So, this was my first week at Bancroft Elementary in Minneapolis. I will be working with 5th graders on their very own Public Achievement project! I have no idea what this project will be, but am excited nonetheless. Our first day consisted primarily of meeting with students to brainstorm issues that they can take on in their community and/or school.
As I reported in class, the group I worked with was rather serious. They didn't even want to START with introductions but wanted to delve right into talking about issues. (My introduction activity was talking about favorite and least favorite foods.) In fact, this activity did not influence the issues they thought were most important.
They wanted to talk about bullying, drug use, gangs, name calling, racism, and child abuse. These are some pretty intense issues. Some of them are ones I do not want to be the coach in charge of pursuing a solution (not that none of them are worthy, but I really don't want to lead a group on child abuse).
I even tried to lighten the mood of my serious group by asking about what positive things they would like to see. What things they dreamed, hoped for, and wanted to see exist. They again wanted to see negative things disappear, instead.
Every member of my group was able to speak. However, this was easy because I only had three students. Still, the boys tended to be louder in voicing their perspective. I had to stop them to allow or ask questions of their female classmate what she thought.
When the class came together, our group also reached consensus on what we thought were the most important issues. In fact, the issues they wanted to keep weren't considered the biggest issues from our group. For our classroom overall, it was a very easy process to pick their top 8 issues. I can't imagine it is always as simple.
Since I do not have a group yet, I am curious about what dynamics it will have. I want next week to be primarily about getting to know each other and how we would like to operate as a group. I will bring my own questions and suggestions, especially if conversation isn't going anywhere. I also need to check out the Public Achievement site to get some more ideas.
One thing I have been concerned about is what activities might keep them less bored. I understand switching gears helps, from talking about something to writing or drawing. I am not exactly sure how we will do this each week.
For this next week, I had thought about asking them to show me how NOT to act in our group - but this might actually cause more problems than prevent them. Perhaps a drawing about why they chose this group would be something we could do in addition to a conversation about this.
As I reported in class, the group I worked with was rather serious. They didn't even want to START with introductions but wanted to delve right into talking about issues. (My introduction activity was talking about favorite and least favorite foods.) In fact, this activity did not influence the issues they thought were most important.
They wanted to talk about bullying, drug use, gangs, name calling, racism, and child abuse. These are some pretty intense issues. Some of them are ones I do not want to be the coach in charge of pursuing a solution (not that none of them are worthy, but I really don't want to lead a group on child abuse).
I even tried to lighten the mood of my serious group by asking about what positive things they would like to see. What things they dreamed, hoped for, and wanted to see exist. They again wanted to see negative things disappear, instead.
Every member of my group was able to speak. However, this was easy because I only had three students. Still, the boys tended to be louder in voicing their perspective. I had to stop them to allow or ask questions of their female classmate what she thought.
When the class came together, our group also reached consensus on what we thought were the most important issues. In fact, the issues they wanted to keep weren't considered the biggest issues from our group. For our classroom overall, it was a very easy process to pick their top 8 issues. I can't imagine it is always as simple.
Since I do not have a group yet, I am curious about what dynamics it will have. I want next week to be primarily about getting to know each other and how we would like to operate as a group. I will bring my own questions and suggestions, especially if conversation isn't going anywhere. I also need to check out the Public Achievement site to get some more ideas.
One thing I have been concerned about is what activities might keep them less bored. I understand switching gears helps, from talking about something to writing or drawing. I am not exactly sure how we will do this each week.
For this next week, I had thought about asking them to show me how NOT to act in our group - but this might actually cause more problems than prevent them. Perhaps a drawing about why they chose this group would be something we could do in addition to a conversation about this.
I think it is an interesting idea to get them to embody the behaviors you do not want. If you wanted to try, why not use image theater? What if you had them get together and make frozen statues that would represent behavior they don't want and then regroup to represent the behavior they do want. With it frozen and silent, you might be able to have really thoughtful discussions about the "dangers" of these behaviors.
ReplyDeleteThat could be different from writing and drawing... ;)