SHHHHHHHHHH!! Homework
Invite the school to have SHHHHHHHHHH!! homework. Each student is asked to communicate without words for different time periods, depending on age (e.g., 15 minutes for kindergarten, 2 hours for grade 6), one evening that week. Send a flyer out to the parents to ask for their family’s involvement. Each student is also given a homework sheet to fill out, with the reverse side to be filled out by a parent (see sample). Ask the teachers to have a ten-minute discussion on the following morning about the assignment: what was difficult, how the family reacted, etc. Parents give this activity rave reviews. See a sample letter to parents explaining the assignment.
Help Walk
Organize a “Help Walk” during a lunchtime. Any student who wants to participate is blindfolded and led by another student around a particular route that is laid out in the school. Include a sitting activity, going up and down small stairs, etc. Often, the student council organizes and runs this activity.
Essay
At the end of the week, upper elementary students are asked to write a short essay on what they experienced during AAW, what they learned about how we are the same and how we are different, and how their lives might be different because of what they learned. This allows the students to process the information during a creation process, which is quite different than other people giving you inputs all week. The essays are posted on a rotating basis on a wall on campus so that the message of AAW is kept alive for weeks to come. Some outstanding essays could be read at weekly school assemblies. This was done as an optional activity, yet two-thirds of the children participated.
Assemblies
Ask the principal if you can have dedicated 20-minute opening and closing assemblies for all grades involved in the AAW week. An opening, kick-off assembly on Monday is particularly important. There are many ideas that can be included:
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You can have young people, such as former students, or adults from the community who have any sort of disability or difference come and speak to the school about their experiences.
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At the closing assembly, introduce an opportunity to write an essay or draw a picture about what they have learned through AAW. At one school where we did this 2/3 of the children voluntarily participated. Essays were posted on a school wall and some were read at future assemblies to keep the spirit of AAW alive.
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Children can sing a song in sign language at the closing assembly that they learned in preparation for the week. (See sign language song.jpg.)
In addition to using a beginning of school assembly to open and close the week, it is valuable to have a major assembly at some time during the week. At one school, we had a mid-week assembly in the multi-purpose room where all the classes came to see a puppet show.
At another school, a singer and writer of children’s songs sang pertinent songs in two 45-minute assemblies for K-3 and 4-6 grades.