Advocating for

Physical Activity
Action- Related

Students expressed that they wanted more

physical education and recess thought-out
the school week. Due to the shortage of staff
and focus on academics students were only
receiving physical education twice every other
week and no recess. Students were not
happy about our schedule and lack of
physical activity they were receiving. They
expressed that they wanted to change our
schedule but they did not know how.

To help students fight for what they wanted I had to

first show them how to self-advocate. When I first
asked students what they thought self-advocacy was
no one raised their hand to answer. First I defined
self-advocacy as speaking up for yourself. I premised
that to fight for more physical activity they needed to
advocate for themselves by researching as a class.
Students first needed
to learn how to speak
up for themselves and
what they want. Using
the PowerPoint I
completed a mini-
lesson with students
teaching them how to
advocate for
themselves. This
PowerPoint defined
what self-advocacy
was for students,
explained how
advocating can help
you, and what are
ways students can
advocate for
themselves.
 After teaching students what is means to
self-advocate they wanted to act. I gave
students several examples of how they can
advocate for themselves and gave students
an example of a letter (below) that I sent to
a state official cornering the funding for CT
public schools.

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t To the right are individual students responses to the
question: Do you as a student get enough physical activity
u in school? Why or why not? What is the reason behind
d that?
Below are several other answers to the question from the
e students who shared out.
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B Students had to brainstorm three to four ideas on
r how they can increase physical activity in school.
Along with each idea they had to state how they
a would advocate for that idea. Below are
brainstorming webs from two students who shared
i they wanted more recess, more physical education,

n a talent show, and different programs that will

promote physical activity.
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 Over the course of three days we identified the
injustice students pointed out in our school and
realized that a issue in our nation. After showing
students the facts about children obesity, they
noticed that Black and Hispanic students are at the
highest risk of becoming overweight. Students
discussed why they think that is. The conclusion
they came up with is because like their school
students might not have enough physical activity
during the day and they do not have healthy options
to eat.

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R
e Day two we discussed the benefits of
s exercise to help students use evidence in
their campaigns to advocate for more
e physical activity in school. Below are
a examples of student notes.

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e Day three students
received different
s articles they needed to
e read through to find
more evidence for their
a campaign. Below is a
r note catcher used for
students to organize
c their notes.
h
S These are examples of students posters
t promoting physical activity in school. The

u posters to the left are showing students

how to be physically active and how not to
d be physically active. Students hung their
posters in the classroom as ideas for us to
e do break and what students can do when
then go home. The bottom right poster
n was made by students who want to put on
a talent show to help encourage students
t to be active.

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S
t These are three examples of students letters to the principal
and the dean of students advocating for more physical
u activity. Circled in red are where students used evidence from
the articles given to support their clam.
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Teacher reflection: I was very proud of the way my
students stepped up and advocated for themselves and
how much dedication they put in for these letters. After
I gave the letters to the dean of students and the
principal they were able to redo the specials schedule
for middle school so that each class gets physical
education at least once a week. After talking to the
principal about recess, he agreed to allowing me to give
students recess Friday afternoons, and I made two five
minute active brain breaks each day.