Take a moment to ask yourself, who feels most connected to people at school or in a program?
There may be no more important question to ask yourself given the recent CDC Report recommendation that school support and connection is the primary action to address the growing mental health crisis in adolescence. The CDC answer from 18,000 youth:
- White students
- Male students
- Heterosexual students
This is why gender and racial equity is at the foundation of how we teach social and emotional learning (SEL) at Girls Leadership. And why SEL begins in belonging. If our most marginalized students can belong, students of color, girls and gender expansive youth, and LGBTQ+ students, then every student will benefit. Right now, every student needs to know that they belong in our classrooms, programs, and communities.
To build belonging, we always begin with check-ins. Check-ins, however quick, allow us to show up as humans before going into our roles as teachers and students, or coaches and players. Here are two versions of a check-in to acknowledge and celebrate the cultures that are in a room, without requiring young people to put a label on their culture.
Exposure to different cultures and exploring aspects of their own culture allows students to share parts of their identity beyond the biases and stereotypes. This Cultural Appreciation Check-in invites the students you serve to say for themselves what culture means to them and to share what they love about their culture.
There are two versions of this check in below; the first one may take 10 – 15 minutes, depending on the size of your group, and doesn’t require materials. The second version turns this conversation into a Jeopardy game, deepening the engagement with the material, but also requiring notecards, markers, and more time to go deeper into the debrief conversation.
Tell us how this culturally responsive connection-building activity goes in the comments below.
Are you a youth-serving professional? Join us on April 24 for an interactive, 2-hour, online workshop on Culturally Responsive Mindsets. Learn how to build trust, a sense of belonging, and authentic connection and communication with all the youth you serve.
How to do a Cultural Appreciation Check-in
Goal: Students will:
- Learn the definition of culture
- Connect to assets of their own, self-defined culture that they appreciate
- Share those assets with the community and have their culture seen by peers and adults
Time: 15 – 20 minutes
Materials: Version A, 15 minutes, nothing or a notebook, Version B, 20 minute game, notecards and markers
Process:
Explore the concept of culture with the students by asking…
Ask: “What is culture?” and get a few responses.
Say: Culture is a pattern of behavior shared by a society, or group of people. Many different things make up a society’s culture. These things can include food, language, clothing, tools, music, arts, customs, beliefs, and religion as well as more invisible ideas like what does it mean to be “on time” and who do we consider to be “family”.
Discussion/Follow-up: To prompt the discussion have students take a moment to think about the following questions:
- “What do you love about your culture?”
- “What is a way you celebrate or honor your culture?”
- “What is something about your culture that isn’t true that you wish could be corrected?”
Sentence started: Have students choose one to share or all depending on time.
“I love _________ about my culture because ______”
“A way I celebrate my culture is _________ and here is how we celebrate it_____”
“Something that isn’t true about my culture is _________. We are ______”
Questions can be asked of students to answer individually in a journal, or open it up to the whole group. Consider starting with a pair share before opening up to the whole group.
Alternate format: Cultural Appreciation Jeopardy
[Appropriate for a group that has already developed community norms and built trust]
After defining culture, have each student write down answers to the following questions:
- “What do you love about your culture?” or
- “What is a way you celebrate or honor your culture?”
- “What is something you practice or celebrate that people at school don’t know about?”
- “What is something about your culture that isn’t true that you wish could be corrected?”
Have each student share one or multiple answers as prompts, depending on time and their sense of comfort, and the remaining students will guess which of the above questions the prompt answers. Once the correct question has been named, the student may choose to share more context around the prompt to deepen everyone’s understanding of that particular cultural norm or practice.
NOTE TO TEACHER: Because this game puts the spotlight on students individually and emphasizes cultural differences, it can make them feel very vulnerable. Model positive participation by going under the spotlight first. Show students how to share personal details in a way that builds connection as well as respects personal boundaries AND demonstrate effective ways to deflect unwanted questions or comments from the rest of the group.
Finally, after every student has shared their prompt(s), open up the space to a whole-class discussion about the following:
- What is something you learned or discovered?
- What is something you think you’d like more understanding about?
Are you a youth-serving professional? Join us on April 24 for an interactive, 2-hour, online workshop on Culturally Responsive Mindsets. Learn how to build trust, a sense of belonging, and authentic connection and communication with all the youth you serve.
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