Music for Justice

Perspective
Before conducting this activity, provide students with historical information about immigration and diversity issues and the importance of creating a welcoming environment for all. Use the Latino Civil Rights Timeline [1], Papalotzin and the Monarchs/Papalotzin y las monarcas [2] and/or Teaching Tolerance's other literature recommendations.

Reverse Musical Chairs
Suggested Procedures

• Place chairs in a circle with one fewer chair than there are students.
• Play music and have the children walk around the chairs. Use a variety of cultural music [3] to enrich the game.
• Tell students that when the music stops, they should quickly find a seat.

After a few rounds of removing chairs, when one or two students don't have a place to sit, challenge students to find safe and creative ways for everyone to have a seat. Students may connect the chairs, sit on each other's laps and squeeze together. They will love "piling together." Every time the group accommodates someone who would normally be excluded in a traditional game of Musical Chairs, compliment the students on their creativity and kindness.

Continue on for a few more rounds. With each round, the students will have more contact with each other and will be challenged to work even harder to find ways to be inclusive.

After the game, interact in small group discussions comparing how students felt when they had no chair and were excluded, and how they felt when the group found a way to include everyone. Then guide a whole class discussion tying students' experiences in this activity to the historical and contemporary patterns limiting Latinos' and Latino immigrants' full participation in the U.S.

Extension Activity
Suggested Procedures

• Ask students to describe qualities of "liberty" (i.e. freedom.).
• Based on the prior knowledge students have about immigration and diversity issues (see "Perspective," above), ask students to identify ways Latinos' liberty has been placed in jeopardy in U.S. history (e.g. Mexican Americans did not secure protected voting rights protections until 1975.)
• Divide students into small, diverse groups and ask them to write song lyrics, in English, Spanish or a blend of the two languages, to reflect the Latino civil rights struggle in the U.S.
• As a whole class, or in school assembly, the small groups should perform their songs.