Although narrative structures are more easily remembered and come more naturally to youth, ask them to try these expository writing structures: Compare & Contrast (discuss the similarities and differences between people, places, items, or events, without bias); Problem & Solution (define a clear problem with multiple solutions and choose the best solution and explain why); …
Have youth adopt the perspective of those in history who are poorly represented or not represented in history books. With each news story, piece of literature, film clip, etc. that you share, ask youth to identify content that is emotional. Next ask them to respond empathetically to the central person featured in the literature, news, …
Defined by Brazilian mathematician Ubiratan D’Ambrosio as intersections of culture, historical traditions, socio-cultural roots, and mathematics. It seeks to answer the question of students in math classes everywhere: What’s the relevance? Often the answers are experienced on location during field trips, by applying math to the world around us, and making it meaningful. It is …
Getting people outside can do wonders for building capacities for problem solving. Through engaging nature, youth become calm, learn to listen carefully, develop their empathic response, become more respectful and more careful about their own actions, and take on leadership positions to protect nature. They feel peace and learn about the practical steps of civic …
Find as many opportunities to acknowledge how hard our youth are working. It takes five words of encouragement for every one word of criticism for our youth to internalize the encouragement. “Thank you for helping,” “You’ve worked so hard,” “I appreciate that you helped your friend,” “Thanks for cleaning up” are examples. Recognition of efforts …
Use drama and dance to build community, foster active learning, and support youth growth. Use both to aid classroom management, address multiple intelligences, and to develop abstract, creative and critical thinking skills. Assign various roles to youth in the “Theater Company” including: Playwright, Director, Choreographer, Actors and Actresses. Use dramatic play with young children to …
Pick a difficult topic around which there is conflict and get everybody “believing” they are right about one side of the problem. The process of believing involves absorbing, defending, and adopting the arguments. Then get everyone together “doubting” that same problem, deconstructing and critiquing it. Finally comes the “sharing,” when an individual finds the points …
Includes active listening plus listening for the counter story. A counter story is one that will introduce possibilities of resolution or that will help you to identify underlying needs. Involves listening beyond facts and more deeply for values important to the speaker. The listener should make note of the speaker’s posture, tone, volume, demeanor, and …
Instead of “Don’t hit,” try “Touch nicely” and demonstrate. Reinforce by asking, “How do you touch nicely?” Instead of “Don’t touch the lamp,” say, “You can touch and play with the pans.” Instead of “Don’t run,” say “Please use your walking feet.” Instead of “Don’t speak that way,” say, “Please speak respectfully, like this…,” and …
Map out the larger system within which a conflict or an issue resides. Discover how the system might be reinforcing the conflict or issue. Identify breaks in the system, rules and regulations reinforcing the conflict, etc. Map solutions for shifting the system. Network mapping (analysis of how a network is connected) is a powerful tool …