Break up a writing task into the following components: Pre-Write; First Draft; Mini Lesson; Peer Share; Revise; Edit; Publish. To Pre-Write, youth research, brainstorm, and outline their ideas. Then they write their First Draft. The teacher then delivers a Mini Lesson based on common grammatical or other writing errors. Youth then read each other’s work …
A great way to foster collaboration and validate the opinions of all people in a discussion. Try this: With a partner, choose a topic to discuss or a decision to be made, such as where to travel on a vacation. Person A states their idea, and person B responds with, “Yes, BUT….” and this continues, …
Structure a small group activity to create a picture or diagram that shows how youth are linked in a way that they cannot succeed without the participation of all. Positive Interdependence can be understood by getting them to talk about mutual goals, joint rewards, shared materials, and assigned roles. All individuals must work together as …
Create an end of the semester or end of the year skit or play on a particular historical event. Each child/student has a role. Play it out so they feel the differences in perspective, interests and needs. Identify who needed the most help. Ask, “what could have been done differently?”
Providing a space for problem solving is important. A peace table designates expectations for where and how youth will engage with each other. Peacebuilding literature, small peace gardens, talking sticks, peace flowers, and other problem-solving tools are kept in this prominent area. Have youth design and decorate their table or space and plan activities or …
Teach youth how to ask effective open-ended questions to learn more. These are typically: How, When, Who, What, and Why questions that cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no”. Share the limitations to yes and no questions.
With gloves and buckets, walk the neighborhood and pick up rubbish off of sidewalks, in public parks, or on the beach. Combine with lessons about where rubbish comes from and where it goes, and how we can minimize our production of waste.
Help youth to get more specific and expand their emotional vocabulary, replacing basic feeling words with more sophisticated terms. They graduate from using words like ‘ok’ or ‘fine’ to using words like ‘alienated’ and ‘hopeless,’ or ‘tranquil’ and ‘serene.’ By teaching subtle distinctions between similar feelings, this empowers youth and adults to recognize the full …
Focusing on wants and needs, have youth each draw their own classroom, school and/or family. How would they meet their needs? They will most likely draw hospitals, gardens, homes for shelter, friends etc. Select one drawing to duplicate on the board then discuss as a class how you would acquire those needs. See what they …
The Hawaiian word for story or tradition; use classical Hawaiian stories to teach literacy, science, and culture. In so doing, youth build their own stories with the stories of the community, culture, and past. This enables a better understanding of the lessons of the past that help guide our actions in the future. Have youth …
