Social Studies: Understanding Perspectives Through Two-Voice Poetry

Here is an introduction to lessons at CGK Afterschool.

CGK’s two-month-long project works will be based on the main “Driving Question”.

Here are the Driving Questions for this “Social Study” lesson.

“What is perspective and why is it important to see through others lives?

The lesson theme was “2 Voice Poetry.”

We followed this theme and question with fun lessons each week that drew the student’s interest.

Here are the comments of Mr. Dan, the teacher who was in charge of the lessons.

Week 1

This project requires a lot of abstract thinking from students and focuses on perspectives, view points, and the social construction of ideas that we take for granted. This will be challenging for students but will really open their minds to critical thinking and different ways of interoperating information and hopefully they can use these skills in conflict resolution at school and in their daily lives. We brainstormed ideas such as society, culture, culture shock and who they relate to the core idea of perspective. We talk about what can influence perspective such as culture, wealth, gender etc. We read the book they all saw a cat as a class and discussed its message. The cat in the story did not change physically but from the perspective of every animal the cat looked very different. Using a relatable example we acted out a scene that demonstrates how depending on the country etiquette is very different. When I first came to Japan I was shocked at how when entering somewhere like a ramen shop the staff would loudly shout greetings at me. Upon leaving the shop staff would also shout out goodbye and thank you to me with the whole shop being able to hear. As someone from a culture where quietness is valued highly in public dinning and shopping it was a big culture shock to me. Something that is so rude in the UK is considered polite in Japan and vise versa. There is no right or wrong to what constitutes politeness as it is all just a social construction but this very simple example was a good way for them to start to think about these ideas. We acted out the scenario at the ramen shop with each student having a role and they had a lot of fun making me jump in surprise. Next we looked at examples of two voice poetry and the students were made aware that they will be creating their own poetry and acting a little for their final project. We then created our own two voice poetry as a class looking at the difference and similarities between a teacher and students experience at school and performed it. The students did an amazing job and really got their head around the difficult idea of perspective. For the final part of the day students made groups and create posters from the perspective of two different people or things and presented them to the class.

Week 2

As a group we reviewed what we did the previous week and disused it in more detail. This was not just to solidify the knowledge in their heads going forward with a very abstract topic but also for the benefit of a class member who was absent the pervious week when the topic was introduced. Students also presented the posters they made on perspective to help the student who was not here the pervious week. We then read a story about perspective as a class and discussed the meaning of the story. We also made a small two voice poetry example as a class and then watch a video of them performing from their previous week. Students were then shown a slide show of different ways children go to school around the world and discussed at lengths the different perspectives on life these children must have. Finally, students then broke into pairs to discuss and then fill out a work sheet relating to creating our own two voice poetry as a class. Students needed to think of characters and a story and relate it to two voice poetry. Students were able to come up with nice stories that had a strong element of perspective, however they struggled to relate those stories to two voice poetry in a concrete way. This was expected as it is a difficult abstract concept that they need to use in order to create some original work. We will review next week and build from there.

Week 3

Students reviewed their work from last week and listened to feedback from the teachers. I decided to split the project into two parts. Instead of trying to make an original story about perspective and incorporating it in to two voice poetry I thought it would be better to make an original story about perspective and then a separate two voice poetry story later to perform as a class. We then discussed the idea of when are you an adult and when are you a child looking at examples of things you can do in Japan the UK and the USA. The students were from Japan and with Mr Dan from the UK and Ms. Heather form the USA it was a good chance to talk about the differences between each country. We talked about when you can buy a house, drive a car, and work in these countries and all of the answers were really different. It was a way for them to start questioning preconceived notions of what childhood is and if it is real or just a social construction. Students then gave their opinion of what age they think they will be an adult with a wide variety of results that reinforced the message of the lesson. After this, students broke off into new groups and received a very large story board. Their task over the next two weeks is to create an 8 page story board original story with a perspective element. Students generally worked well together in groups to think of a story through discussion with teachers. However, one pair could not agree on the direction to take their story and would disagree. To help them went to each teams story and had the teams explain it to them and what the perspective element was. This did help but they still could not come up with a story that included a perspective element at its core. To solve this they sat with me in a `discussion circle` and I made sure each student had the chance to voice their ideas without interruption and wrote down their thoughts on the board in steps. When both students had done this they could see that both of their stories were about space in some way so we could agree that the core idea of their story should involve space. Next we moved down each list trying to combine elements from each into a story and sometimes just picking which part they preferred through a conversation with each other. They came up with a funny and unique idea for a story but needed a little help to fully agree on the ending and incorporate a perspective element. This took a long time and they didn`t make much progress compared to the other teams with starting to draw out their story board. However, the most important part was that in the end they listened to each other, expressed themselves, and reached a conclusion through communication. They will all have one more lesson to work on their stories next week.

Week 4

We discussed perspective before starting our project time and talked about a picture and what we saw. Everyone had a different opinion but could see what each person described. We also looked at an optical illusion of an elephant to see think about perspective and truths.

One team was able to finish their project and we hung it on the wall. Another group is done but wants to color more. Last group still needs some time to finish.

Week 5

This week students had the chance to put the finishing touches on their story boards. Two out of three teams worked really well on their story boards and were able to start working on a script for their story. When the teams have made their scripts they will be able to practice their story like a mini English show and make props to tell their story. One group however, despite being given a lot of direction over the last three weeks were not able to work together well and not able to include a perspective element in their unfinished story. During presentation this group was able tell the story with a perspective element to some degree but we will not have time to finish the story board now. The other two teams presented well. I have decided from next week to spilt up this team and have them join the other two teams to work with them on their mini English show preparation.

Week 6, 7

This week students made groups and discussed the perspective of a teacher and a student and wrote down ideas that they could use for their two voice poetry. After they had 20 minutes to discuss both groups feedback their ideas and through conversation we wrote their final two voice poetry that they will perform for final presentation on the white board. Students then went back to their groups and practiced telling their perspective stories. Once a group could tell their story very well to Mr Dan or Ms. Heather they could then work on telling their story with props that they will use to perform their story for final presentation. One of the girls was an outstanding group leader this week and deserves special mention.

Here are the stories presented in the final presentation.

1. The alien thought he was saying "Hello!", but the unique greeting startled the children and scared them away.

The alien, who just wanted to play with the children, started to cry. The children noticed this and came back to the alien, and finally understood the "different greetings" and played together.

2. Children went to England, where Mr. Dan is from, and were invited to stay at his house.

The children were invited to a house where they were invited to visit Mr. Dan's home.

The children were surprised at the cultural difference, but they accepted the difference and had a good time, and returned to Japan.

Both of them were able to put their "Perspective" into their stories very well.

Their presentations were also very well done.

Although the theme was abstract, the children were able to seriously engage with the interesting content.

Next time, we will tackle the theme of "Social Media Campaign."

We will consider the good and bad points of social media, which everyone uses, and think about ways to use its influence.

At this stage, we plan to introduce afterschool.

We look forward to the next lesson.