Lesson video

Hello everybody and welcome to lesson six in the global problems unit I'm Mrs. Baker.

And I'm going to be taking you through today's lesson.

And I have to say it is a really, really great one.

So time to take your phones onto silent, turn off your notifications, try and find somewhere nice and quiet to work without any distractions if you can and I'll meet you in just a moment to tell you what you need for today's lesson.

Hello everybody.

So for today's lesson, which is the last in a series on global problems, you are going to need something to write with and something to write on.

And of course, those thinking brains, which I hope you've been working really hard over the last five lessons and they're certainly not going to stop today.

We have a huge amount to do today so let's get on.

S0 to start with then, we are looking at how we can take responsible action.

That's you and me.

We need to think about what responsible action actually means? What action can we take on these global problems that we've been learning about? How can we be an active citizen? And then thinking about what projects we can plan at home and in our local communities and in our schools that can make a difference to these global problems we've been learning about.

So what is active citizenship then? Throughout this unit, we've looked at different problems that exist in our world.

We've also looked at some groups and organisations that try to solve these.

Active citizenship it's participating in society to bring about change.

So being an active citizen, is a person who actively takes responsibility, becomes involved in areas of public concern and tries to make a difference.

So if you remember back to lesson four and that Eleanor Roosevelt quote, she talks about the need for a citizenship action to moderate and act on human rights issues, because you have to take action on the small things where you can't make a difference on the big one.

So what are we going to look at then? Well, if we're going to take action it has to be responsible action.

And there are lots of different ways people can try and change things.

We're seeing some throughout this unit.

For example, we learned about the anti-fracking campaign, Frack off.

They organise local protest to try and stop companies fracking in their towns.

We learned about the NGOs.

Can you remember what that stood for? Yeah, that's right.

Nongovernmental organisations, such as Amnesty International, who run campaigns like Write for Rights to raise awareness about human rights abuses.

We also learned about changemakers like Greta Thunberg and Little Miss Flint who take action themselves to change things locally or nationally to create change for the better.

These are examples of responsible action as they are organised and do not harm anyone or anything else.

And that's really important, that when we're planning our action we need to make sure that what we do is organised and certainly doesn't cause harm to anything or anyone.

So what is an active citizen? The UK is a democracy, which means that most adults living here, the citizens, have the right to vote in elections, to choose people, to represent us in parliament.

These representatives are known as members of parliament or MPs.

They do lots of things including making rules and laws for the country.

You can't vote until you're 18, but you can have a say and help make changes before this because in a democracy, every citizen young and old has a voice.

Being an active citizen is about you taking part in democracy by having your say and making a difference which is positive.

So what are the First News ACTive Citizenship Awards? The ACTive Citizenship Award is about recognising how you can make a real positive change around work in this unit.

We've investigated some of the global problems over the last few lessons and there are far more.

This is now your chance to make a change.

It's about you working with others to make a difference.

You can submit your project to the Association for Citizenship Teaching, which is often called ACT so that you can receive your award when you have finished with your project.

Make sure you ask an adult to do that for you once you've completed your action.

And I'll explain more about how to do that later in the lesson.

So what is the ACTive Citizenship precess the? Or there's three main stages to that.

The first stage is to get planning.

So you choose your issue, you see who could help, you think about what kind of action to take, you think about how your know whether you've been successful or not and you plan and get ready to carry out your action.

Stage two Is often the best part, but it can be very tricky.

And that is put your plan into action and actually take the action.

Actually take the action.

So you do what you say you're going to do.

That might be campaigning, that might be awareness raising, it could be a number of things because there's so many different ways to take responsible action.

And then the next stage of the cycle is measuring your impact.

So this is where you reflect, think about what went well, think about perhaps what you could have done even better and report your story.

Because it's your report that will be judged with regards to your active citizenship award.

So stage one in the planning then, is citing on your global problem.

And here is some sentence says that you need to complete in order to get planning.

No hanging around today guys, we're going to get on with planning your action.

So this task then please on your paper, can you complete these sentences.

The problem I've chosen to focus on is.

The people affected by the problem are.

And I chose this issue because.

So pause the video now and complete these sentences.

The issue I have chosen to focus on is plastic pollution.

The people affected by the problem are most of society as the pollution is affecting our sea and beaches as well as polluting our water.

I chose this problem as I think everybody can have an impact to help solve it.

We can all do something really simple, like no longer using single use bottles or cutlery.

So you can see that I identified the problem, I explained why it was a problem and what issues it was causing.

And then I came up with a really simple reason as to why I felt something needed to be done about it.

Okay.

So now as well as taking our action and planning that, we need to think about what we're learning along the way.

So what kind of skills we're building up by being an active citizen and taking responsible action.

So what you've got here is a skills tracker.

So you can actually think about while I'm taking this action apart from doing something really positive and developing into changemaker and an active citizen, what else am I developing? So I would suggest that you could break it down into four areas and keep track at these skills while you are planning.

So you are probably going to develop your skills of communication.

So exchanging information by speaking, writing or using some other form of medium that might even be making videos or handing out leaflets.

I guess as well that you're going to to have to do some research.

So investigations of different materials and sources, find out more about what's going on so you can take even more informed action rather than just rely on what you think you know.

You're also going to be doing some analysis.

So you're going to have to look at maybe some statistics or some ideas that you already had.

Perhaps you could look at headlines around the problem and see if that accurate.

And there's going to be some problems that come up in your planning.

So you're going to be dealing with problem solving.

And that's a really important skill to take through with you in lots of subjects.

So make a note of any problems that you solve and how you go about that.

So I'd like you to pause your video now and complete your tracker, thinking about what skills you've developed so far and leaving space to add new ones to that.

So pause your video now an complete that task.

Okay.

So now you've focused on what problem you would like to solve, Let's think of things that you are going to do about it.

So I'd like you to try and think of three different options for taking action to address your issue.

For each, I would like you to consider how effective that action would be.

Try and be realistic about what you're able to achieve.

But remember, push yourself and challenge yourself as well.

There are many ideas in the worksheet that's attached to this lesson.

So have a look at those if you're really stuck.

Make sure you identify the audience that you're trying to influence and persuade as well.

So come up with three different kinds of action and look at how effective it will be.

Maybe write the good things about it, the bad things about it.

And make sure you identify your audience.

There's lots of ideas that you can get from your worksheet.

You might already be really busting with ideas.

You're doing lots of work this lesson.

I'm not doing quite so much.

Okay.

So you might want to use the worksheet that's in the framework.

So the framework that's in the worksheet to help you.

I think this might help my issue because.

The pros of this action are: The cons of this action are: I think this might help global problems because.

Okay, so remember your action needs to be linked back to global problems. So have a think about that every time you're planning.

So complete the paragraphs.

Once you've used that framework in the video, right on the worksheet.

The action ACTive Citizenship action I have chosen to take is.

I have chosen this action because.

So you've had the chance to look through the worksheet and look at three examples, hopefully.

And you've looked at the pros and cons of those.

So feel free to pause the video now and complete any of those steps.

Don't forget you can rewind the video at this stage.

If you want to go back over any of these steps, and go find those frameworks and those ideas in your worksheet.

This is probably going to take you a little while.

It probably will take you I would think at least 10 minutes to have a think about three different actions, how they would support global problems and the good points and bad points about them.

So you pause you're video now and complete the task.

Okay.

So here's a quick example of how this might work for you.

The ACTive Citizenship action I have decided to take is organising a campaign at school to prevent the use of single use plastic cups.

I've chosen to take this action because I think the action we'll take in our school can help address the global problem as our school will be creating less plastic waste.

This will reduce the needs of dispose of it.

For example, the school could buy reusable beakers instead of plastic or paper cups.

We could also encourage pupils to use their own reusable cups Small actions like this can make a big difference.

So this was just an idea that I had.

Offer a thing what was going on at break times and lunch times that to get to the water fountain people often use plastic cups and they drink from them once and then throw them away.

So I thought rather than doing that, if we have beakers in school that could then be washed up or even paper cups that could be recycled, then it would save a lot of single use plastic.

Hopefully you've come up with an idea that will be relevant on a global problem that might be personal to your school or your area or something that you know is going to make a really big difference.

Okay.

So now we need to get planning our action.

So think about who do you need to contact? Do you need to create a record sheet to write information down? Do you need to design something to communicate or persuade others? So that could be a leaf letter or a poster.

Do you need to create a message to send to friends to organise a time for something to happen? So maybe you need to send a text message to your friends or give them an email to say, to meet at theirs or meet at yours.

When are these things going to happen? So you need to set dates and times really to know what's happening.

And what is your role and who might help you? So you are allowed to work with other people on your action.

So you might have a couple of friends that feel the same way about you and a problem as you do.

Maybe some other people that are carrying out this lesson and you can work together.

It's often easier to work together on something like this.

And it's also another way to get more people involved.

So try to think about the what, the who, the where, the when and the why when you plan.

So if you looking at worksheet pack again, you'll find a copy of this chart.

So in the Watts column, you write down what you're going to do.

In the who column, you're going to write down who you're going to do it with.

In the where column, you're going to write down where it's going to happen.

In the when column, you're going to set the date and time.

And in the why column, you're going to explain why you've chosen to do that action.

So you can see an example on there.

So if you're carrying out your action at the moment, so at the moment we are in a global pandemic and we know that we have to remain socially distance and wearing masks.

So please remember that you do need to take care and remain safe.

So if you are going to meet with someone, please make sure your safety distance, like it says there in the example.

Or perhaps you could do it via a text message or something like that rather than face to face.

Or maybe you could phone each other or video call using FaceTime or something.

Or these new technologies that you're able to use.

So that's the example of the planning table.

So, I would like you to pause your video now and just see if you can come up with a couple of examples of things you need to do to make your activity work.

Now, obviously you're not going to plan your whole lesson, so your whole activity in today's lesson, but it will just get you used to thinking about what you need to do.

So see if you can come up with one or two things that will get you started towards making this action happen.

I would allow yourself about maybe five minutes to do this and come back to me when you're ready.

Okay.

That's great.

So we're really coming along now with how you can make a difference and working towards your active citizenship action.

You've got a plan coming together.

You've already chosen what your campaigns being about.

You have started your skills tracker as well.

So here's another stage in your skills tracker.

Perhaps you want to see if you can add anything to your skills tracker now.

Looking at your planning have you got any new skills here? Are you now going to be doing some research as part of your planning? Have you done more communication now as part of your planning? See if you can add any new skills to that skills tracker.

Okay.

So maybe if you'd like to pause the video now, if you have some new skills to add and if you haven't just remember, as you carry on with your planning, you can add them as you go.

So unfortunately, you can't take your action while you're in this lesson with me.

Okay.

So I'm going to have to leave you to plan that and take the action on your own.

Which is really exciting, I think, because it gives you an opportunity to really make a difference and to show your understanding about the unit that you've just covered.

And I will get to know about what you've done, because when you've done your project, when you've run your campaign, you then report your action.

So you write up a little reports to tell me and other people all about that.

So it's only a really short piece that you need to write in the style of a newspaper article.

So you start off by explaining what you did.

Then you think about what you've learned from the action.

Try and explain why you did what you did and then try and decide if you've made an impact and the why and the why nots.

And that's the last bit of our cycle, remember.

The impact, the measuring.

So can you see that you've definitely done something different.

Have you changed something? Is it within your school? Is it within your local authority? Is it within your community? What have you done? Even if it's just at home Perhaps you started recycling at home or you've changed something about your water use at home or something like that.

All of these things can still have an impact.

When you write your story, put some photos in there, remember to include quotes from anyone that was involved in your action and they enjoyed it, or they learned from it and say where your community is.

Okay.

So when you write up your news item, you might like to include some of these things.

Now some of you might be experts at writing newspaper articles in which case great.

But some of you might need a little bit of support.

So let's have a look at what you put in.

So number one, you would put a headline, which is something snappy.

That's going to grab your audience's attention.

Normally one sentence or a few words.

Then you add what's called the leader.

That's normally one or two sentences that gives you the basic ideas about your project and the change you wanted to make.

The story then is one or two short paragraphs describing the action that you took.

This is a bit where you could include your photographs and quotes from people that were involved and really let people reading this article get a feel of what your campaign and what your action was all about.

And then at the end, a final sentence, which kind of gives a summary or a statement to sum up exactly what your ACTive Citizenship was about.

So it could be the best thing about it, it could be the results you've had, anything like that.

So here's an example.

And it's based on this idea that I used in my school.

The idea of stopping using plastic cups.

So headline would be, "Time to stop single use plastics in school." Plastic pollution is a real issue for the world.

Here at ACT Academy, we are not helping with our plastic cups.

It's time to do something about it.

Plastic pollution affects all as well as sea life.

Single use plastic of real problems. So the less we use it, the better.

ACT Academy can make a real impact by looking at the single use plastic we use and try to reduce them.

The easiest action to take first, will be no longer using the plastic cups for drinks at break time and lunch time.

After some research, I found that my plastic could save money.

Sorry, after some research, I found that my school could save money by buying reusable beakers rather than providing plastic cups each day.

I wrote a letter to the head teacher and he agreed.

Beakers are now used in school and if disposable cups are used, they are paper.

It feels really good to have managed to make a difference.

And now I have an eco-committee who are also looking to find other ways to improve how ACT Academy looks after the environment.

So that's just a quick example of what your newspaper article could look like.

So ACTive Citizenship Award then, how to submit your application.

It's actually very, very simple.

All you'll need is a copy of the newspaper article that you've written and you will fill out a very simple consent form to say that it's okay for the newspaper, the real newspaper, First News, to print your article if you are selected as a finalist.

And it's as easy as that.

You can find out more details about that if you search ACTive Citizenship Awards online and you'll be able to go to First News or the ACTive Citizenship Award website and they'll tell you all about how you can enter.

And that's what we'll need to help you to do that.

So what have we learned from today's lesson then? Hopefully now you understand what responsible action is.

And you know the kind of action we can take on global problems. You've learnt the three stage plan for how to be an active citizen.

And we've started your project planning.

We've fitted an awful lot into today's lesson, but hopefully now you've got the foundations of how you can develop a small action which can make a really big difference.

And even if you don't take it into the awards scheme, it will still do a lot of work for these global problems Even if you don't want to write the reports, although I really encourage you to do that because it will be wonderful to see the wonderful work that has come out of your global problems unit and reward you for the fantastic ideas that you had on how to solve some of these problems. Don't forget guys, you are the decision makers of the future.

So it will soon be down to you to work out how we're going to deal with these global problems. So, I would absolutely love to see any ideas you have for planning your campaigns and also any action that you take, photographs, explanations, examples, anything that you'd like to share with us would be wonderful.

The more we see the better.

So please ask a parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging in @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

You can all say, add the subject, Citizenship, so we can see what subject is from.

And that brings us to the end of our global problems unit.

So we've investigated the problems. You've had a chance to see how action is taken.

And now this is your opportunity to take some real action.

One last task to do before the end of the lesson, you know exactly what it is.

It's time to complete one last exit quiz, just so you can demonstrate what you've learned and what you can remember.

It's been so great to work with you over these last six lessons.

And I really hope you choose to take some action.

And I get to hear about those campaigns.

I do normally get to see what's sent in from the active awards schemes.

So I look forward to seeing some of your work and feel free to say that you completed it while doing the Oak National lessons so we know where it's come from.

Because it's great to see that people are taking part in our lessons.

So that's it from me on this unit.

But has lots of other citizenship learning for you to do.

And I hope you really enjoy learning more about citizenship over the next few months and hopefully the next few years.

Take very good care of yourselves everybody.

Bye bye.