Across Generations (voices from the past, present & future)
Activity Summary
In this activity students practise placing themselves in the shoes of others – from both the past, present and future – in order to connect to the topic taught, understand its past, present and future relevance and/or explore a topic from several perspectives.
Activity Plan
1
10 min
The teacher explains how the activity will be conducted and presents the concept of ‘Long Time Thinking’ (see Additional Resources section).
The teachers divide the classroom into different time periods (either “past – present – future”, or other subject-specific divisions): make sure at least 2 students are placed in each location). The teacher frames the topic and time-placement that the students are going to work on. The teacher can use open-ended questions to introduce the topic to the students – e.g. “Why is poetry important for us in this given moment?”. It is important to keep the question relevant to the topic taught and open-ended enough to allow imagination and open-box thinking.
2
5-10 min
Divided among locations/period of time, students discuss the question to agree on a common answer for the group.
3
15 min
One student from each group has 2 minutes to share their answer with the class. The teacher may ask to elaborate on some interesting points, or start a discussion / Q&A time.
4
5 min
(OPTIONAL) The teacher can also facilitate students in a final reflection and evaluation on the activity (e.g. what the students have learned from this exercise; how it might have changed/deepened their perspective on the topic; what they are curious about, etc.)
Tips & Tricks
- Stage 3 (presentation of group work) might be most impactful to start from one end and work your way till the other end (e.g. starting from past towards the future).
- Depending on the topic/subject, it may be useful to modify this activity to fit the specific context. For example:
- history: it might be interesting for students to represent different historical figures over time
- mathematics: it might be interesting for students to think about how the given topic has been used in different time period / how it has evolved over time/what makes the topic relevant in different areas of application (e.g., trigonometry could have been used for … in the past, in the present, in the future)
Additional Resources
This activity is inspired by the concept of ‘Long Time Thinking’ and indigenous ‘7 Generation Principle’. For more long-time-resources see: https://www.thelongtimeacademy.com/toolkit