The goal of this game is perspective-taking and illustrating how easy it is to misinterpret other people’s “cultures.” Both students and teachers may feel like they are in an alien culture when they come  to school. Teachers may see the school as belonging to kids, and kids may experience the school as belonging to adults. In this game, half the students are asked to make a “teacher culture” and half the students make a “student culture.” The students enter the teacher culture to observe and infer their rules, and then the teachers enter the student culture and try to do the same. There may be some pretty exaggerated performances, but it will give everyone a chance to see how kids view themselves, how kids view adults, and how kids think teachers view students. For more information on this activity, please refer to The Art of Focused Conversation for Schools. 

Student Voice and Youth Empowerment

Sometimes when a young person speaks, adults assume that that young person is speaking for all young people. In this activity, students are given the chance to respond to what other kids are saying about youth voice and empowerment. They can discuss in small groups or as a class the validity of statements made by other youth activists. The goal of this activity is for students to understand what is being done “in their name” and to explore the representation of youth by youth. The final quote is from an adult activist. What is their response to this quote in light of their analysis of the other two? It introduces the changes that are happening in other schools and helps kids identify how they would like to change their school.

If you had a problem in the Black community, and you brought in a group of White people to discuss how to solve it, almost nobody would take that panel seriously. In fact, there’d probably be a public outcry. It would be the same the for women’s issues or gay issues. But every day, in local arenas all the way to the White House, adults sit around and decide what problems youth have and what youth need, without ever consulting us. - Jason, 17-year-old activist in New York City.

If students feel some ownership in the school where they learn, we might have better attendance, fewer suspensions and more respect for keeping our building clean. Also, having a choice in how we are taught might make most students more enthusiastic about learning. - A student activist statement

I have heard teachers give it up after a single attempt, saying, ‘Children cannot behave responsibly,’ then remove all further opportunity for students to practice and grow in their responsible behavior. I have also heard teachers say, ‘Children cannot think for themselves,’ and proceed thereafter to do children's thinking for them. But these same teachers would never say, ‘These children cannot read by themselves,’ and thereafter remove any opportunity for them to learn to read. - Selma Wassermann, as quoted by Alfie Kohn

  The quotations and questions below can be used for discussion.

 1.      Do you think that it is important for the race/gender/sexual orientation of leaders to match that of the population it serves? Why? Is expertise more important than personal knowledge?

2.      What makes someone an expert?

 3.      Have you heard opinions like this before? From whom have you heard opinions similar to these?

 4.      What is your reaction to this quote? What parts of it do you agree with? What parts do you disagree with?

 5.      In your experience, does student performance or connectedness increase when students feel ownership of the school? Do students have useful insights into how to improve the way they are taught? What student suggestions have you implemented in your classrooms? What was the outcome? Visit Soundout.org/quotes for comments by students about their schools and communities.

The Psychic Shake For more information about this exercise, please refer to Moving Beyond Icebreakers. This exercise assigns students to groups randomly and asks them to go find other members of their group using a handshake. When two group members find each other, they look together to find the other members. The goal of this activity is to get kids thinking about groups and cliques and how they identify a person in their group. Is a handshake arbitrary? Is a clothing brand? Is race? Why do we exclude people? How do we know to exclude them? What is it like to work as a team with someone who isn’t in your group outside of class?

Listen Up This exercise builds trust between classmates, encourages communication, perspective-taking and introspection. It gives students the chance to speak to classmates they might not otherwise get to know. They also see how it might be for a teacher who is trying to teach an inattentive class. In this activity, pairs are assigned and given a discussion topic. Each partner must then speak on that topic with his or her eyes closed. How does the speaker ensure that her partner is listening? How does the listener convey that he is attentive? For more information about this activity, please refer to Beyond Moving Beyond Icebreakers.

Unfair Word Association Contest Unfair Word Association Contest is an exercise that encourages dialogue about the fairness of classroom rules and the fairness of their enforcement.  This activity can be done with a large group. The game is played like normal word association—players are asked, “What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say…?” If they delay or break a rule (i.e. no proper nouns) they are out. After several rounds of playing fair, the teacher starts calling people out arbitrarily. Following the activity, a discussion should focus on the experience of being treated unfairly, dealing with being treated unfairly, and how it feels to be treated well in an unfair system. For more details about this exercise, please refer to Moving Beyond Icebreakers.

 For Faculty and Staff: The Name Game 

An important part of school connectedness is having a relationship with an adult at school. It could be a teacher, a coach, a principal or a custodian. This exercise encourages staff to think about who they know? Who is well-known by staff? Who slips through the cracks? This exercise should be done when a large and diverse body of school employees are present. It requires a list of students (all the students in a grade or in the school, depending on time). One by one, the meeting leader should read off student names and staff should raise their hand if they know that student. Those who do are asked whether they have had a conversation with that student recently. By going through the entire list of names, it will become clear that certain students are unknown to adults at school, and may benefit from adults trying to get to know them.

Wrapping Up 

Although many of these activities take only a few minutes, it is important to leave time to process the experiences and feelings generated by the activity, talk about the themes the game addressed. In addition to the questions specific to the activities, a few good questions to ask at the close of the activities are: 

  *  What feelings did you have when you did this activity? What kinds of things did you and your partner(s) talk about?

  *  What themes came up in our conversation? Your conversation with your partner?

  *  What was the purpose of this activity? Take time to explain how you (the teacher or facilitator) wanted to use the  activity.

  *  Did you like the activity?

References

Pollack, S., & Fusoni, M. (2005). Moving beyond icebreakers: An innovative approach to group facilitation, learning and action. Boston, MA: Quality Books, Inc.

Cushman, K. (2003). Fires in the bathroom. New York: The New Press.

Nelson, J. (2001). The art of focused conversation for schools. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers.

National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Drug Prevention and School Saftey Program Coordinators. Retrieved March 30, 2006, from the World Wide Web: http://www.k12coordinator.org/onlinece/onlineevents/connect/index.htm