It can be extremely helpful to use a poem to explore a global issue with your students. You will need to preview the poem ‘Home’ by Warsan Shire for this exercise. You may wish to omit some verses, as the themes and content are likely to be highly sensitive for some students.
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1) Move if…: The class stand in a circle. Call out the following statements in turn. Students walk across the circle whenever a statement applies to them.

2) Thought walk: Ask the students to walk around the room, talking to themselves about what ‘home’ means to them. Their sentences should start with ‘Home is…’

3) Eavesdropping: Freeze the thought-walks and pass each ‘frozen’ student in turn. As you pass, each student thaws and carries on talking about home until you move on.

4) Movement and Still Image: Ask groups of four to agree on a positive metaphor for home, such as ‘home is a warm bath’, then devise a still image for the metaphor. They should then practise moving into the image in slow motion, voicing the metaphor, before melting to the ground.

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