The Tikkun Project
Lesson
11
Designing the Action Plan
Concept
Turning a chosen issue into an actual plan means translating criteria into specifics what exactly will be done, by whom, on what timeline, and how success will be measured.
Focus Question
What specifically will we do, who is it for, by when, and how will we know if it worked?
Knowledge & Understanding Goals
Social Studies, People and Environments Strand B — The Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship, Grade 5: Design and plan a civic action that addresses an identified issue and considers roles and responsibilities of relevant levels of government.
Language, Strand D (Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts), Grade 5: Produce a finalized persuasive text, using feedback to revise for clarity, audience, and purpose.
Thinking & Learning Skills
ATL — Self-Management Skills: Setting a realistic timeline and dividing responsibilities.
ATL — Thinking Skills: Testing a specific plan against the unit's three Challenge Criteria (impact, feasibility, measurability) before committing to it.
Learner Profile: Principled, Thinkers.
Context
Follows Lesson 9's issue selection and Lesson 10's visit to City Hall or Queen's Park. This is where the class (or small groups) turns a chosen issue into a specific, committed plan finalizing the letter or petition drafted in Lesson 7 and refined with the official's advice in Lesson 8, identifying the correct target using Lesson 3's roles knowledge, and setting a timeline and success measures before moving to implementation.
Lesson Outline
FINALIZING THE TARGET AND THE ASK
Using Lesson 3's roles chart, confirm the specific office or official the plan is directed at. Revisit the Lesson 7 letter or petition draft, incorporating the officials' advice from Lessons 8 and 10. Finalize the specific ask: what exactly is being requested, and what would count as the official or institution responding?
CONFIRMING OUR MODE OF ACTION
Revisit the third Hillel Check question from Lesson 7 — personal action, advocacy, collaboration, or civic engagement — one more time now that the plan is close to final. Does the finalized plan actually match the mode of action students identified as best, or has it drifted toward something else along the way (e.g., started as direct collaboration with an official but has quietly become a purely symbolic gesture)? Adjust before committing if the two have diverged.
SETTING A TIMELINE AND ROLES
As a class or in groups, map out the concrete steps between now and delivering the action: gathering signatures, scheduling a meeting or delivery, coordinating with the official's office if a follow-up was offered. Assign roles so every student has a specific responsibility.
TESTING THE PLAN BEFORE COMMITTING
Build a fishbone diagram for the finalized plan — the same tool used in Lesson 7 — with bones for Impact, Feasibility, and Measurability. Identify the plan's thinnest bone and revise the plan specifically to strengthen it before moving forward.
DEFINING WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
As a class, write down 2–3 specific, observable things that would count as evidence the plan is working (e.g., a certain number of signatures gathered, a response received from the official's office, a specific commitment made). Record this now, before implementation begins — it becomes the evidence base for the Course Correction lesson.
Notes for Teaching and Evaluation
Fishbone diagram (reused): using the same tool from Lesson 7, at the moment of final commitment, means students are testing the finished plan with the same rigor they used to evaluate real precedent — the tool doesn't change, but the stakes do.
Defining success criteria before implementation, rather than after, is a deliberate sequencing choice — it prevents students from unconsciously redefining "success" after the fact to match whatever happens.
Rechecking the Hillel Check's third question at the point of final commitment catches plan drift — the gradual, often unnoticed slide from an ambitious, direct form of action toward a safer, more symbolic one as real logistics (time, permissions, access) start to bite.