video 3) we saw a clip of John Arthur reading his Love Letter to Public Education at the Utah State Capitol. He did this to bring attention to issues around public education and influence lawmakers in charge of education policy decision-making. This type of civic engagement is called activism or advocacy, but it is also civic engagement through public art. Don’t you agree that his love letter certainly was a piece of art!?

3. Tell Students: For our arts integration project, you are going to write and present your own Love Letter to something (NOT someone).  John is passionate about public education. What are you passionate about?  Refer to the “I AM” List Poem you wrote, and identify the social issue of consequence that you want to write your Love Letter to.

4. Pass out the Love Letter Template to each student and read through it as a class. Tell them that using the template is optional and is provided to guide them if needed as they write. 

5. Tell Students: Before we write, we are going to get inspired by watching the full video of John reading his Love Letter to public education at the Utah State Capitol. While you are watching, note things you like about the content of his letter and his delivery. Play Love Letter to Public Education (5:35 min). 

6. Have students write their Love Letter.

7. In pairs, have students rehearse reading their Love Letters out loud, and make any changes based on feedback.

8.  Celebrate with an “author’s chair,” where students present their Love Letters to the class. Get creative! Stand on desks!

9. Have students reflect on how to broaden their audience for more impact. Here are a few ideas:

   1. Present to other students and faculty.

   2. Video recordings of students reading and posting on YouTube.

   3. Hold a ‘Love Letter’ slam (online or with a live audience).

   4. Have them present to key decision-makers: business leaders, mayors, legislators, etc.

Invite students to “dig deeper” on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection about students as creators and the importance of practicing democracy and civic engagement in and outside the classroom.

Examples of Young Civic Leaders

Invention Education Stories of Impact- (Dasia Taylor, Prish Shroff)

4-H Youth in Action Program- Winners and Finalists of young leaders in our community.

Videos

Malala Fund YouTube Channel: Malala and Teen Activists on Learning to Speak out- If there’s an issue you care about or a change you want to see happen in your community, how do you know where to begin? Malala Yousafzai and other young advocates discuss why they decided to speak out against injustice and finding your voice. 

9thEvermore- We are 6th-grade students creating content for the communities and causes that matter most to us.  Thank you for checking out our work!

• No More Waiting (4:45 min)- Student music video on their feelings on immigration (2018)

• The Story Problems Song: “The Story of Our Lives” (4:45 min) - “Most of the time, story problems try to force their narratives upon us; however, in our class, we have decided to take control and reshape word problems until they tell the stories that reflect our lives.” 9thEvermore 

• The Art of Immigrant Kids (3:23 min)- This film looks at the value immigrant kids bring to our country!

• The Quoting from Texts Harlem Shake (3:11 min) Ever wondered how to correctly punctuate a quote in an essay?  Watch our digital short and you'll never forget again! 

Love Letter to Public Education- (John Arthur at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City.) For Valentine’s Day this year, I’m taking Public Education out on a date ❤️ This is my Love Letter to Public Education, and I encourage everyone to write one, too—Public Education could really use the love right now 🙏🏻

Podcasts

The Teacher Fellows: Civic Education with William Shields- “In this episode, we talked with William Shields about civic education and its importance in education. William is an 8th-grade US History and 9th-grade American Institutions and Issues Teacher. Interestingly, his American Institutions and Issues classroom was inspired by his students.”

Websites

Amanda Gorman: Using Your Voice is a Political Choice- Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in US history, explains in this TED Talk why poetry is inherently political and stresses the value of speaking out despite your fears.

Student Newspapers- Award-winning student-produced newspapers from across the US for all ages. 

Spy Hop- Salt Lake City Spy Hop’s mission is to mentor young people in the media arts to help them find their voice, tell their stories, and effect positive change in their lives, and communities.

BTS BYU Advancing Arts Partnership- A filmmaking media gallery that contains various genres of student-produced films addressing important social issues. 

Youth Voices Tackle Local Civic Issues: (KQED) See and hear how youth are responding to local issues in their communities, from homelessness to climate change, and their solutions for how we can solve these problems.

Facing History and Ourselvesis a global educational organization that reaches millions of students worldwide every year. Using the lessons of history — and history in the making — Facing History equips teachers to provide students with the skills to think critically and wrestle with difficult issues.