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Pass the Ball & How Do You Make Rice?

Autumm Caines

Autumm Caines

Patrice Prusko

Patrice Prusko

The purpose of this activity is to engage in a discussion about identity and difference.

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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

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ABOUT

  • Educator prep: None
  • Student prep: None
  • Breakout rooms, Shared online space
  • Duration: 5-30 mins

This activity is one of a series of activities from Equity Unbound, focused on equitable online community building. 

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