Name 5 Activity

Rationale: The purpose of the Name 5 Activity is to allow participants to identify their own cultural knowledge gaps and explore the importance of positive role models for everyone. The activity provides a forum for discussing the need for expanding traditional approaches to education and for examining the ways people from non-mainstream groups have been absent or misrepresented in most curricula.

Requirements:

Materials: paper, pencil, Name Five Answer Grid, print out, photocopy, and distribute one for each participant

Time: 30 minutes

Space: chairs in a circle

Number of participants: unlimited

Age level: adult

Directions:

1. Instruct participants to take out a sheet of paper and pencil. Tell them they will be taking a brief cultural self-knowledge exam.
2. Inform participants that they will be asked to list 5 prominent people in nine, different categories.
3. The rules:
   1. Each person decides what constitutes "prominent."
   2. Names can be repeated as many times as one wants.
   3. "Prominent" people can be dead or alive.
4. Instruct participants that they will have 60 seconds to respond to each category and an additional 60 seconds at the end of all the categories to finish any categories that may have been left incomplete.
5. In addition to reading the categories, you might write the categories on a flip chart; however, do not expose more than one category at a time.
6. Tell participants to number their paper from I to 5 (or handout the name five grid) and to List 5 prominent Americans. Facilitator should start timing 60 seconds immediately. At the end of 60 seconds instruct participants to "Name 5 prominent male Americans" and time another 60 seconds.
7. Repeat the process for all 9 categories. After the 9th category gave an additional 60 seconds for filling in the gaps.

   Categories:

   • Name 5 prominent Americans
   • Name 5 prominent male Americans
   • Name 5 prominent female Americans
   • Name 5 prominent Black or African-Americans
   • Name 5 prominent Hispanic or Latino/a-Americans
   • Name 5 prominent Asian-Americas
   • Name 5 prominent Native Americans
   • Name 5 prominent Jewish Americans
   • Name 5 prominent Catholic Americans

8. After the final 60 seconds, instruct participants to stop writing. Ask for a raising of hands to see who completed all 5 names in all 9 categories. Then in 8, 7, 6, etc. working backwards.
9. Explain that the lack of ability to name prominent Americans in these categories is not an indicator of whether or not a person is racist or culturally ignorant. However, it is an indication of how little most of us know about people of various cultures, and how the traditional U.S. educational system has been and is still lacking in information about people outside the dominant White, Western European and usually male structure.
10. Allow time for participants to form small groups (quads work well) to fill in the names for incomplete categories. (This models an effective use of cooperative learning.)
11. On a flip chart, create a composite group list of people from all 9 categories.
12. Explain that the 9 categories represented in the Name 5 test are the 9 groups that make up the largest components of the changing workforce.
13. Make sure that no one feels blamed for not knowing answers. The challenge is to recognize the knowledge gaps and begin to obtain new information.
14. Initiate a discussion about the importance of role models at all stages of development and brainstorm ways for people to expand their knowledge about different groups. Include in this discussion the importance of providing diverse role models for youth, particularly ones which challenge stereotypes.

Discussion Questions:

1. How did this activity make you feel?
2. What did you learn from the Name 5 test?
3. What is the next step for you in terms of expanding your knowledge base?