Youth Take Action

Winter 2019 - Victor Castorini ([email protected])

Office Hours: Before School (starting at 7:45), 3rd Period, Lunch, and After School (‘till 3:45)

Drop ins welcome, make an appointment as needed

Course Description

One of the best traits one can have moving into adulthood and citizenship is a sense of gratitude--gratitude to their family and to their community. Not every family or community is built the same, however, and many people struggle every day to have their basic needs met. Those of us who can show gratitude can do a little more and give back to our communities in a meaningful way.

Youth Take Action is a course designed to help you find ways to express your gratitude and to give back. This is important in helping you become in touch with your emotions and develop empathy for others. This is important in developing your self-confidence and self-awareness. This is important in developing into a full-fledged citizen of our community.

In class we will learn about problems in our community and come up with ways to address these issues. We will do things to help. I will help you with some and you will speak your own truth and develop things on your own. We will focus on social justice using the framework of John Rawl’s landmark opus on ethics and political philosophy A Theory of Justice.

One of our main goals is to take some risks and to broaden our contacts. Volunteering outside of ‘safe’ environments (ie your family or network) and meeting new people are a requirement for this course.

Service Hours

You must complete and log and reflect on 20 hours of service by the end of the term to earn full credit for the course. There will be multiple opportunities to earn those hours as a part of the class via tutoring or the student store but many will need to be earned on your own.

You may use hours from before the class as long as it a) meet the service requirements discussed below, and b) has occurred during your high school years.

4-Point Rubric

For all assignments I will be using an adapted 4-point grading scale.

Formative Assessments (17%)

Reflections:

Throughout the process we will be doing various reflections on our process.  Our goal is to improve ourselves and the way we approach problems in our community.  Reflection allows us to do so.

Presentations:

Throughout the term you will be asked to give presentations on either events you have participated in or information you have learned that is good for the class.

Other Assignments:

We may do activities or other things that will count towards Formative Assessments.  This class is designed to answer your questions about your community. As such, some assignments may be created based on our needs and the fruit of our discussions.

Summative Assessments (33%)

Demonstrations:

After each project you will have to demonstrate that you understand the principles of the issue we worked on.  These could be larger presentations or papers.

Completion of Hours (50%)

Completion of the 20 hours will be the bulk of your grade. At the end of the course it is expected that you turn in:

• Service Hours Log
• Reflection for each item on the log (if multiple entries are the same event one reflection will do)

If you are having trouble finding hours TALK TO ME. Do not be lazy, do not put it off, do not think it’s impossible--YOU CAN DO IT. Everyone who has tried has made it happen. The goal is not to stress you out but to get you out in the world doing things to express your gratitude. We can find things for you but I can only help if you tell me.

How to Earn your Hours:

Log

Service Hours

Student Name:_______________________________________ Student Email:________________________________

CMC Program (circle one): College Prep Pathways CEO