Shoebox Activity
What if you had to leave your home and could only take with
you items that filled a shoebox? What
would you take? This question invokes
cannot be an easy one to answer. At
least for me it was not. I decided for
my shoebox I would fill it with as many of my pictures as I could. For me my pictures are everything. They hold so many stories and memories many
that I do not remember because they were before I was born or because I was too
young. Others I do not remember until I
see the picture of the event and it brings back a whole set of memories and
stories. If I had to leave my home I
would take my pictures. They tell parts
of my life and my family’s life and show my family over time. I have other items I would like to save, but
these are the most important. This
activity brought a lot of different items into the classroom because everyone
values different things. Some
similarities were present, but everyone had different items. One thing was certain we all have personal
items we value because of the sentimental value and memories attached to
them. This activity provokes
emotions. It also could easily be
connected to historical events where people were limited to what they could
save and take with them. In times of
war, migration, and natural disaster all of these types of events can be
connected to the shoebox activity.
Students can then write about or give a speech about their own items,
how a specific type of event might affect them, and how others in similar
situations may feel. The writing topics
are endless with this kind of activity.
Students can also write about other people’s items that they decide are
important to them. Students can read
about events that caused people to make hard choices on what to save and about
people who lost everything. This kind of
activity can be used at many different levels depending on the event it is
connected to. I hope at some point I can
use this during my teaching to help my student learn about others and their
situations, to help them learn about themselves, and to help me learn about
what is important to my students.
Creative ideas at this blog:
The blog link below has creative ideas on immigration which can
be connected to the shoebox activity:
No comments:
Post a Comment