📚 Unit Plans → 🌍 Community Action Project → 📖 Lesson 4: Take Action
Years 9–10 Social Studies

Take Action — Doing the Mahi

Lesson 4 of the Community Action Project — the plan leaves the classroom and each rōpū executes its first real steps, gathering evidence as they go.

🕘 Lesson at a Glance | Te Hōtaka

Do NowThe launch check⏱ 5 min1 · Clear to goPermissions, people, kawa⏱ 15 min2 · First contactApproach the decision-maker properly⏱ 20 min3 · Do the mahiExecute and log evidence⏱ 30 min4 · Stand-upWhat moved, what's stuck⏱ 10 minExitEvidence in the journal⏱ 5 min

Lesson Overview | Tirohanga Whānui

This is the lesson the project has been building toward: the plan leaves the classroom. The decisions ākonga have been studying since Lesson 1 — the ones about parks, libraries, water, transport that shape daily life — stop being something to research and become something to walk into. Each rōpū runs its launch checks, makes first contact with the people their plan targets, and executes the first real steps of the mahi: the submission sent, the working bee run, the campaign live, the meeting held. Just as important, they log evidence of everything — because in Lesson 5 the question changes from what did we do? to did it work?, and only a kept record can answer it.

Learning Intentions | Ngā Whāinga Ako

  • Execute the first real steps of our plan, on time and in role, adjusting when reality pushes back.
  • Approach the people our plan targets — council, board, community — in a way that is accurate, respectful, and speaks for ourselves rather than for others.
  • Keep evidence of every action as we take it — dates, copies, photos, replies — so our evaluation rests on record, not memory.

⚡ Do Now

⏱ 5 min

On the board, three questions. In your rōpū, answer them against your plan page from Lesson 3 — honestly:

  1. Is every step still owned? Anyone away, any role that needs re-assigning today?
  2. Is anything not cleared yet? A permission, a booking, a person you were meant to talk to first?
  3. Where will the evidence live? Name the one place — journal, shared folder, envelope — every photo, reply, and note goes.

Teacher: any rōpū that answers "not cleared yet" on question 2 starts with Activity 1 and doesn't skip it. The evidence question isn't admin — Lesson 5 stands or falls on what gets kept from today.

Activity 1 · Clear to Go — Permissions, People, Kawa

⏱ 15 min

What it is: Acting in a community is a relationship, not a raid. Before anything goes public, each rōpū confirms the people side of their plan is properly done.

Run it

  1. Check the list (5 min): From the plan's permissions and people box: school leadership aware and agreed? Whānau consent sorted for anything off-site or photographed? The community group or venue actually confirmed, not just emailed once?
  2. Right way, right words (7 min): For each person or organisation the rōpū will deal with today, agree who speaks, how they introduce themselves (name, school, kaupapa, what you're asking), and what tone fits — a council officer, a shop owner, and a kaumātua are not approached identically. Write the opening two sentences down; nerves eat improvisation.
  3. Confirm the flag (3 min): Any rōpū whose Lesson 3 plan carried the mana whenua flag confirms that conversation has actually happened — not "we'll mention it when we get there". If it hasn't, today's mahi is the version of the plan that doesn't touch that ground yet.

🪶 Mātauranga Māori and tikanga boundary (local handoff required): the permission check is a hard gate, not a courtesy label. If an action touches whenua, wai, wāhi tapu, a marae, iwi, or hapū and the agreed mana whenua conversation has not happened, do not improvise that authority or act first and consult later. Run the version of the plan that does not touch that ground, or pause it.

Teacher: this is fifteen minutes that protects a term of goodwill. A rōpū that turns up unannounced to a business, a marae, or a council office once can sour the ground for every class after them.

Activity 2 · First Contact — Approach the Decision-Maker

⏱ 20 min

What it is: For many rōpū the core action is contact: a letter or email to the right council committee or government agency, a submission through the council's own process, a meeting request to the principal or board. This is where it gets sent for real.

Run it

  1. Build it on evidence (10 min): The message has four working parts — who we are (one sentence) · the issue and who it affects (from the Lesson 2 brief, with the strongest two pieces of evidence, sourced) · what we're asking for (one specific, doable thing — not "fix it") · what we'll do next (offer to present, help, or provide more evidence). Ākonga draft in pairs inside the rōpū, then merge the best of both drafts.
  2. Peer-check before send (5 min): Another rōpū reads it cold and answers: is the ask specific? Is every claim backed? Would you take these students seriously? Fix what fails.
  3. Send it properly (5 min): Send through the agreed channel — the council's submission page, the school office email, a printed letter — and immediately file a copy, with the date and address, in the evidence spot from the Do Now.

Teacher: rōpū whose action is direct (a working bee, an event) use this block to run their final logistics instead — but most direct actions still deserve one message to the relevant body: a heads-up to the council that a group is cleaning the reserve on Saturday often turns into rubbish bags, gloves, and a councillor turning up.

Activity 3 · Do the Mahi — Execute and Log

⏱ 30 min

What it is: The longest block of the lesson belongs to the plans themselves. What happens here differs by rōpū — assembling the campaign material and putting it up, finalising and printing the petition, prepping the working bee kit, building the survey and sending it out, rehearsing the deputation — but the discipline is the same for everyone.

Run it

  1. Work the steps (25 min): Each rōpū works its numbered steps in order, each step led by the person whose name is on it. The teacher circulates with one question: which step are you on? A rōpū that can't answer has left the plan — get them back on it or get the plan honestly revised.
  2. Log as you go (throughout): Every completed step gets a line in the journal — what, when, who, and the proof (a photo, a copy, a screenshot, a receipt, a name). The rule is simple: if it isn't logged, it didn't happen.
  3. Handle the pushback (as it comes): Reality will push back — a no-reply, a rained-off date, a printer that won't. Log the obstacle, make the smallest change to the plan that keeps it moving, and note what changed and why. Adjustment isn't failure; it's the skill.

You'll need: whatever the plans call for (each rōpū's what we need box tells you), plus a camera or phone per rōpū for evidence. Teacher: actions that can't finish inside class time — the Saturday working bee, waiting for the council's reply — still log everything they can do today, and the stand-up sets the out-of-class checkpoint.

Activity 4 · Stand-Up — What Moved, What's Stuck

⏱ 10 min

What it is: The lesson closes the way working teams do — a stand-up. Each rōpū gets forty-five seconds and three sentences.

Run it

  1. Report (45 sec per rōpū): What moved today (with the evidence to prove it) · what's stuck (the honest blocker) · the very next step and who owns it.
  2. One offer each (after each report): Any other rōpū can make one concrete offer — "we emailed that same office, here's who replied", "we've got spare gloves", "our survey link tool worked, we'll show you". Offers only; no advice lectures.

Teacher: write each rōpū's "stuck" on the board as they report. That list is your teaching agenda for the start of Lesson 5 — and hearing every group name a blocker teaches the truest lesson of the day: everyone's plan met reality, and everyone's plan changed.

Exit · Evidence in the Journal

⏱ 5 min

Before they leave, each ākonga finishes these three sentences in their book:

  1. Today our rōpū actually did… and the evidence is… (name the photo, copy, or reply and where it's filed).
  2. The thing that didn't go to plan was… and we adjusted by…
  3. Before next lesson, we're waiting on… / still need to…

Teacher: sentence 1 enforces the logging rule while the day is fresh; sentence 2 is reflection groundwork for Lesson 5; sentence 3 tells you which rōpū need an out-of-class checkpoint before the evaluation lesson.

🎯 Curriculum Links | Te Hononga ki te Marautanga

This lesson's focus: The unit's spine statement, now enacted. In Lesson 1 ākonga learned that local government decisions shape the daily life of their hapori; today they walk into one of those decisions — approaching the bodies that make it, acting on the ground it affects, and experiencing civic participation as something they do, not something they're told about. The same statement anchors both lessons deliberately: first as knowledge, now as action.

Civics and Society — Core Connection (Phase 4 | Years 9–10)

"Local government decisions affect daily life (e.g. parks, libraries, water, transport)."

📑 See the Community Action Project unit overview for the full curriculum alignment → — Social Sciences · Civics and Society · Phase 4 · Years 9–10 (statement pulled verbatim from the live Te Mātaiaho curriculum).

📦 Materials & Resources

The materials for this lesson are the plans themselves — each rōpū's what we need box from Lesson 3 is the packing list.

  • Plan pages (Lesson 3) — one per rōpū, on the table throughout.
  • Evidence kit: a camera or phone per rōpū, plus the agreed evidence spot (process journal, shared folder, or envelope) from the Do Now.
  • Contact channels (Activity 2): access to email or the council's submission page for rōpū making contact; paper and envelopes for those writing.
  • Action materials (Activity 3): per plan — campaign materials, petition sheets, survey tools, working-bee kit lists. Check the boxes the day before, not the morning of.
  • Board space for the stand-up's "stuck" list.

There is deliberately no video in this lesson — the material is the community itself. If a rōpū is submitting to the council, have the council's own "have your say" page open; source and check it for your rohe before class.

📊 Assessment Framework

Assessment here is formative and observational — this lesson feeds the unit rubric's Community Engagement and Action + Impact dimensions directly. The evidence log ākonga build today is also the raw material the summative assessment draws on across the arc.

What to look for, mapped to the learning intentions

  • Execution and adjustment (LI 1): in Activity 3, is the rōpū working its numbered steps — and when something failed, did they log the obstacle and adjust, or quietly stall?
  • Respectful, accurate engagement (LI 2): in Activities 1–2, does the contact name who they are, back every claim, and make one specific ask? Did the rōpū with a mana whenua flag honour it rather than route around it?
  • Evidence discipline (LI 3): at the exit, can every ākonga point to a specific, filed piece of evidence for what their rōpū did today? "We did heaps" with an empty journal is the tell.
Quick exit read: the three exit sentences show you which rōpū have real momentum with evidence behind it, and the stand-up's "stuck" list is your opening agenda for Lesson 5.
🚀 Extension Activities
  • The reply tracker: rōpū that made contact set up a simple tracker — date sent, channel, expected reply time, follow-up date — and draft the polite follow-up now, ready to send if the reply window passes.
  • Local coverage: a rōpū with a strong visual action writes the 100-word blurb and picks the two best photos for the school newsletter or local paper — done today while it's fresh, held for Lesson 6 when sharing becomes the focus.
  • Second front: a rōpū whose main action is waiting on someone else (a reply, a date) designs the small action they can run entirely themselves in the meantime — so momentum never depends on one gatekeeper.
🔗 Unit Progression & Next Steps

This lesson produces two things: action actually taken, and the evidence log that proves it. Both feed straight into the evaluation.

  1. Lesson 1 — Choose an Issue: find a real community issue worth acting on.
  2. Lesson 2 — Research and Understand: get the full picture — evidence, sources, perspectives.
  3. Lesson 3 — Design a Response: turn understanding into a realistic plan.
  4. Lesson 4 — Take Action (this lesson): do the mahi.
  5. Lesson 5 — Reflect and Evaluate: did it work, and how do we know?
  6. Lesson 6 — Share and Advocate: tell the story and push for the change to stick.

Between lessons: chase the loose ends from exit sentence 3 — replies to log, weekend actions to photograph. Lesson 5 opens by weighing today's evidence against the success measure written in Lesson 3.

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

  • ✅ I did my step of our plan today, and adjusted honestly when something didn't go to plan. (LI 1)
  • ✅ I can show that we approached people accurately and respectfully — the right person, the right way, claims backed. (LI 2)
  • ✅ I can point to the filed evidence for everything our rōpū did today. (LI 3)

Differentiation for this lesson

  • Roles carry the range: the plan's named steps let you match tasks to students — the confident speaker makes the call, the careful writer owns the log, the organiser runs the checklist. Every role is real; none is busywork.
  • Language / ELL: contact drafts can be built from the four-part frame in pairs; the stand-up report is three short sentences and can be rehearsed once before it's said.
  • When a plan stalls completely: a rōpū blocked through no fault of its own (no reply, venue fell through) switches to its fallback or joins another rōpū's action for the day — and logs the blockage as evidence. The evaluation lesson treats an honestly-documented obstacle as data, not defeat.

Broader differentiation and the unit-wide framing live on the unit overview.