Graffiti and Games

Well, one good thing about my sudden influx of fourteen-to-fifteen-year-olds...it's keeping me on my toes!

With so many new students, I knew that my lesson plans had to be tight, including stories that would engage the students immediately and lots of activities. I also started gathering quick and easy Getting To Know You games to use when we had a few extra minutes; don't ask me how I knew they would be so crucial, but I just did!

Thursday was the first time I had all my new "flexible schedule" students for the whole class period. We're studying problem/solution story structure in expository writing (try saying that three times fast) so I looked for a news article that would both illustrate the lesson and get the teens emotionally involved. At the same time, the article had to appeal to my adults. I struck gold with an article about a graffiti mural along the LA Riverbank that local politicians want whitewashed.

The article I used in class was actually taken from the magazine Tu Ciudad, but you can read about the issue here. It concerns a convention of over 200 graffiti artists called "Meeting of Styles" that resulted in a 10,000+ foot mural on the waterway near Highland Park. The mural is huge and colorful, and the event itself seemed like a blast. But now the residents want the mural taken down--pitting artists against politicians.

I printed color copies of parts of the mural and projected them for the students to see. Right away, I heard "Cool!" "Those are tight." and "Whoa." Then I passed out the article, and we read it together. We stopped along the way to identify the community problem, as well as the solutions put forth by each side. Then we talked about what each side's "solution" said about them as people, and what kind of solutions the students would propose. My teenagers really got into the debate, and it was interesting to hear the adults' opinions versus those of their younger classmates. I knew it was a successful lesson when the scariest, most belligerent guy in class raised his hand to contribute to the discussion.

Later, we looked at more problem/solution by exploring the medical website WebMD. I divided the students into groups, and each group was assigned an ailment: chickenpox, the flu, head lice, or athelete's foot. They had to use WebMD to identify the problems (symptoms) and solutions (treatment) associated with each ailment. Afterwards, the groups presented their findings to the rest of the class.

Everything was going swimmingly until it came time for one member of each group to write something on the board. In the three minutes in took their teammates to make a problem/solution chart, the rest of the students went crazy. They were screaming across the room, pulling out their music players, and hurling insults at one another. In a matter of three minutes!!!!!

Man, was I glad I'd looked up all those games. As soon as I saw what was happening, I got them all to play a game called One Lie, Two Truths. I started by demonstrating:

Me: "Okay, let's play a game. I'm going to tell you three things about myself. One of them is a lie, but you have to guess which one. Here we go...I grew up in Washington State, I lived in New York for a summer to study dance, and I got married a year ago. Which one is the lie?"

Student: "New York. No way you lived there. But you told us when you first introduced yourself to us that you come from Washington."

Other student: "No! It's the third one. She's not married."

Student: "'Course she's married, she's got a ring."

And so on. Once the students figured it out (it was the third statement; I've been married for four years), I had them come up with three statements of their own and play the game within their groups. The activity took about ten minutes, and it helped the students get to know each other better. It also preserved my sanity.

Anyway, by the time the game was done, it was time for presentations.

So I guess the moral of the story is that teenagers are crazy but passionate. You can get them involved in their lessons, but you have to do the work to find stories they'll really respond to. And they're like little squirrels. You have to find shiny things to distract them, or they'll go a little nutty.

image: photo of the "Meeting of Styles" mural from Label Networks Inc.