Activity
Introductory activities
Pass the Ball & How Do You Make Rice?
Autumm Caines
Patrice Prusko
The purpose of this activity is to engage in a discussion about identity and difference.
ACTIVITY PURPOSE
The purpose of this activity is to engage in a discussion about identity and difference.
USEFUL FOR
- Icebreaker.
- Humanizing through storytelling.
- Discussing how people may learn the same topic, in different ways, with the same outcome.
- Discussing how everyone comes to the class with a unique background and lived experience, which influences how we approach a conversation, how we do things, and how we might answer a question.
- Relationship between culture and background, identity, and how we do things
- Build community and create an inclusive, open, caring classroom culture.
PREPARATION
- Slide with prompt on it, directions and time.
- If using breakout rooms you can put people in randomly, or pre-plan them ahead of time.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Describe activity and why doing it.
- Tell people why you find it interesting and helpful to hear the story of how their family makes rice.
- Explain they can share as much or little as they are comfortable.
- Pose some questions to spark what story they want to share
- How was rice cooked in your home when you were growing up?
- How do you cook rice now?
- Does it have any cultural or historical meaning?
- Is there a story or experience related to how you cook rice you would like to share?
- Let them know it can a personal story, or about their culture.
- Let them know they have 2 minutes to share. If using Zoom you can set a timer.
- If people are going into a breakout room ask that someone be assigned as timer, note taker, and person who will share back.
- Set up a collaborative document such as a Gdoc or Onedrive so that the small groups and write down their story. Then add in a shared space so that others can read everyone’s story at a later time.
DURATION
Set-up:
- If less than 10 people you can facilitate as whole group.
- If more than 10 people, suggest putting people into groups of 3-4.
- 3-5 minutes explaining the activity, why you are doing it, and putting people into groups if needed.
- 2 minutes per person to share story.
- If people shared in small groups 1-2 minutes for each group to share something back that they learned.
- 5 minutes to wrap-up and highlight importance of what they learned, how connects to the community and ways they will be working together.
ADAPTATIONS AND EXAMPLES
- Alternative tools could be an asynchronous discussion tool such as Voicethread, Flipgrid, Yellowdig or LMS discussion.
- An adaptation could be doing asynchronously.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
- If a large group suggest using breakout rooms.
- Gdocs or other collaborative tools can be used as a way for small groups to share their stories in their small group, and then they can be shared so the whole class can see them.
USEFUL RESOURCES
N/A
Watch Video
ABOUT
- Educator prep: None
- Student prep: None
- On-screen annotation, Shared online space
- Duration: 5-30 mins
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