Journaling questions students can use to reflect on their experience

Assign one or more of these questions as journal questions. Your students could share their responses with the class/group or keep them as private thoughts.

If your students’ responses are ones you would like to share with us, please e-mail them to us. We may post some on our Web site.

1. What part of the exhibit touched me the most? Why?
2. What is REAL. LIFE. like for my peers in various parts of the world? 
3. What would it be like if I were involved in a natural disaster?
4. What would it be like if I were a victim of conflict and needed to flee my home? 
5. What would it be like if I or someone in my family were HIV positive or had AIDS? 
6. What would it be like if I lived on less than $1 a day? 
7. What would it be like if I were placed in an orphanage because my parents couldn’t afford to keep me?
8. What would it be like if I were ill and received only the care offered in many third-world hospitals? 
9. If I could do one thing to make a difference in this world, what would it be?
10. What is my responsibility toward the people I met in the exhibit?
11. What can I do to make a difference now?
12. If I could say something to one of the children I met in the REAL. LIFE. Exhibit, which child would I choose, and what would I say?
13. How is my experience as an American suburban person different from that of a young person who faces oppression and poverty in the developing world? 
14. Write a journal entry about one of these words: injustice, compassion, hope, courage, purpose, helping. 
15. What does the Bible say about how God responds to the poor and oppressed?
16. Write a journal entry about this Old Testament passage:

“I want you to share your food with the hungry and to welcome poor wanderers into your homes. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. . . . Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day. The LORD will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” (Isaiah 58:7, 10-12, New Living Translation)