Claudia Hui

Activism, or is it Slacktivism?

Grade/Course: Grade 12, US Government

Number of Learners: 25
Lesson Length: 75 minuets

1. Essential questions:
1. How can teenagers participate in our democracy? How does technology affect
the way we participate?
2. Does youth today see institutional politics, and interacting with government as
the best way to create change?
3. In a larger context, how should we promote civic awareness and civic
participation?

Inquiry question:
1. In terms of enacting actions to bring about social or political change, is the use
of social media more positive or negative?

2. Prior knowledge:

This particularly lesson strives to investigate the use of social media in influencing
civic engagement and participation. Prior to this lesson, students would already have
general knowledge about the history of the American government, such as the
formation of the Articles of Confederation, the foundation of the three branches of
government, and the interpretations of terms such as democracy and republic, from
earlier classes (exp: US History I). Students would have also learned about the many
different forms of government across the world, such as monarchy, autocracy, and
representative democracy in their world history class. Knowing how different
countries adopt different political systems, students in previous lessons learned how
political philosophies affect the relationship of ordinary citizens to their government.
For instance, students learned that as a socialist republic run by a single party, China
is increasingly silencing sources of dissent coming from their own citizens. Last but
not least, students might have learned about the current state of our government
through television programs, peer discussions or news articles; they would also
know how to use various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram,
Snapchat, and Twitter.

3. Rationale:

There are three main rationales as to why students should learn about the
relationship between social media and civic engagement. First, now more than
ever, the use of technology, especially social media, is becoming exceptionally
prevalent in our daily lives. To learn about how the social media affect the way
we receive and share information and how it is being used as a tool to influence
its consumer socially and politically, students will learn to become more aware
 of the authenticity of the information presented online, which we tend to read
and quickly digest without much consideration. Second, students should learn
about the concept of activism and slacktivism through the lens of social media
because the use of social media in politics has dramatically changed the way
Americans, especially American teenagers, define what constitutes meaningful
civic and political action. From simply “liking” a Facebook page of a
government official to retweeting a “#” related to a worthy cause, students
should learn to recognize how their everyday action online contribute to the
larger issue of civic engagement. Last but not least, this lesson is especially
valuable to teenagers because it promotes the idea of diversity and inclusion of
perspectives. As this lesson unfolds, the class will look at some of viral internet
phenomena such as #metoo and the ice bucket challenge, which focus on
underrepresented groups such as women and individuals with disabilities. With
all the information available at the tip of the finger, students will recognize
some of the advantages and pitfalls in using social media in a social or political
manner.

4. Standard & framework:

Massachusetts History and Social Science Content Standard:

USG.1.2 Define the terms citizenship, politics, and government, and give
examples of how political solutions to public policy problems are generated
through interactions of citizens and civil associations with their government.

C3 Framework:

D2.Civ.5.9-12. Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing

social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or
international level.

D2.Civ.10.9-12. Analyze the impact and the appropriate roles of personal

interests and perspectives on the application of civic virtues, democratic
principles, constitutional rights, and human rights.

5. Objectives:

1. TSWBAT define and explain the meanings of activism, slacktivism, citizenship,

politics, and government.
2. TSWBAT evaluate and critique the use of social media in promoting social or
political changes.
3. TSWBAT assess their own level of civic engagement and examine their attitudes
towards the government at local, state, or even national level.

6. Materials:
 1) Self-assessment checklist (Appendix A)
2) Stop and Jot – defining terms (Appendix B)
3) Video clips about slactivism from UNICEF
4) Articles (Slactivism vs activism) (Appendix C)
5) Debate materials (Appendix D)
6) Extension/ homework assignment (Appendix E)

7. Procedure:
1. Opener (10 min)
1) Welcome students and quickly refreshes their memories about the
previous lesson on how different political philosophies in different
countries affect the way the government interact with their citizens
and civil associations. Let students know that today we’ll continue
that conversation, but focusing on the United States only. (1 min)
2) As a do-now, students will perform a self-assessment checklist
(Appendix A) about their level of civic participation. Ask students to
review the list of activities, and put a checkmark next to any
activities they or their family and friends have done before. (5 min)
3) After students are done with the checklist, quickly pair up and share a
story about one of the activities they’ve participated in or observed.
What was it like? Why did they or their friend/ family do it? Then,
turn back to the class and have a few students share out their
experiences to the whole class. (3 min)
4) After debriefing, I will reveal the inquiry question of the day: “in
terms of enacting actions to bring about social or political change, is
the use of social media more positive or negative?” I will express my
appreciation for the level of civic engagement that students already
demonstrate, and explain to them that with some activities on the
checklist, (e.g. reading the news or talking to a friend about politics)
they could take place on the internet! Today, we are going to look at
how social media influence the concept of activism. (1 min)
2. Development (40 mins)
5) I will then tell my students that there are a lot of specific language in
describing civic engagement and participation and we are going to first
define what the terms citizenships, politics, and government mean. (1
min)
6) Stop and Jot (Appendix B): students will look at the vocabularies and
jot down some initial ideas about what they think of the terms based on
their own understanding. After that, invite a student writer to the
board. Students will briefly share their ideas about all 3 terms and the
student writer will write it on a big piece of poster paper. I will ask
questions such as “Why do you think this definition fit the term?”;
“What makes you think that?”; “Can you give me an example?”
Students will engage in a brief discussion about all 3 vocabularies and
I will remind students once again we will be encountering these
definitions a lot for the rest of the unit, and we should look for
 differences between individual’s definitions and discuss those terms
consistently. (10 mins)
7) After a brief discussion, I will offer my students my personal definition
to the three vocabularies. Citizenship: disregard of legal status of
citizenship, the word citizen shall include anyone living in the
community who is affected by the way that community functions and
can make his/ her community better. Politics: the web of activities
which influence the power dynamics on personal or community level.
Government: A political institutions built up by people and laws that
organize and assist public life. (2 min)
8) Then, I will explain to students that political solutions to public issues
are generated through interactions of citizens and civil associations
with their government. In order for decision-makers to make changes
in our community, we must express our demands. In other words, we
need to actively participate in actions that are meant to bring about
social or political change. I will ask students to show hands for the
following questions: “Do you feel frustrated and disillusioned by
politics?” ; “Do you believe that your elected officials (people who are
voted into office) care about what you think?”; “Do you use social
media on a day-to-day basis?”; “Do you express your political
opinions online? (e.g. retweeting, sharing a news article, commenting
on Facebook?); “what have you recently ‘tweeted’ or ‘shared’ or
‘liked’?”. (5 mins)
9) I will then show this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcSZsjlqs4E which captures the
concept of “liking” in relation to “actions”. At this point, I will
introduce the concept of activism vs slacktivism. Write on the board:
activism is the efforts of using vigorous campaigning to bring about
positive political or social change, while slacktivism is actions
performed via the internet in support of political or social cause but
regarded as requiring little time or involvement – usually a “feel-good”
measure, it is an act of participating in obviously activities as an
expedient alternative to actually spending effort to fix a problem. (2
min)
10) I will then distribute news articles (Appendix C) that focus on the pros
and cons of slacktivism. Students will split into 3 groups, the left of the
classroom will read article 1, the middle for article 2, and right for
article 3. At this point, I will also remind my students the inquiry
question of this lesson. After reading, students will take 5 minuets to
discuss in groups of 5: what does your document represent in terms of
social media influencing politics, government, and social/ political
change? (15 mins)
11) After reading the documents and performing small group discussion,
we’ll turn to the class and each group will share what they learned
from their document. Student should perform 3 tasks during whole
class discussion: 1) they should identify the definitions, as well as pros
 and cons of slactivism/ activism. 2) They should be actively taking
notes about other groups’ analysis. And 3) they should assess and
express their own personal stance on the issue of using social media in
promoting social or political change. (5 mins)
3. Closing (25 mins)
12) I will wrap up the discussion and introduce students to the concluding
activity – we will look at a few internet phenomena and debate
whether or not such internet trend is more fitting to the concept of
“activism” or “slacktivism”, and whether or not the use of social media
is helping the cause of the issue. I will split the class in half, half of the
class will debate for the use of social media and the other half will
debate against the use of social media. The issues we are looking at are
the Ice Bucket Challenge, police brutality videos, #MeToo, and
Facebook profile change. (Students can pick 2-3 issues if there’s not
enough time.) (Appendix D) Some questions to keep in mind: “Does
the use of social media positively promote or negatively affect the
cause of the issue?” (e.g. causes such as women’s rights, human rights,
stopping police in abusing power, awareness towards individuals with
special needs, etc.) “Can slacktivism be used in a positive light and
generate positive change?” and “How are you going to advocate your
voices after this lesson?” Students should also refer back to some of
the news articles we looked at earlier to answer the question of
whether or not slacktivism is beneficial or detrimental. (20 mins)
13) Wrap up class and pass out/ explain extension as homework. (5 min)
8. Formative assessments:

Students will be assessed formatively based on class discussions and the closing
activity. I will be circulating the room during discussions and informally examine
students’ understanding based on their responses to the questions I posted. In their
oral responses, students should show deep understanding by defining and
explaining the terms posted for the day: activism, slacktivism, government,
politics, and citizenships. Students should also demostrate orally that the use of
social media in promoting social or political changes come with its own limitation
and advantage. For the closing activity, students must argue for or against the use
of social media in a social or political manner regardless of their personal beliefs.
I will assess students’ understanding of the term slacktivism and activism based
on the way they debate for their side. As students turn in their extension/
homework (on researching an instance of social media phonomenon), I will be
able to get a sense on how each individual student is performing base on their
ability to demostrate their own interpretation of activism/ slacktivism.
In future classes (summative assessment), I will pay attention to student’s
performance over the rest of the unit, particulary with their ability to self-assess
their level of civic/ political engagement. Students should constantly analyze the
discussions we have had today and to orally express about how they are going to
voice their opinion in an effective way that generate political/ social changes. I
will also give out a unit test, which includes questions related to this lesson,
 specifically on the relationships of individuals and institutions with the larger
government.

9. Adaptations:

This particularly lesson does not require many special accommodations.

However, for ELLs, I will provide an easily accessible dictionary for
translation, and post a word cloud on the whiteboard that highlight all the
difficult vocabularies and write down their translated versions. To encourage
ELL students to participate, I will provide sentence frames such as “I believe
the use of social media is great for promoting social and political changes
because____________.” Or “I believe this issue is demonstrating activism
rather than slacktivism because___________,” to guide them through class
discussion.
As extension for high functioning students (or homework for all students
later), they will brainstorm, go on their social media site (Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram etc) and look for an instance when activism/ slacktivism is
demonstrated: students will screenshot the event, identify what the issue is,
how social media is used, what does the use of social media promote or how
the issue is affected. Students will complete a worksheet provided by me and
use some of the articles provided in class today as evidence to support their
reasoning. (Appendix E)

10. Appendix

Appendix A – civil engagement check list

Name:
Period:
Date:

Do Now: My Civic Engagement Experience

I have I know
done someone
this! who
has!
Volunteering for an organization
Going to meetings of a group or club
Donating to a charity (money, books, food, clothing…)
Reading newspaper or watching news to stay informed
Signing a petition
Raising money for a worthy cause
Forming an interest group
Writing a Congressmen
Taking part in a protest, boycotts, or sit-ins
Voting in local/ national election
Talking about current events with a friend
Contacting the media about your opinion
Contributing money to a political campaign
Contributing money to a advocacy group (e.g. UNICEF,
Planned Parenthood)
Putting a bumper sticker on the car in support of a cause
or a politician
Persuading others to be for or against an issue
Using Civil Disobedience
Serving the country through military or other services
Wearing a button to support a cause or a politician

Appendix B
Stop and Jot – Define the terms
To me, citizenship is…

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

To me, politics mean…

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

To me, government represents…

_____________________________________________________________________

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Appendix C
News articles
Activism Or Slacktivism? How Social Media Hurts And Helps Student Activism: (St.
Louis Public Radio, Jan 2 2014)

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/activism-or-slacktivism-how-social-media-hurts-
and-helps-student-activism#stream/0

Slacktivism is having a powerful real-world impact, new research shows:

(Quartz, Dec 10 2015)

https://qz.com/570009/slacktivism-is-having-a-powerful-real-world-impact-new-
research-shows/

UNICEF Tells Slacktivists: Give Money, Not Facebook Likes: (The Atlantic, Apr 30
2013)
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/unicef-tells-slacktivists-
give-money-not-facebook-likes/275429/

(Will be printed out for the lesson)

Appendix D
Debate materials
 Activism or Slacktivism?
Posting a video of your self doing the Ice Bucket
Challenge

Activism or Slacktivism?
“Angry React” and sharing videos that capture
police brutality

Activism or Slacktivism?
Retweeting #MeToo or posting a #MeToo story
 Activism or Slacktivism?
Adding a filter on your Facebook profile picture to
show support of a cause or honor an event
 Appendix E
Extension/ homework assignment
Name:
Period:
Date:

Title/ Post your screenshot here!

What is this screenshot about? (What is the issue?)

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

What is the root cause behind this issue?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
How is activism or slacktivism demonstrated here?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

In your opinion, does the use of social media in this instance positively or negatively
affect the cause of the issue? Why? Cite 3 examples to support your argument. (Tip:
be sure to use the reading and reflect on our class discussion to support your
argument!)

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

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