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Activity 34
Speaking with Our Bodies

Adapted from "We All Speak The Same Language-Body Language That Is!" in Communication, Number Three in a Series of K-12 Guides.  New York: Center for Global Perspectives, 1976. pp 22-24

Grade Level

Middle School

Introduction

Using gestures or " body language" is a universal way that humans communicate.   Whatever the culture base, human emotions have a way of being translated by facial expressions and body mannerisms.  Frequently the same, or similar, gestures are the same across cultures.  Such expressions connect us with one another.

Teacher/Student Objective

The goal of this activity is to make students aware of the use of the face and body as expressive of emotion in a variety of situations, and to have them recognize that such expressions are universal in nature.

Gauging Student Understanding

The progress indicators cited reflect desirable end goals.  Teachers should be prepared to use a wide variety of observational, testing and authentic achievement evaluation measures in judging the progress of students.

Through mime and self-constructed images, students will display their recognition of certain emotions as reflected in the faces, hand gestures, and through the body motions of their peers.  They will reach this understanding by observing both real people and visual representations how those same emotions might be represented in other cultures.

Suggested Materials

• Mirrors.
• Makeup (optional, but adds great appeal to younger children).
• Larger paper grocery bags, or cut out construction paper in the general shape of a face; crayons or color pencils; if masks are readily available, a variety would be advantageous.
• Pictures, translated to overhead transparencies, of peoples of various cultures showing various emotions, gestures, and movements.

Initial Data for Consideration and/or Process

Inform the students that they are going to "talk" without words, but will be expressing emotions and feelings by using their faces, hands, and bodies to show what they wish to say.  Begin with a charades type of example: ask them to tell you what kind of emotion/feeling you are expressing.  Ask the students to share why they identified the expression for what it was.  Discuss with them other ways in which people's faces reflect what they are feeling.  Introduce the mirrors into the lesson (one to each of the small groups into which you have divided them).  Give them an opportunity to express feelings such as "excited," "bored," "angry," "restless," and "resentful" while another student holds the mirror up to the one "acting."  Is there general agreement about the characteristics represented by the individual's expression-what exceptions?  Provide students with a cut out blank "face" and have each draw a specific emotion.  Use the drawings as a basis for discussion.

Explain to the class what "pantomime" means, and then instruct individual students, singly or in pairs to act out certain announced emotional responses using facial expressions and body language.  Have the remainder of class analyze the performances and discuss how these might be interpreted by outside participants or people from other countries.

Project the images of a variety of people from around the world-each may reflect a specific emotion or expression.  Have students describe these as indicators of facial or body language.  Ask them to compare and contrast these images with the responses which expressed their own emotions or feelings.

Other Possible Activities

• Lead students to reflect on the evidence of emotion found on the faces of clowns.  Using makeup, give students the opportunity of "painting" another's face with one of the expressions.
• Encourage students to scan magazines and newspapers for pictures of people expressing various emotions/feelings through facial or body language.

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