Empowerment and Witnessing

Unit	Community-Building for High School Classrooms
Lesson Name	Empowerment and Witnessing
Grade Band	High School (9-12)

Required Materials	Frayer Method Vocabulary templates, 2 per student Gallery Walk note sheet, 1 per student Notecards, 1 per student Quotes and/or images demonstrating empowerment and witnessing
Standards / Competencies	SEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness: identifying emotions, experiencing self-efficacy, linking feelings, values and thoughts, demonstrating honesty and integrity Self-Management: managing one’s emotions, exhibiting self-discipline Social Awareness: taking others’ perspectives, recognizing strengths in others, demonstrating empathy and compassion, identifying diverse social norms, showing concern for the feelings of others Relationship Skills: communicating effectively, developing positive relationships, showing leadership in groups, resolving conflicts constructively, seeking or offering support when needed ELA Standards: Listening and Speaking, Reading, Writing Social Studies Theme: Individual Development and Identity, Civic Ideals and Practices
Recommended Time	65 mins

Required Materials

Frayer Method Vocabulary templates, 2 per student
Gallery Walk note sheet, 1 per student
Notecards, 1 per student
Quotes and/or images demonstrating empowerment and witnessing

Standards / Competencies

SEL Core Competencies:

Self-Awareness: identifying emotions, experiencing self-efficacy, linking feelings, values and thoughts, demonstrating honesty and integrity
Self-Management: managing one’s emotions, exhibiting self-discipline
Social Awareness: taking others’ perspectives, recognizing strengths in others, demonstrating empathy and compassion, identifying diverse social norms, showing concern for the feelings of others
Relationship Skills: communicating effectively, developing positive relationships, showing leadership in groups, resolving conflicts constructively, seeking or offering support when needed

ELA Standards: Listening and Speaking, Reading, Writing

Social Studies Theme: Individual Development and Identity, Civic Ideals and Practices

Recommended Time

65 mins

Essential Question	What is the relationship between empowerment and witnessing?
Learning Objectives	Define empowerment and witnessing, and connect empowerment to engaged witnessing.

Activating Prior Knowledge	Hand out the Frayer Vocabulary Templates to the students and ask students to write “empowerment” in the vocabulary word box on one of the templates and “witnessing” to the other as modeled on the whiteboard. Invite students to pair-share what they already know about each term and record their ideas in the corresponding parts of the template (what it is (exemplars), what it isn’t (non-exemplars), definition, facts (characteristics)). Ask students to share their ideas with the class (teacher should record ideas on the whiteboard) and clarify where needed.
Core Instruction	Share the learning objective for the session with the students: defining empowerment and witnessing, and finding how the two are connected. Hand out Gallery Walk note sheets and tell the students that they will participate in a Gallery Walk to further develop their understanding of “empowerment” and witnessing”. Explain that there are quotes (and/or images) around the room that relate to each word. In pairs, students will visit each quote (or image) and should spend a few moments reading (or viewing) while considering how the quote (or image) connects to the term empowerment or witnessing. Students should reflect-pair-share, recording their ideas on their Gallery Walk note sheet and which station (quote or image) they are as it is numbered. There should be no more than 4 students at a station at a time. As students circulate around the stations, monitor time by ensuring they move every 3-5 minutes to another station. Listen to the conversations they are having and clarify and celebrate as you are able. Once time is up, ask students to return to their seats and update their Frayer Method Vocabulary templates with new information from the Gallery Walk. As students finish, invite them up to the white board to add new ideas to the vocabulary templates on the board. While students are working, place notecards on their desks. Go over the new additions with the students, clarifying ideas as needed. If no definitions have been offered, ask a few students to share theirs with the class and add them to the board. Once a few have been sourced, have students vote on their favorite group definition for each term and revise it as needed based on other student input or missed aspects.
Wrap-up	Ask students to discuss with their partner the connection between the two terms and share their ideas. Once they have pair-shared, have 3 volunteers share their ideas. After students share and any clarifications are made, ask students to write their understanding of how the two words are connected on their notecard and turn in as an exit slip to check for understanding.

Activating Prior Knowledge

Hand out the Frayer Vocabulary Templates to the students and ask students to write “empowerment” in the vocabulary word box on one of the templates and “witnessing” to the other as modeled on the whiteboard.

Invite students to pair-share what they already know about each term and record their ideas in the corresponding parts of the template (what it is (exemplars), what it isn’t (non-exemplars), definition,
facts (characteristics)).

Ask students to share their ideas with the class (teacher should record ideas on the whiteboard) and clarify where needed.

Core Instruction

Share the learning objective for the session with the students: defining empowerment and witnessing, and finding how the two are connected.

Hand out Gallery Walk note sheets and tell the students that they will participate in a Gallery Walk to further develop their understanding of “empowerment” and witnessing”. Explain that there are quotes (and/or images) around the room that relate to each word. In pairs, students will visit each quote (or image) and should spend a few moments reading (or viewing) while considering how the quote (or image) connects to the term empowerment or witnessing. Students should reflect-pair-share, recording their ideas on their Gallery Walk note sheet and which station (quote or image) they are as it is numbered. There should be no more than 4 students at a station at a time. As students circulate around the stations, monitor time by ensuring they move every 3-5 minutes to another station. Listen to the conversations they are having and clarify and celebrate as you are able.

Once time is up, ask students to return to their seats and update their Frayer Method Vocabulary templates with new information from the Gallery Walk. As students finish, invite them up to the white board to add new ideas to the vocabulary templates on the board. While students are working, place notecards on their desks. Go over the new additions with the students, clarifying ideas as needed.

If no definitions have been offered, ask a few students to share theirs with the class and add them to the board. Once a few have been sourced, have students vote on their favorite group definition for each term and revise it as needed based on other student input or missed aspects.

Wrap-up

Ask students to discuss with their partner the connection between
the two terms and share their ideas. Once they have pair-shared, have 3
volunteers share their ideas. After students share and any
clarifications are made, ask students to write their understanding of
how the two words are connected on their notecard and turn in as an exit
slip to check for understanding.

Supplementary Resources	Frayer Method: A method for active engagement in vocabulary development that utilizes a graphic organizer to promote critical thinking about the meaning of words and develop a deeper understanding of words within various contexts. The model was developed by Dorothy Frayer.

Instructional Content Adaptations

Mini Lesson (15 mins):

Provide Frayer Vocabulary Templates to students with definitions for empowerment and witnessing already filled in:

Show and read students key quotes, one per term, to develop a deeper understanding of each word (choose quotes that develop a relationship between the terms).
Discuss the quotes and have students add exemplars, non-exemplars, and facts to their Frayer Vocabulary Templates.
Ask students to discuss the relationship between the two terms and share out their ideas with the class.

Lesson prepared by Ellen McCormick

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