Assignment 9:
Brainstorming Even More Ideas for Carnival Activities
(due by Friday, Feb. 11)
This assignment should be done in small groups of three to five students. This assignment may be done individually, although it is not recommended. This assignment may be done in groups larger than five students, although it may be difficult due to the larger number of schedules to coordinate.
As a group, take a few minutes to discuss what you learned about new ways to teach and learn from the workshop conducted last week by Alison Delacruz. Focus on how Alison has been able to use performance arts to teach complex issues to a range of people, including new immigrants and children. Like Tony Osumi, Alison is an experienced artist and activist, but her activities do not require participants to have the same expertise as she has.
Next, as a group, create a carnival activity specifically for college students based on Alison's workshop that your group can use to teach at least two of the following three themes. Write up a description of this activity and be prepared to present the idea in our class.
1. College students in AAS classes have a responsibility to use their knowledge and resources to serve the communities that nurtured them.
2. In this period of attacks on immigrants, college students have a responsibility to defend immigrant rights.
3. For UCLA students, immigrant workers are a largely invisible sector of Asian Pacific Islander communities, but students can learn valuable lessons from the struggles of immigrant workers.
Your group's carnival activity can draw from the special skills and talents of students in your group (e.g., music, poetry, singing, dancing, etc.), but remember that the purpose of the activity is not to showcase these talents but to enable "ordinary" participants to join in the activity. Learn from the perspectives of Alison and Tony: although they are talented artists, their teaching-learning activities are not designed to showcase their own artistic skills but to engage those who do not even consider themselves artistically talented.
For the carnival activity that your group creates, make sure that it fits the following guidelines:
1. Like the activities of Alison, it is relatively simple to set up and relatively inexpensive. It does not require elaborate equipment, extensive set-up time, or a lot of money.
2. The activity is interactive and does not depend on having people listen to a lecture or presentation, do extensive reading, or only watch or listen to media.
3. Although designed for teenagers (including college students), the activity can be easily adapted to a range of populations, such as people from different age groups, people from different language groups, people from different ethnic groups, and people with different levels of skills and expertise.
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