4A — Timeline & Campaign Plan

Introduction

Chapter 1 — Overview

A — Social Action's Role in U.S. Experiment in Democracy B — US College Social Action C — Benefits of Social Action for Students Campuses, and Society D — The Vision: Bringing Social Action into the Classroom E — Overcoming Challenges of Teaching Social Action

Chapter 2 — Developing a Social Action Class

A — Academic Course vs Co-Curricular / B — Prerequisites  C — Creating a Social Action Syllabus D — Teaching Style / E — Classroom Norms F — The Students G — Building Campus Allies and Community Partners H —The Role of Place / I —Each Semester vs Every Year (or Other Year) J — Maintaining Momentum

Chapter 3 — Launching Student Campaigns

A — On Your Mark: Preparing Students for the Road Ahead B — Students Choose Their Issue - GO! C — Group Dynamics, part 1-Setting the Tone (Get Set) D — Change Theory E — Building Power F — Social Action Campus Tour G — Research: Historical Overview, Power Mapping, & Target Analysis H — Group Dynamics, part 2 I — Strategy & Tactics J — Campaign Kickoff

Chapter 4 — Campaign Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation

A — Timeline & Campaign Plan B — Campaign Implementation: "Series of Actions" Begins C — Campaign Execution & Case Studies D — Campaign Evaluation E — Day of the Final: Campaign Notebook & Group Presentation

Chapter 5 — Where to Go From Here

A — Next Semester B — Mainstreaming Social Action C — Social Action Internship Program D — Pipeline to Jobs & Graduate School E — Status of Current Campaigns F — Impact of Social Action on Former Social Action Students

CHANGE! A Guide to Teaching Social Action

• Chapter 4A, Timeline and Campaign Plan (p. 118-121)

Sociology 164: Social Action Assignments

Discussion

During this second half of the class, I move away from teaching about the specifics of social action (i.e., issue development, building power, tactics, etc) to focusing on campaign actions. Of course, students continue to build power and think about tactics, but it is now in the context of them taking action from lower to higher heat on the decision-maker. In the class, this means that the focus is on campaign actions.

It also means that time is freed up to do other readings. You may want to include readings from your field that is tied directly to the topic of the class. For example, if you were teaching an course on the environment, you may want to include readings about climate change. As my class is focused on social action, I use this time to introduce readings from national campaigns that are focused on issue development, building power, tactics, etc. Click here to see those national campaign readings.

Timeline

From the beginning of class, I have asked the students to use the timeline I created for them on Mural Board so I could view their campaign activities (red balls). As part of campaign planning, I now ask them to include their one or two campaign actions on the syllabus (green boxes). This allows me to know what the students are DOING at all times.

In addition to the semester-timeline, I ask the students to include in the timeline a plan for the next 1-2 years. Realistically, this occurs at the end of the semester, when they are completing their campaign binders. If the campaign is chosen to be "activated" by a future group of social action students, this extended timeline is helpful, as it gives them an idea about how to proceeds.

Fundraising

I also discuss fundraising in this section. Click here, and go to 9:47 of the Walk the Walkdocumentary on social action, as it shows the students doing the money bomb. Below, Elisha St. Laurent, one of the CAFE J students is working with Dennis Raj from the South Bay Labor Council on raising funds for the 2012 minimum wage campaign.

Course Development Questions

• Will you have your social action students create a timeline? If so, what will it look like?