Try this activity with your afterschool group this week.
Purpose: (1) To explore the emotional effects of put-ups and put-downs, (2) To explore the links between put-downs and conflict, and (3) To explore how group members can be more supportive of each other
Materials:
Pre-made red and white paper hearts, tape and red marker, one trainer to enact the story non-verbally while another trainer provides the narrative.
Tell the students you are going to tell them the story about a day in the life of someone their age.
Ask for a volunteer from the classroom. Have the volunteer tape a red heart onto their chest. Choose a fictitious name for the demonstration. Ask the students to pay attention to how the people in the volunteer's life communicate with her. Tell the story of her day, including put-downs from parents, friends, teachers, etc.
After each put down, the volunteer tears off a piece of the red heart, letting it fall to the floor and non-verbally displays feelings of frustration, isolation, disappointment, or hurt. By the end of the story, there should just be a scrap of paper left on the volunteer's chest.
Once you’ve complete the story, ask your students how they think the volunteer feels and why.
Introduce the concept of “put-downs” and ask:
-How many of them have been put down in their lives?
-How did it feel to be put down?
-Have you ever put someone else down?
-How did it feel to put someone else down?
-Why did you put the other person down?
Given how the character that the volunteer is feeling right now, how do you think she would react if someone bumps into her in the hall at school? Why? Can you think of other situations where “put-downs” lead to conflicts?
Introduce the concept of “put ups”. Inform students that they will now be the important people in the character's life (e.g. the mother, teacher, friend, etc.) and ask them to give her put-ups instead of put-downs. Encourage students to talk to the character as the characters in the story using supportive, encouraging statements. (The volunteer should now have the white heart taped to his/her chest and have the red marker in hand.)
Now re-tell the same exact story with the same situations as before. For each situation, elicit many different responses from the students by calling on more than one student to portray each character. Each time a student gives a put-up, the volunteer will color in part of the white heart with the red marker, until, by the end of the story, the entire heart is red.
After the re-telling of the story, ask the students: What effects do put-ups have on people?
One practice in your classroom can include a put up if someone accidentally or intentionally puts someone else down.
