Teaching Students to Stand Up and Speak Out

One my district's Reading Unit of Study for fourth grade is Social Action Projects. This article caught my eye, as it explains the importance of encouraging student to "stand up and speak up!" The author of this article, Rebecca Alber, explains that teaching students to stand up for others teaches empathy for others around them - something many children lack today. If we want to end issues such as bullying, we need to educate students to not be "bystanders;" rather, to take action and fight for what they believe.

The article lists 4 classroom ideas to use to teach students to take action. When I do social action projects, we brainstorm a list of ideas together and then students form groups depending on what is important to them. Then, students are able to create a project of their own in their groups. For example, in the groups have created posters, commercials, demonstrations, button campaigns, petitions, and donation collections. My only issue is how to motivate students to CARE once the project is over. They seem to get so into it and are motivate, yet once they are done, they are done! If students really want to make a difference they must want to keep working hard to support their stance. This is something I am struggling with. :/