Ideas for High School Students to Engage with Politics

Post date: 2021-01-15 09:42:51

Calling all educators! And everyone else with ideas on how to provide opportunities for high school students to get their voices heard. What have you done with your students to empower them to engage politically? What ideas do you have for how I might help my own students do so?

I am a High School English teacher. My 10th graders are an amazing bunch with strong opinions and concerns about our society. We are doing a unit on the American Dream and today's classes delightfully turned into me providing a safe space for them to share their thoughts and feelings on the Capitol siege.

They've asked me to help them get their voices heard and for ways they can make a difference. It's been decades since I myself was a politically engaged high school student and I'm looking for ideas on things I can bring them. My ideas so far:

-we already have a unit on argumentative writing coming up, and I'm planning to have them write letters to their representatives and letters to the editor.
-they are all creative writers and just wrote dystopian short stories that speak to an issue in our modern society. These are phenomenal and I plan to find ways to publish them, perhaps on a blog I create for our class.

I appreciate any other ideas and suggestions! I am so proud of these students and want them to feel like their thoughts and opinions matter and can positively influence the world.

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