anger
assembly
behaviour
bullying
change
christmas
community
conference
cu
curriculum
discussion
easter
education
fairtrade
film
forgiveness
humour
ideas
identity
jesus
justice
lesson
music
news
parable
poetry
poverty
primary
resources
school
seal
secondary
sheep
shepherd
stories
story
strategy
theology
video
Hi Mark, depending on how soon your lesson is (?), there is an illustration in the next issue of Youthwork magazine about the power of our words, (which we have used in assemblies, but the idea could be adapted to fit part of a lesson, and it would work well with year 7).
Amy
A simple icebreaker to get talk at the beginning is to have a number of words on cards/A4 sheet that evoke various feelings or responses. ask the students which words stand out to them and why (i.e. bully; work; snog; bling; useless; brilliant).
You might even make the point that some words stand out more than others and that’s why our words are important - the words that stand out will impact others either positively or negatively. Each student will be drawn to certain words based on what is happening in their lives (i.e. bully; snog)or by the words people have spoken to them already (i.e. useless; brilliant).
all the best man - choose your words well!
A colleague of mine has done assemblies on this topic by getting down to a butchers and buying a cows tongue. Put it in a box and tell the class that it contains the most powerful weapon in the world, then they have to try and guess what it is… You can really big up the intrigue by only letting a couple of students see it at first, their reaction is usually priceless.
This could be adapted for a lesson by leading into discussion on how we can use our tongues as weapons, but then also how we can use them for good (James 3 as a bible link).
Mini White Boards
Lots of classrooms have a set of wipe-clean mini white boards (A4 size) with markers and erasers. Great way of getting all students involved in a lesson as they can all write something - and can hold up their ‘words’. Year 7 still love these.
Just talking with Andrew Smith, from SU, today at the Youthwork conference in Eastbourne about the cow/ox tongue assembly - which we’ve used in Luton too. Andrew was pointing out that to do this assembly with anyone from the Hindu religion present might be extremely offensive. Makes me think twice about using it, or at least making sure that there is no one there you might be upset by such an illustration.
You might be able to find something useful in the SEAL materials. SEAL stands for Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning. There is loads of material for both Primary and Secondary. The website is http://www.bandapilot.org.uk