ACTIVITIES TO EASE YOUR LESSONS

First exercise: emotional management

-A forgiving letter

In the classroom, we remind students of a particular occasion when somebody’s

behaviour hurt us. Afterwards, each student will have to try and empathise with the

other person, expressing his/her feelings. Finally, students will write down a forgiving

letter in order to reflect how they felt at that moment and will their willingness to

forgive.

In order to carry out this activity, students could be asked to describe the offence they

took, to express how that affected them and whether it lingers or not, report what they

would have liked the other person to had done instead and explicitly declare your

forgiving and comprehension towards the other person.

Changing roles could be beneficial especially for this kind of activity, in so far as

teachers can value if the students were able to defend or understand each other’s point

of view and feelings. This will be useful to implement a reflexive activity.

Note: The teacher should bear in mind that the letters are personal and may not be

shared publicly. Moreover, the students can decide whether to send them to the

addressee or not.

Second exercise: cultural awareness

Plan activities that may potentially make students go beyond their close environment by

introducing them to different cultures. Organise students into groups to work on

newspaper articles or surfing on the Internet in order to reflect upon us in a globalised

world and awake the students’ curiosity and interest to get to know new ways of life

(history, languages, traditions). Organise intercultural encounters in which we can get to

know the diversity of nationalities that we have in our schools. Suggest a possible

exchange to these students’ countries within language programs.

Third exercise: why do people emigrate?

Firstly, we will explain students some causes for migration to happen, and everyone

will brainstorm ideas that will be shared in the classroom. The teacher can make a list

and also take advantage if there are immigrant students in the class to ask them about

personal experiences, since stories told in first person are always much more effective

for students to understand. Later on, we will start explaining the inequalities there are in

the world and presenting what the implications are, making students think what can

individuals do to fight against these inequalities.

Finally, we can distribute the students into groups in order to work cooperatively on

actions that could possibly help to integrate these people in the community and show

them the projects that campaigns offer to help underprivileged people.