Page 5 - Letter to My Father Curriculums_Neat2

Group Dynamics/Creative Thinking/Media Arts

The Power of a Word

Idea: Discuss the impact of words on behaviors. Using whiteboard/blackboard, have students
brainstorm and create a list of positive and a list of negative words. See if you can get students
to write down each word that they have been called by their parent(s) and consider how each
word has influenced their thinking about themselves and their actions. It might be a good idea
to allow leniency in word choices to generate honest, unrestricted answers.

Purpose: To help students connect how “words” spoken and written by others has influence on their
thinking, responses and behaviors.

Clearly Communicating

Idea: Initiate a discussion on the importance of “meaning what you say” and “saying what you mean.”
You might want to use text messaging or email. Text and email are very convenient, yet can
become very confusing since there is no emotion attached to the words. Talk about the impact
of miscommunicated information on our society today. (i.e. “Tell us about a time when you sent
a text and the recipient took the message completing out of context.”). Ask students to come up
with their own examples.

Ex. – In a text from one friend to another.

Teacher coming to home slick. (Which sounds like her teacher is visiting her home and she thinks
he’s trying to be slick.)

What she was trying to write was:

My teacher is going to go home. Sick. (Which means her teacher is sick and dismissing class
early)

Purpose: Helping students understand that when writing communication of any kind it is extremely
important that the writing is concise, otherwise your reader can run away with the wrong
information.

Uniquely Stationery

Idea: Have students create their own stationery (letterheads and envelope designs) either by hand, or
by using computer software if available. Allow student to create in any format available.
Students should work in groups of four or five and provide feedback to each other about their
designs.

Purpose: To develop a comfort level between students and the tools of writing, and to promote
team work and group dynamics.

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