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Student activism 101
“You are never too young to lead, and you should never doubt your capacity to triumph where others have not.” Kofi Annan
This collection shares resources that celebrate the value of civic engagement. Find lessons that explore concepts like democracy, citizenship, disobedience, and civic participation. Review court cases to ensure students know their rights, watch inspiring videos about teacher and student activists, and develop strategies to help students identify the issues they care most about.
Please note that the files in this collection cannot be downloaded from WeTeachNYC because they link out to an external site.
Included Resources
This collection shares lessons to help students further understand concepts like democracy, protest, and civic participation. They can be used to inspire civic engagement within and outside of the school community.
CNN shares this curated and annotated collection of links and suggestions to support students becoming civically engaged.
Teacher Elizabeth Robbins shares this talk (11 min.) on students taking action around issues that affect them. This video is hosted by YouTube; skip the ad to get straight to the video.)
This article, by the Anti-Defamation League, presents practical ways students can address social and political problems in their community.
This guide explains what it means to be a student activist and where to find support for certain causes. It also provides tools and guidance on how to create goal-oriented, effective rallies for change. Created by the Community for Accredited Online Schools.
This teaching guide is targeted toward educators involved in civic education both inside and outside of school settings, and shares examples of how they might utilize the Ten Questions for Change Makers framework in their educational environments. The framework encapsulates timeless ideals of participation: self-reflection on authentic motivations, pivoting from individual to collective action, expanding the scope of collaboration, coordinating divergent self-interests, guarding ourselves from pushbacks, and getting from voice to influence. This guide shares three modules for applying the framework: 10 Questions for the Future, 10 Questions for the Present, and 10 Questions for the Past. Each section currently includes one teaching unit, but more will be added in due course. Created by the Harvard Democratic Knowledge Project.
This New York Times article was originally published in September 2007 as a two-part series in The New York Times Upfront , a news magazine for teens published by Scholastic in partnership with The New York Times.
Facts and case summary for this 2007 case which ruled school authorities do not violate the First Amendment when they stop students from expressing views that may be interpreted as promoting illegal drug use.
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