"The Activity Generator"    Part of a Teacher Support Programme produced by the BEC.

Below is a list of categories of activity that you can use to convert the widest possible range of content into activity-based lessons for your students.  The idea is to take some piece of material and, using the Activity Generator, construct a series of activities for one or a series of lessons.

You can take a story or an extract from the writings or something from a newspaper or from television or an incident from your students' lives or from your own life - indeed any subject matter, and transform it into activities for your students to do.

The activities listed here move, broadly-speaking, from thinking skills to creative-expressive skills. Following pages give examples of how some of them can be used with each strand of the Bahá’í National Curriculum. Most of the activities can be used in other ways and with different topics. If anyone can provide further examples in Word documents, please send them to the CSS with a view to adding to this programme.

Matching - Decide which items are most similar and why?

Contrasting - Which items are most different and in what ways?

Ranking – Can the items be put in some sort of order?  According to importance or seriousness?

Sequencing - Ask the students to sequence some facts which you have written on cards and present as a short talk. Then let the class constructively criticise the particular sequence chosen.

Completion - produce versions of something with key words missing that the students have to insert.
To reinforce any lesson, homework can be a summary of the lesson with missing words to be written.

Memorisation - clearly a gradual build up, starting very young, with lots of repetition and praise and rewards, will help in making memorisation easy and anxiety-free.

Meditation Include a short meditation or quiet period in every lesson, from the youngest class.

Sorting – start with colours and shapes, then move on to cards with different Bahá’í things on.

Exchange – a game could be invented in which ‘equivalent’ things change hands.

Labelling – similar stories having been collected, what name is appropriate for this type?

Jigsaw – pictures for younger, sentences cut into words for older students.

Role-playing – give an appropriate situation and ask them to act it out. (ad lib)

Play-making - prepare in advance what to say when acting out a situation.

Game-Creating – the game should involve the topic which has been discussed.

Recitation with music, lights, slides etc - find some relevant pieces of the Writings to memorise and recite on their own or as part of a multi-media presentation.

Discussion - working in pairs, threes or fours. For example provide the students with copies of a story or extract of a newspaper article and ask them to create some questions for the group to discuss

Give a talk/presentation - Gradually get young students used to explaining things to each other as a step on the way to giving talks. Give short simple topics to children from their early years.

Interviewing/Consulting/Counselling - Work in threes taking turns to be interviewer, interviewee and observer and conduct an interview about a topic. observer should provide constructive feedback.

Video-making or photo-plays. - Many kinds of work, including interviewing, can benefit from a short video. Creative use of slides and music can also be used.

Make Music. - if you or your students are not accomplished music makers use a tape such as Teaching Peace (brilliant!) by Red Gramer. Write the words on the board or on song sheets and sing along to the tape. If your voice is as bad as mine then mime! Try to choose a song re the topic.

Make Art - Draw, paint, sculpt, model, etc.
Also collage – collect pictures, words, objects, related to topic, and stick them on paper or card.

Make Dance or Mime – many topics can inspire movement to music (or without).

Grow something – for younger students, e.g. to illustrate an abstract concept.