Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: Families: A Jr. High School Youth Program that Explores the Diversity, Commonality, and Meaning of Families

Activity 1: Media Awareness

Part of Families

Activity time: 10 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • A variety of magazines
  • Scissors
  • Glue sticks
  • Poster board
  • Markers

Description of Activity

Place magazines and other print media on a table with scissors, poster board, markers, and glue sticks. Invite participants to review and cut out images of families and affix them to a sheet of poster board. The finished piece will be a collaborative poster expressing media images of families. Tell participants that they have five minutes in which to find and glue images to the poster board.

After five minutes, share the images that participants have gathered. Invite comments. Ask one volunteer to lead and another to be a scribe who records observations and comments. If a volunteer leads, support him or her with comments. Use the following prompts as you see fit:

  • Who is presented as members of a "typical" family?
  • What are families usually shown doing?
  • What stereotypes did you find?
  • How is gender portrayed?
  • How is race or ethnicity portrayed?
  • How are older people portrayed?
  • How are multiracial families portrayed?
  • Who is not shown in family photographs?
  • How do images in the media matter or not matter? To you? To others?
  • Which images of families seem "UU" to you? Which images do not? Why?