Character Contributions

Our grade 8 students are involved in a program we call Character Contributions. On a student developed website, they access information and opportunities to volunteer for school, community, national, and global causes. They log their contributions and are recognized for their efforts.
In Language Arts, they are learning to write persuasively, as well as to develop the criteria for an effective proposal.
Their task is to write a Character Contribution Proposal, which is a persuasive piece that identifies a school or local community need, and gives a plan of action to meet that need. Each grade 8 student will be required to write a proposal that meets the success criteria that they collaboratively developed. They will then be put into cross-class groups of 5, where they will present their proposals. The group will vote on the proposal that best meets the criteria, and is most interesting and engaging.
These five students now make up the team that will put that Character Contribution Proposal into action. They will post their proposal on the website to ask for a teacher facilitator, and work with that teacher to complete the task.
The process is being documented in slideshows and photos, to be included on the website. We hope to have each year’s new grade 8 students take ownership of managing the site, and commit to exploring and developing ways to make positive change in the world. Please visit our site:

www.fielding4change.weebly.com

Update (May 30, 2016)

On May 13, 2016, grade 8s at Fielding Drive Public School gathered in cross-class teams to share their Character Contribution Proposals. They voted on the proposal that was the most engaging and met the student developed criteria. These winning proposals move forward for action by teams of students and teacher facilitators.