An Audience Beyond the Teacher, The Inspiring Youth, and an Appeal to the World by Becki Maldonado

We often either underestimate the work that students can do and/or we fail to acknowledge a great deal of the good work they do. Do we do enough to provide them with authentic audiences beyond turning work into the teacher? Do we encourage them to pursue their own curiosity? Do we promote work that leads to inquiry? Do we share examples with our students of the work that other young people are doing throughout the world? In this post, Becki Maldonado provides a few examples of how she tries to go about this work and uses examples of environmental activism.

An Audience Beyond the Teacher, The Inspiring Youth, and an Appeal to the World

Students need to be seen, and their work in areas which matter the most to them need to be acknowledged. All of the major project assignments in my curriculum involve students being able to choose topics, which are important to them. 99% have chosen to read and write about areas of social injustice: immigration, racism, hunger, public health, climate change, etc. The other 1% have chosen topics like the school’s cell phone policy and people wasting money on beer instead of saving their money to upgrade their engine to a V8 in their truck. Regardless of the topics chosen, all of my students want their voice to be heard and told they were making a difference. 

One of my students, who was addressing climate justice, approached me and asked why the school wasted so many plastic bags in the classroom’s trash cans. They pointed out that even if the trash can only has one item in it, at the end of the day the janitor still takes the entire plastic bag out, throws it in the trash, and replaces it with a new one. We discussed the problem at length. I shop at a grocery store, which bags the groceries in paper bags. I offered to start bringing the paper bags up to school and put them in the trash can in place of the plastic bags. The student made a sign in Spanish asking the janitor to only empty the trash on Fridays. I made special arrangements for the student to explain to each class period about the change in the trash and why the change was made. After the initial changes were made, I told the student, “Thank you for taking the initiative and bringing this problem to my attention. You are going to save so many plastic bags from going into the landfill. You have inspired me to eliminate the plastic trash bags at my house also.” The student was glowing from head to toe.

Giving one student permission to change something and make a difference cascaded into other students being inspired to take all the ideas they had been reading and writing about and apply them to solving real world problems. This transformed the learning environment from theory and “ya cool we are working on something we are interested in” to authentic ownership and truly making a difference in their community. Knowing they were making a difference was the key motivation for them wanting to learn how to better communicate through reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

For Authentic Learning Acknowledge the Audience Beyond the Teacher

Education in America has bowed down to the standardized test and measurement gods. The bowing down to these gods has forced the curriculum into a teaching to the test rut. Standardized tests and standards have an odd relationship to each other. Which came first, the standards or the standardized tests? The more focused education gets on teaching to the test the deeper the rut gets. No amount of methods or pedagogy will help while teaching to the test remains the priority. Most of the students, except for those trying to please parents and teachers, don’t care about the tests. 

To get students out of the rut and actually learning, assignments need to have an audience beyond the teachers and the school. Literacy education is all about learning to effectively create and receive messages. We live in the era of globalization and technology. The world is the audience on social media. 

At the beginning of each project, I ask my students two important questions: “What message do you want to send?” and “Who is your audience?” The answer to the what message question evolves as the project is completed. However, the audience question is more difficult for the students, especially in the beginning. The standard answer often given by students  is “the teacher” is the audience. The students and I end up having a discussion about I am not the audience. I am the one here to help them effectively convey their messages. 
If students have never been exposed to writing, public speaking, or creating art, it is very difficult for them to grasp that anyone would listen to them. It is even more difficult for them to envision their message having the potential to impact and inspire other people, especially people who are older. This is where the book Our Only Home: A Climate Appeal to the World by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Franz Alt comes into play.

An Unlikely Audience Inspired by Youth Climate Change Activists

In his most recent book, His Holiness the Dalai Lama applauds the environmental advocacy work of Greta and other youth advocates. “Seventeen-year-old Greta Thunberg, the teenage environmental activist who insists we heed scientists’ warnings and take direct action, inspires me” states His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2020, p. 43). Let’s pause here and reflect and break down what this is saying. A 17 year old, Swedish girl with Asperer’s syndrome sent a message so powerful it impacted an 84 year old, Tibetan refugee, who is the great spiritual leader of Tibet, living in Dharamsala, India. Even if one ignores age differences, cultural differences, and just got out a map and pointed out where Sweden is and where Dharmsala is, it is obvious her message had an impact because of globalization and technology. Nowhere in the book does His Holiness the Dalai Lama admit to having a mystical vision of Greta Thunberg and other youth climate change activists. The book Our Only Home: A Climate Appeal to the World is a perfect example of the impact students’ messages can have on the world due to globalization and technology.

An Easy to Read Message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama

When I am considering having my class read a book, the first thing I always think about is how am I going to get my reluctant readers on board. A lot of my reluctant readers have panic attacks if the book is big and thick. The great news about this book is it is a  5” x 7” book with 174 pages. Handing them the physical copy is a piece of cake. No panic attack to have to overcome. I also always try to select books that have an audiobook version, so my English Language Learners and struggling readers can listen to what it is supposed to sound like and enjoy the book, instead of having to trip over pronunciation. The audiobook is only three hours and one minute long. What I really like about the audiobook is it has two different speakers: one when Franz Alt is writing and the other for when His Holiness the Dalai Lama is writing. Again, super easy. Most people think a book written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama would be difficult, however, the message is extremely accessible.
There are ten chapters, which are 8-15 pages long. Each chapter has explicit subtitles, which makes it reader friendly. The first two chapters are Franz Alt setting up the problem of climate change, or as he refers to it “The Third World War against Nature” (2020, p. 23). The last eight chapters are a mixture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaking and Franz Alt and His Holiness conversing. His Holiness the Dalai Lama discusses how Buddhism corresponds to climate change, but he always brings the conversation back to how the youth climate justice activists throughout the world are making a difference. The act of coming back to the youth activists shows the connection between Buddhism and the youth activists, helping to humanize Buddhists, which for us in the United States can seem like a very foreign religion and culture.

But That’s Greta’s Impact Not Mine

Greta is the prime example of a teenager making a difference by using their voice. We do discuss Greta having Asperer’s syndrome and how it benefits her because it allows her to directly address the issue. There are always students who respond with, “I could never have the same impact as Greta.” To that statement, I challenge my students by asking them, “Have you ever tried to do what Greta is doing?” and “On the issue that is important to you, what have you done to try to make an impact?” Most of the time they haven’t done anything for an audience beyond the teacher. My response is always, “If you have never tried to do anything that would have an impact on people beyond the classroom, how do you know you won’t have the same impact as Greta?” It’s important to keep students from stopping themselves before they even begin due to self-doubt.

Finding Their Own Groove

Of course, the goal is not to have students be like Greta. The goal is for students to find their own groove and to shine by being themselves. Messages can only be impactful when the person sending it is being their authentic selves. No matter how much someone tries to fine tune their message if they are not being themselves and communicating their authentic passion, the receiver of the message will have a barrier appear and think to themselves, “Something is not right here.” When the sender of the message is authentic, the message is more likely to have an impact on the receiver. 
To help students find their own groove, we research and learn about other teens and young adults who have found their groove already. As a starting point, for my students who are interested in climate justice, I give them this list of  youth activists, how old they are, their topic of expertise, and a book that is related to their topic of expertise (Figure 1). Students do not have to do their research project based on any of these activists. They are free to choose other teen activists.

For the project students have to pick one teen activist in their area of interest. There are four sections of the project. 

1. Me as an Activist Spotlight - The students write down the specific topic they are interested in plus five important facts about themselves. (These can also be goals.)
2. Teen Activist Spotlight - The students read articles and the activist’s social media and highlight five important facts about the activist.
3. Collaboration - The students create a plan about how they would collaborate with the teen activist, why it is important that they collaborate, and how collaborating would help solve both important issues.
4. Book Highlight - A student has to pick a book which connects with the issues that are important to both them and the teen activist. Using the 3, 2, 1 technique, they write about three ways the books connect to their issue and the teen activist’s issue, two important facts everyone should know from the book, and one question they still have. (Modifications and accommodations can be made by using picture books.)

Because student’s should always have an audience beyond the teachers, we print them out and put them on poster board or card stock and put them in the hallway. Some public libraries will allow galleries of students’ work. Always try to prearrange public galleries in social hot spots.

The Message of Our Youth is Important

There are some adults and even some educators who believe we are preparing our youth for adulthood. If one is teaching financial literacy, this could be true. However, in literacy education, students can and should use their voices no matter how young they are. The sooner the youth start to be able to communicate their ideas the better off society and the world will be. Students being able to successfully send meaningful messages which impact the receiver should be one of primary goals as literacy educators.

The following is a list of Youth Climate Activist by name, age, topic of Expertise, and their book:
Greta Thunberg: 17, Global Environmental Diplomacy, No One is Too Small to Make a Difference
Felix Finkbeiner: 23, Tree Planting, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever to Reverse Global Warming Edited by Paul Hawken
Gitanjali Rao: 15,Testing Water for Contaminants, Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation by Candy J. Cooper and Marc Aronson
Irsa Hirsi: 17 Diversification Within the Climate Justice Movement, One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet by Anuradha Rao
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez: 20, Ecomusicology, We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Movement that Restores the Planet
Helena Gualinga: 18, The Amazon Rainforest and its Indigenous People, Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon by John Hemming
Leah Namugerwa: 16, Climate Change Awareness and Plastic Pollution in Uganda, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel
Daphne Frias: 22, Effects of Climate Change on the Disabled Community and Public Health, Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do About It by Paul R. Epstein and Dan Ferber
Jurwaria Jama: 15, Carbon Emission, The Carbon Code: How You Can Become a Climate Change Hero by Brett Favaro
Quannah Chasinghorse: 18, Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic by Marla Cone

Environmental Books for 4th-8th grade

• Cast Away: Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye
• Green Nation Revolution: Use Your Future to Change the World by Valentina Gianella and Lucia Ester Marazzi
• We Are the Weather Makers: The History of Climate Change by Sally M Walker and Tim Flannery
• Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines by Paul Fleischman
• You Can Change the World: The Kids’ Guide to a Better Planet by Lucy Bell

Non-Fiction Climate Justice Books for High School and College

• Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders by Angelou Ezeilo
• Climate Change From the Streets by Michael Mendez
• Indigenous Environmental Justice edited by Karen Jarratt-Snider and Marianne O. Nielsen
• A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet A. Washington
• Writers on Earth: New Visions for Our Planet (Young Voices Across the Globe) edited by Elizabeth Kolbert and Write the World
• Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, and Wetlands by Cathryn Berger Kaye M.A. and Philippe Cousteau
• Here: Poems for the Planet edited by Elizabeth J. Coleman
• No One is Too Small to Make A Difference by Greta Thunberg

Until next week.