A new generation of Irish and Choctaw people got to know one another at the unveiling of the sculpture Kindred Spirits in Ireland – Picture by Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Facebook.
Dear teachers,
Racial Harmony Day has a happy tradition of students and even teachers turning up in ethnic outfits, playing traditional games, and sharing a variety of foods. At one primary school last year, many Chinese girls wore beautiful little sarees, complete with bangles and bhindis. The parent who shared this with me added that she couldn’t believe her eyes.
We’ve come a long way in appreciating our multicultural heritage. Yet, what we see on Racial Harmony Day might give us a false sense of having arrived as an inclusive society. Observant teachers know better. Granted, by and large, harmony prevails at school, with many students enjoying cross-cultural friendships. At the same time, classism, racism, and other discriminatory practices creep into even lower-primary students’ interactions especially during recess, and other unsupervised times. The reality is that, as long as ingroups and outgroups exist, clichéd expressions such as “embracing diversity” mean little.
We all love the dressing up, games and foods. But, ultimately, it is well-guided class discussions, experiential activities, and reflective exercises that will deepen children’s understandings of what it means to be alike and different at the same time. The good news is that I see more and more of such in-depth RHD activities at schools. And, our What’s Up team would like to contribute to this trend by providing stories and IDEAS activities for RHD (see below for their synopses). We hope these ready-to-use resources will free up a little of your time so that you can enjoy your school’s RHD festivities that much more!
Sincerely,
Mary George
For the What’s Up team
This month’s IDEAS activities
London unites against terror attacks (page 6)
Omar Chaudhuri, our sports writer who lives in London, tells us how his city is coping after three terrorist attacks in three months.
We Shall Triumph – For Social Studies & CCE, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Whole class. To glean lessons about resilience and social cohesion. An exercise to determine if statements are True or False, followed by a discussion.*◊
Whole class. To become more aware of physical stereotypes. A guessing game: the class picks crooks from sketches done by each team. Provided: 20 verbal profiles for sketches and 5 discussion questions. ◊
Compassion without borders (page 8)
Ng Yi-Sheng recounts the story of how the Choctaws, a community that was suffering, reached out to help the Irish across the ocean during the Great Famine of 1845. ◊
Whole class. To reflect on and respond to community needs. Steps for writing a proposal for a fund-raising project. ◊
Dance Drama – For Performing Arts & NE, level 3 – DOWNLOAD
Small groups. To celebrate the human capacity for living in harmony with diverse others. Guidelines for developing and performing a dance drama about multicultural harmony at a HDB void deck. ◊
A world of beauty (page 12-13)
A breath-taking selection of photos from the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards, with captions that provide facts about natural wonders of our planet. Another photo essay, Extreme fun in the great outdoors (page 20-21), showcases four extreme athletes who plunge into nature.
Sentence Manipulation – For English, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Individual exercise. To practise varying sentence forms. The student is required to either splice or combine and rephrase some sentences from the story into grammatically correct sentences without changing the meaning. *
Polynesian canoe goes round the world (page 14-16)
A traditional boat has completed an extraordinary voyage without modern guiding tools. With a side bar: Moana shows the skill of Polynesian sailors. ◊
I am Brave – For English & CCE, level 3 – DOWNLOAD
Pairwork. To raise self-awareness about personal courage. Using Linda Yew’s Art To Heart, five guiding questions about the role of courage in daily living.
Venn Diversity – For CCE & Social Studies, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Groupwork. To better appreciate diversity. Steps for using a Venn diagram to depict commonalities and differences amongst friends. ◊
Fearsome aliens inspired by nature (page 18-19)
Monsters from the latest Alien: Covenant movie are closer to reality than you think. Annabelle Liang finds out that, like many science fiction creations, they are deeply rooted in nature.
An Alien Encounter – For English & Art, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Groupwork. To encourage imagination and creativity. Each group brainstorms to concoct an original alien which they depict using art.
Demystifying Differences – For English & CCE, level 3 – DOWNLOAD
Pairwork. To deepen understandings and appreciation of cultural diversity. An exercise in fact finding about less-known local communities’ traditions. ◊
Zidane: a star is reborn (page 22)
Zinedine Zidane has evolved from being a great player into a potentially legendary coach.
Individual. To strengthen vocabulary and syntax. Puzzle of 15 hidden words, followed by sentence construction using the words. *
◊ These stories and activities are suitable for Racial Harmony Day.
* Answers to asterisked activities will be emailed to teachers on the IDEAS mailing list. To join the mailing list, please email your name, designation and school to ideas@whatsup.sg, or fill the form on the front page of this website.
At What’s Up, we do most of the work, writing stories for students to read every month. But, we know that many of our readers also enjoy writing or want to have their say. Encourage your students to write us a letter. Ask them to visit share.whatsup.sg.
VIDEOS AND OTHER EXTRAS
Our supplementary site digital.whatsup.sg contains videos, puzzles and other extras associated with the articles in our newspaper. Use them in class or ask your students to explore the site on their own.
OUR PHILOSOPHY & VALUES
We believe values should—and do—count when schools choose resources for their students. Values-driven journalism is at the core of our mission. Find out more by exploring the ABOUT WHAT'S UP link.
