Tapestry of Faith: Amazing Grace: A Program about Exploring Right and Wrong for Grade 6

Activity 1: Wall-to-Wall Questions

Part of Amazing Grace

Activity time: 10 minutes

Description of Activity

This activity asks youth to answer simple questions about who judges what is right and wrong.

Prepare a clear space in which participants may easily move around. Explain that you are going to play wall-to-wall questions. You will ask a series of questions, each with only two possible answers; each represented by one of two opposite walls. You want the youth to show their answers by choosing and moving to one of the walls. Say that there are only two choices for each question; standing in the middle is not an option.

Show the youth the two walls where they are to go in response to the questions. Then ask the questions from the following list, stating after each question which wall represents which answer. Give participants a chance to talk about each question and their responses before moving on to the next one.

Questions

Right and wrong are...

  • What your parents and families say they are: yes or no
  • What God says they are: yes or no
  • What your religion says they are: yes or no
  • What your peer group says they are: yes or no
  • What the law says they are: yes or no
  • What you say they are: yes or no

Discussion Questions

Ask as many of the following discussion questions as time allows:

  • Was it easy or hard to make up your mind about where to stand?
  • Were some choices easier (or harder) than others?
  • Are there certain situations where right and wrong are defined for you and you do not have a say?
  • Does age or other identities (such as gender, ethnicity, and ability) have an effect on who decides what is wrong or right?

Share with the group that you will be looking at what different sources, such as religion, have to say about right and wrong. In every session, you will also have time to explore and share your feelings about right and wrong. Ask if the youth enjoyed the exercise and inform them that you will be using this game in future sessions. If time permits, you might ask a few questions about the experience, such as:

  • When you chose a wall, did you make your own decision?
  • Did you look around to see where other people were going first?
  • Is it okay to see what other people think before you act?

Including All Participants

If some of your participants have limited mobility, devise a different way for the group to make their choices known. They might indicate their choice with a thumbs up for yes and thumbs down for no. Alternatively, you could provide everyone with two differently colored index cards: blue for yes and yellow for no, for example. Do not assume, however, that a youth using a wheelchair or crutches would not enjoy the movement of this activity as much as any other participant.