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COMMUNITY-BUILDING ACTIVITIES
A large part of being a successful Teaching Artist is having a bag full of tricks. Over the years I have learned and used many community-building activities. Inspired by hip-hop culture and Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed, these activities are great ways for participants to engage and make meaning.
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RESPECT CIRCLESay one thing you are thankful for today, and then say, "Respect" as you touch your hand with the hand of the person standing in the circle next to you. I picked up the practice of using a Respect Circle to close my class sessions from a fellow Teaching Artist, Chelsea Gregory. Years later, I thought it to this community of high school poets who made up the MasterPoets at Urban Arts Partnerships' Peapod Adobe Academy program.
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alliteration game
First team to write ten words beginning with the letter “C” wins. No names, and remember, no inappropriate language. “Ready? Set. Go.” The classroom fills with the sounds of children calling words out: cow, cat, cut, can, class, climb, cry, couch, coach. Somebody count. We have nine words. We only need one more to win. Hurry Up.
I have assigned three teams with eight students each. A student from each team is assigned the note-taker. Next round, the students ask for a harder letter. Instead of having a student choose the letter, this time, I assign “W.” Each team is in a corner of the room with a white board to write words on. “Ready? Set. Go.”
The Alliteration Game is an excellent way for your students to generate words. Now that you have a list of words, use them in free-writing exercises. Free-write using as many words on the list as possible. The resulting poems will already be using alliteration.
If your students are not ready for group work, this can also be played individually. Have students write as many words as possible in a set amount of time. Thirty seconds is good. Students call out a word and any other student who has the same word raises their hand. If they are the only person with that word, they win a point. Write all of the words down as a way to generate words. This can also be done as a Rhyming Game.
I have assigned three teams with eight students each. A student from each team is assigned the note-taker. Next round, the students ask for a harder letter. Instead of having a student choose the letter, this time, I assign “W.” Each team is in a corner of the room with a white board to write words on. “Ready? Set. Go.”
The Alliteration Game is an excellent way for your students to generate words. Now that you have a list of words, use them in free-writing exercises. Free-write using as many words on the list as possible. The resulting poems will already be using alliteration.
If your students are not ready for group work, this can also be played individually. Have students write as many words as possible in a set amount of time. Thirty seconds is good. Students call out a word and any other student who has the same word raises their hand. If they are the only person with that word, they win a point. Write all of the words down as a way to generate words. This can also be done as a Rhyming Game.