LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Read about a teen who became a member of his school board; identify issues facing school communities; describe different ways for teens to have an impact on their school board.

HEALTH ED STANDARDS

NHES 8: Demonstrate the ability to advocate for personal, family, and community health.

CASEL COMPETENCY: Social awareness

KEY VOCAB

eligible

momentous

democracy

candidacy

Lesson Plan: Giving Students a Voice

School board member Shiva Rajbhandari is speaking up for local teens.

PREPARING TO READ

Before you read the article “Giving Students a Voice,” ask your students the following pre-reading question:

How can teens have an impact on the decisions that are made in their school?

READING AND DISCUSSION

  • Have your students read the article “Giving Students a Voice” independently; read the article out loud to them; or have students partner-read the article out loud.
  • After they’ve read the article, revisit the pre-reading question. Have their answers changed?

BUILDING COMPREHENSION AND VOCAB

Check students’ comprehension of and engagement with the story with the following assessment tools:

  • Comprehension Quiz
  • Vocab Builder

EXPANDING SEL OPPORTUNITIES

Continue the learning journey with the following writing prompt:

In MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD, students will pretend they are a student at Shiva’s school and write a letter or an email to him to share their opinion on an issue of their choice. They should start by congratulating Shiva on winning the election and say they are happy to have a fellow teen representing their interests. Then have them briefly describe the issue they are writing about (such as student mental health or school start times) and say how the issue is currently affecting students. To conclude, they should offer a potential solution for the issue and say they hope Shiva will consider their opinion when raising issues to the board. Finally, they should thank Shiva for reading their letter or email.

Print the Lesson Plan

Text-to-Speech