Anti-sectarian Assembly Plans - One Word Many Consequences

One Word Many Consequences

(significantly adapted from an original idea on the Assemblies Website - see the idea 'Words and how we use them')

Aim:
To help pupils appreciate the power of words, for good or ill.

Required:
You will need a large candle.

A list of saying 'thank you' in different languages (a list is included in the accompanying powerpoint).

PowerPoint icon PowerPoint file: One Word Many Consequencies

or go to http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/thankyou.htm for 465 ways of saying 'thank you'.

Have ready some tongue-twisters of varying difficulty for the pupils to try to say or work with other teachers and ask pupils to submit some tongue twisters in advance, e.g.

Red lorry, yellow lorry
She sells seashells on the seashore
The Leith police dismisseth us

Have ready some jokes to tell (or take a risk and ask pupils for some at the assembly).

Tape recorder with music from Fischy Music album Build Up. To view Fischy Music, go to http://www.fischy.com./ - The song you want is 'Stick and Stones', though any song you know that allows you to convey the theme of the importance of considering the words you choose or a theme about showing respect would do.

A powerpoint of 'thank you' in different languages,tongue-twisters, a few jokes and the Nil By Mouth posters is included for possible use.

Time:
10 / 15 minutes ( Part 1)
10 / 15 minutes ( Part 2)

If time is short, can be reduced to one or two exercises particularly in Part 1. These ideas can be done over two assembly sessions. If time permits, Parts 1 and 2 can be joined.

Suitable for:
P5 onwards.

A whole school approach:
Others can be involved in preparing for this assembly, e.g.

In English - ask teachers to encourage pupils to make up tongue-twisters (alliterations) which could be picked for the assembly.
You could ask classes to come up with some jokes for you to use prior to assembly.
Within Music, prepare by asking pupils to learn the words and actions to the song 'Sticks and Stones' so that everyone knows how to perform the actions on the day or, if there are budding musicians, - why not invite some senior pupils to rap a song.
After the assembly you could run a school poster exhibition on 'Don't Give It, Don't Take It' about issues of name-calling, bullying etc. which ties into PSD.
Teachers could draw some of the issues raised in the assembly back into lessons about prejudice and discrimination.
Link to other discrimination issues like racism. The Scottish Executive website http://www.onescotland.com/ has video clips that depict scenes which highlighting the importance of not using racist slang under the strapline of 'One word, many consequences'. These video clips could be shown in class to generate further discussion.
Teachers could prepare for the assembly by conducting a straw poll of how many different languages or dialects are spoken within the school or even better involve the parents/carers and ask collectively how many different languages are spoken within the school community.
Prepare one or two pupils to tell jokes, or trust to luck and ask on the day! Alternatively just use the tongue-twisters.
Be prepared to share an example of being hurt by words or ask the children to think about examples from their own lives, books they have read or TV / radio situations.

The Assembly (in two parts):

Part 1:

Start by asking if pupils know how many different languages they think are spoken within the school (or school community).
Ask a pupil to come forward to read out the range of languages / dialects.
Discuss the many ways we use words - as greetings, to express our feelings, to give instructions, to describe things that happen to us, to exchange views, to tell jokes etc.
Choose one phrase like 'thank you' and see how many languages you can say 'thank you' in - pupils can be asked to offer suggestions.
Find out in how many languages pupils and teachers in the hall know to say 'thank you'.
Now let's move on to another way we words are used.
Share the tongue-twisters and jokes - now move on to words that 'hurt'.
Now ask pupils to think of words that have been used to hurt people - unkind words - name-calling (e.g. fatty, smelly, Ned, mongo, spassi (for spastic), Paki, Chinky, Tim, Hun and you may find there may be other local terms). If the school has done a lot about anti-bullying, it is possible to draw on words pupils have discussed within classtime.
But words don't just hurt … they can sometimes lead to people doing even more unkind things to each other - when prejudices turn into action.
Ask pupils to reflect upon the need to think before speaking. Here the candle could be lit the children asked to reflect in a moment of silence on they way they choose to use words during the day.

End with the song 'Sticks and Stones' from Fischy Music.

If the intention is to carry this theme further, pupils could return to their classes and engage immediately in Circle Time about using words that are kind and using words that hurt.

Part 2:

A second assembly session looks at the work of the organisation Nil By Mouth. Put on acetate the Nil By Mouth poster: 'Sectarian Jokes can have you in Stitches'.

Click here for a copy of this poster.

One organisation in Scotland which is trying to get people thinking about the consequences of using unkind words is Nil By Mouth.
By challenging people who sing sectarian songs or tell bigoted jokes, laugh when others tell them, Nil By Mouth aim to prompt people to stop and think about what their words really mean, and where their behavior leads.
You could tell the Cara Henderson story (see Unit 5 Nil By Mouth in this site).
The message here is that jokes that are hurtful are not funny: One word can have many consequences.
End by putting up the acetate from Nil By Mouth.
Ask pupils to reflect upon the need to think before speaking. Here again light a candle and ask the children to reflect in a moment of silence on the way they choose to use words during that day.