TEACHER MATERIALS
How should the diverse perspectives of community members influence the development of civic solutions?
“Discovering Stakeholders”
In this activity, the students will learn what stakeholders are and practice identifying them. The provided slideshow contains both instructional slides and a learning game.
“What Are Stakeholders?” slideshow
“Who Cares About Water?”
In this activity, the students will identify stakeholder groups who are somehow interested in water quality policies and projects. They will discuss a set of prompts in small groups. A guiding handout is provided, either for students who need a little scaffolding during discussions, or if you would like to complete the alternative version of this activity. Also, at the end of the activity, the students will fill out an exit worksheet for assessment purposes.
“The Strengths and Limitations of Interviews”
In this activity, the students will learn about the strengths and limitations of using interviews to collect stakeholder perspectives by reflecting on the nature of oral history. They will read two articles and answer corresponding questions on a handout.
“Passing Down Memories – The Importance of Oral History”
“Memory and History – What Can You Believe?”
“Oral History and Interviews” handout
“What Makes a Better Interview Question?”
In this activity, the students will experiment with writing interview questions and practice distinguishing between “good” and “better” questions. You will need to give the students access to the document below containing sample interview questions for a simulation. Later on in the activity, they will identify best practices for writing interview questions; you may want to supplement their ideas with the ideas provided in the document below.
“Interview Questions” simulation document
“Writing Interview Questions” guide
“Practicing Interview Techniques”
In this activity, the students will explore and evaluate various interview techniques. During a class discussion, they will come up with a list of best practices for conducting an interview. You may want to supplement their ideas with the resources listed below:
“Interview Techniques” document
“How to Do Oral History” webpage
“Generating Follow-Up Questions”
In this activity, the students will play a learning game to practice the skill of coming up with follow-up questions during an interview. The instructions for the game are included below.
“Generating Follow-Up Questions” game instructions
“Choosing Interview Questions”
In this activity, the students will write stakeholder interview questions and have a debate about which ones to use. First, the students will use the handout listed below to come up with ideas for interview questions. You may need to supplement their questions with the ones provided in the document below. Then, they will have a debate about which questions they want to use; ideas for structuring this part of the activity can be found in the provided document. Following the debate, the students will fill out a reflection handout.
“Great Question Debate” brainstorming handout
“Great Question Debate” sample questions
“Great Question Debate” activity ideas
“Great Question Debate” reflection handout
“Conducting Stakeholder Interviews”
In this activity, the students will interview members of their community to gather multiple stakeholder perspectives on the issue of water quality. There are many ways to structure this activity; see the sample activities listed below. If your students will be contacting and/or interviewing community members “on their own,” you should refer them to the “what to say” guide provided below. To prepare for and conduct their interviews, the students will need access to the list of interview questions they created as a class, as well as the below “interview techniques” guide.
Sample activities
“Analyzing Stakeholder Interviews”
In this activity, the students will analyze their stakeholder interviews. The structure of this activity will largely depend on how the interviews were conducted, but no matter what, the students will use the analysis handout provided below to analyze the interviews.
“Interview Summary Analysis Form”
“Studying Stakeholder Conflicts”
In this activity, the students will read articles about situations in which the needs and interests of different stakeholder groups clashed. The articles are listed below, in two sets, along with a packet of corresponding questions.
Articles – Set One
- “A New Tool to Balance Clean Energy and Wildlife Habitats in Maine” – Tree Hugger
- “Winds of Change” – The Nature Conservancy
Articles – Set Two
- “New Start Times for Chester County School District Has Parents in Heated Debate” – Fox 29
- “The Surprising Downsides to Planting Trillions of Trees” – Vox
“Conflicting Stakeholder Perspectives” handout
“Accommodating Stakeholders – Slideshow”
In this activity, the students will reflect on the different ways they can include stakeholders in their solution plans. Consider using the provided slideshow to teach the students about the different ways they can involve stakeholders in their solution plans.