Danielle Blinderman

Savannah Phipps

ELM 375

Dr. Joanna Koch

Social Action Plan

Introduction

Every classroom has their own goals and expectations that they intend to implement,

Ms. Doves classroom being showing empathy towards others. This classroom is not the first to

struggle with bullying or intolerance of students within the classroom. It has come to our

attention that we can help Ms. Doves class create a positive and welcoming classroom

community.

This issue is problematic in the classroom because it can affect the way that our

students learn. There have been instances where students in the classroom have made unkind

remarks towards one another, making one or several other students in the classroom upset.

This kind of behavior disrupts the classrooms learning environment and causes the teacher(s) to

stop what they are doing to address the problem. This makes it difficult to keep students

working productively and staying on track. Bullying can also affect our students self-esteem. At

such a young age, it is hard to be confident and sure of yourself. Students in our classroom

should be lifting each other up with kind words and actions, rather than tearing each other

down and not showing empathy towards one another. By creating a positive and accepting

classroom culture, our students will be tolerant and welcoming of each others differences and
feel comfortable to express themselves within the classroom. Below are some pictures of the

anti-bullying signs that can be found in schools around the country:

Action Plan

Week 1:

1. First, we will discuss our concerns with our cooperating teacher(s) as well as other

teachers within the grade level. We would go over what may be causing the bullying in

the classroom and which individuals we should make sure are engaged throughout the

lesson.

2. We will then have a classroom discussion with our students on what it means to be kind

and respectful towards each other. We want to know what our students believe is the

right way to treat others.

Week 2:

1. The second week would begin with reading the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

This book discusses how everyone has an invisible bucket and the way that we can fill

each others bucket is to show each other respect and be empathic. While filling another

persons bucket, we also fill our own. This emphasizes that when we do nice things for

each other, it makes ourselves feel great as well. This book offers a lot of good

conversations about how we can fill each others buckets, and what it means when we

dip into others buckets.

2. After reading the book, the students will fill out a worksheet titled How we fill others

buckets. This worksheet has three stars, which provide space for the students to

reflect on how they have acted in a way to make others feel good about themselves.

Week Three:

1. After having classroom conversation, we will bring in a bucket for each of our students.

The point of the bucket is so that our students will be able to write kind messages to

each other. We hope that this kind of activity will reinforce the idea we should treat

others how we would want to be treated, as well as reminding our students that when

we make others feel good, it is self-fulfilling as well.

2. We will end this unit with another discussion on kindness and how we can extend this

outside of the classroom. By building an inviting classroom community, students will

hopefully carry this mindset into their homes and communities. This activity should not

just emphasize how we treat others at school, but in all of our environments.
Collaborate

In order to implement this action plan, we would have to collaborate with our cooperating

teacher(s) as well as the group of 2nd grade teachers. I think that it is important to get other

teachers involved at the school because this is something that will benefit all classrooms. We

also plan on involving the principle so that she can help spread awareness throughout the

school by giving an assembly or presenting during the daily announcements.

Individuals Resisting Social Change

Some individuals who may resist this social change could be students who have not seen any

problems with their actions. I believe that all students can benefit from this, but as an educator,

it is imperative that we make sure that our students understand our goals for the assignment

and what we want for them to take out of this. If we do not express our goals, our students may

not comprehend the importance of the lesson.

Existing Resources:

The most influential resource that currently exists is the grade levels counselor Ms. Alton. Being

in the classroom for at least two whole weeks provided us the opportunity to sit in on one of

Ms. Altons mini lessons regarding their school behavior expectations. Knowing that there can
be time set aside to talk about behavior expectations, so much so that another adult is leading

the discussion is an important thing to be aware of as we begin to implement our social action

plan.

Desired Outcomes

Our desired outcomes regarding our social action plan, are to see evidence of students

behaving in a more kind and thoughtful way. This could look like being quick to forgive when

they are the victim of an accident, or being patient and listening to their friends without

interrupting. If students are exhibiting these kinds of behaviors our social action plan has been

fully implemented and is successful.

Implementation

Our beginning steps were weeks 1-3 in just one classroom. The lesson was sort of a

pilot, to see how students would respond and whether or not our lesson plan effective. Having

implemented weeks 1 through 3 in the classroom we came to a very promising conclusion. The

kids responded excellently to our lesson and were even more excited about becoming literal

bucket fillers. We had only planned on letting the students write notes to one another for 5

minuets but the students kept asking for more time and more notecards to write to their

friends.

Each and every student got a positive note from a friend in the class, even the children

we were worried wouldnt receive one. These students surprised us in their eagerness to show

just how kind they could be to one another which really encouraged Danielle and I: even as

they were reading the notes they were given, they were thanking one another and there were
so very many hugs. Each reaction from different students reaffirming our decision in planning

this lesson.

After having such a positive result from the pilot lesson plan we discussed how we

could take this lesson plan to each class in the whole grade level. The issue of bullying and being

unkind is a theme in each of the second-grade classrooms at our school. While our classroom is

considered the least of four evils, they still have a lot to learn. Taking this lesson to each

classroom could dramatically change the classroom climate of these second-grade classrooms.

This would allow the teachers to provide students more choice in their learning (since the

majority of their choices are stripped from them because of behavior issues). Weve seen time

and time again that when students are given choice they are consistently engaged and learn

better as a result. If we can get the students to a place of independence regarding these

behavior issues, then they will be able to have their more inclusive and intriguing instruction

return.

The only real change that would most likely need to be made is the acquisition of the

buckets for each student. While Danielle and I were able to provide buckets for our class it

would be unrealistic to provide buckets for all of the other second-graders, and we dont want

the financial responsibility to fall on the teachers, even though we knew they would be more

than willing to help out. In able to fully integrate this change further research would need to be

done regarding what financial resources are afforded to the second-grade team and then

preparing a proposal to spend the money on they buckets for each and every second grade

student.