Today’s Agenda

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  1. Reflective Response
  2. Body Break & Social Break
  3. Who or What Am I?
  4. Case Study: Vicious
  5. Zach Galifianakis goes to preschool

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Reflective Response

•Share your Reflective Response to the Readings with each other.

•Use one or more of your discussion questions to deepen your thinking.

Who or What Am I? This game is a variation on the classic 20 Questions game. In this version, each player wears a headband so that it crosses his or her forehead. The game director places an identity card in each player’s headband while keeping it hidden from the person wearing it. The card faces outward so everyone else can read it. With the readings in mind, write down the name of a concept or thinker on a sticky note and carefully place the sticky note on the forehead of someone you don’t know very well, without having them see what is written on your sticky note. Players circulate freely through the room asking yes or no questions of other players until correctly determining their own identity. Once the player guesses correctly, the card is removed from the band and the player continues to circulate and provide answers to others.

Adapted from 101 Classroom Games: Easy Ways to Get Your Students Playing, Laughing and Learning by Alex Ludewig and Amy Swan

Case Study – Vicious You have seen it before, but this year the situation in your middle school classroom seems especially vicious. A clique of popular girls has made life miserable for one of their former friends, Stephanie, who is now rejected. Stephanie committed the social sin of not fitting in - wearing the wrong clothes or not being pretty enough or not being interested in boys yet. To keep the status distinctions clear between themselves and Stephanie, the popular girls spread gossip about their former friend, often disclosing intimate secrets revealed when Stephanie was still considered a close friend, which was only a few months ago.

However, these girls are not using the traditional ways of spreading gossip - instead of passing notes or whispering in the hallways, they are using the Internet to humiliate Stephanie. First they forward a long, heart-baring email from Stephanie to her former best friend Alison to the entire school. More recently, one of them used a cell phone to take a picture of Stephanie while she was changing after gym class and then emailed it around the whole school. Stephanie has been absent for three days since this latest episode.

  • How would you respond to the girls?
  • Would you say anything to your other students? What?
  • In your teaching, are there ways you can address the issues raised by this situation? Reflecting on your years in school, were your experiences more like those of Alison or Stephanie?
  • With three or four other students in your class, role-play a talk with Stephanie, Alison or their families. Take turns playing the different roles in your group.

Zach Galifianakis goes to preschool

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