Design lessons that focus on the whole child, including: health, nutrition, home life, community life, culture, emotions, and safety. Reflect on all that a child needs to grow strong in body, mind and spirit. How do we nourish these needs in multifaceted ways? Come up with a Whole Child Portrait of every child and think …
Teach youth that the writing process isn’t finished after the first draft. A good Revision Toolbox has tools that work with word choice, writing structures, and voice. Encourage youth to collect words and create their own thesaurus. Encourage them to experiment with time by using flashbacks or slow motion techniques. Teach them about character development …
TWPG is an elaborative hands-on, youth-driven game/exercise. Founded in 2010, TWPG Foundation is dedicated to sharing the global mission of peace, developing self-awareness, and the life work of teacher John Hunter. It supports development of collaboration and communication skills for resolving and transforming conflicts, and the development of the skills of compromise, all while accommodating …
When an incident occurs, youth can spend time in reflection by writing and identifying: a) what happened; b) what was my role in the problem?; c) what could I have done differently?; d) how was the other person/people feeling?; and e) what should I do now? Then they re-enter into a problem-solving process together. For …
In more diverse classrooms or other groups, have youth share their cultural heritage through music, food, literature, language, art and so on. Have each of the observers identify in these presentations: a) something they recognize or find familiar, b) something that surprised them or something new that they learned (absorb), and c) something that they …
Puzzles are a good way to encourage critical thinking with all ages of youth. In order to successfully complete a puzzle, they must work with both individual, disconnected parts, and a picture of the whole. Puzzles also require collaboration if done with a partner. They teach patience and persistence. In addition, puzzles are a great …
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 …
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?”
Youth propose discussion topics and craft questions around topics that interest them. They vote on the topics/questions they want to pursue as a group, and use a community ball or talking stick to facilitate discussion. Youth learn to ask a variety of open-ended questions to foster critical thinking. Questions might include, “Is it fair to …