Today I did an activity in class that was my own creation. Obviously I’m proud of it, hence the entry.
Background Info: We’re in the middle of our Africa unit (oh, and I’m a 6th grade social studies teacher). See if you can make the connections with where this activity is headed.
I divided the class into Tribe 1, Tribe A, two reporters (camera and score keeper) and observers (students who didn’t want to play basketball were told to just watch).
Tribe 1 and Tribe A then played a 20 minute game of basketball. All the rules of basketball were the same except that when they shot they had to let out a war cry and if they fouled then they would have to immediately sub out. Also the subs waiting could earn points for their team by hollering, cheering and dancing.
At first my reffing appeared fair, but within 10 minutes I had called 5 or more fouls on Tribe A and disallowed 2-3 baskets because I didn’t hear them give a war cry when shooting. Curiously enough every out of bound ball happened to go off of a Tribe A member and Tribe 1 rarely fouled, traveled or missed a war cry.
As students on tribe A started to get upset and question me they would be hit with technicals and have to sub out. Somewhere in here Tribe 1 would be awarded points for cheering, whether they were cheering or not.
By the second half of the game it became clear that I was favoring Tribe 1. Some students made this connection, while most missed it. I had to make it super obvious, so I started to help Tribe 1 out by rebounding, blocking and passing to open shooters.
In the last few minutes I would grab the ball and run around without dribbling. This was the funnest part for me. I felt like a child running around with a basketball and letting out a war cry while I missed every shot (on purpose?).
Warning: Keep an eye on the students on Tribe A and make sure they don’t lose it. I purposely put students with anger issues on Tribe 1. Toward the end of one game a student on Tribe A started to get so upset that I thought he was going to flatten another kid so I took him aside and explained that it was an activity and what I was trying to do. This helped him calm down.
On Monday we will debrief the activity and make the connections between this activity and …
Actually, I can’t tell you now. You’ll have to wait until Monday. See if you can guess what each element represented and what country I’ll be talking about on Monday.
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