A game about the Convention of Rights of Child: Snakes and Ladders in 1st F

Organized by Daniela Guaitoli (support teacher for disabled students) and Fiorella Iacono (Italian and History teacher)

General objectives:

- to raise awareness of the civil and moral achievements of our society

- to improve students’ knowledge about the Convention of Rights of Child

- to let students compare their lifestyle and the living conditions of people in other countries

- to make students debate over the meanings of “Human Rights”,  “Responsibility”,  “Equality” and “Democracy”

- to make them aware that also in developed societies some rights could be outraged, for example the right to keep themselves safe from sexual exploitation through the Internet or the right for a child to have fun and stay with his family instead of playing computer games or watching TV.

First activities:                                                                               

The class composition is quite multicultural, which is perfect for debating over cultural, social and religious  differences; students come from Italy, Ghana, Senegal, Colombia, China, Brazil, Pakistan, Moldavia and Tunisia. They can try to improve their knowledge about Human Rights and develop their awareness of their own situation through different means:

1. the analysis of short stories and newspaper articles about people who live in different countries, especially those where democracy and respect for human being are not allowed;
2. meeting some  “Emergency” representatives, showing some slides from Afghanistan  and commenting on the role of rich countries in the south-eastern wars; students get an idea of how landmines and weapons work and  of who child soldiers are, for example;
3. debates about the Middle Age conflicts caused by intolerance, studying that period within History program;
4. collecting their own experiences about the condition of children and women in their motherland.

Development:

The Italian/History teacher and the Support teacher make a selection of the articles of the Convention of Rights of Child and match, simplify and summarize connected items. They create a huge Snakes and Ladders made on a big board.

Each article becomes a “box” where the players must stop after rolling the dice. Each box has a progressive number.

The teachers also prepare some cards whose numbers and contents are connected to each box.

 Each card tells a story or situation and shows pictures connected to the corresponding article of the Convention of the box. These stories are both invented (but highly plausible) and true (taken from newspapers). At the bottom of the card there are also instructions about the steps the player has to do after reading the story: if it is a positive story the player will go forward, if it is a negative one he will be skip one or more turns or move back following the instructions.

When a player reaches a box, he has to take haphazardly one of the corresponding card, laying face down on the board. Of course, the winner is the first player who reaches the last box.

Here’s an example:                                       This is BOX n° 9

You have the right to be protected from exploitation   You have the right to be protected from working in places or conditions dangerous for your health or preventing you from being educated (art 32)

These are some of the CARDS connected with BOX n° 9