Ashland middle school students describe peer-led ‘Playbook’ workshops to school committee

Four Ashland Middle School students told the Ashland School Committee on May 28 that they led two Playbook workshops this spring for middle-school peers and ran a separate clothing drive connected to a Project 351 activity.

Grady, an eighth-grade student who led the sessions, told the committee the group collected “25 bags of clothing” as part of the Project 351 project and that high-school senior Sammy Levinson provided the Playbook scenarios the students used. “Playbook is a workshop that trains kids for real life scenarios and to be a leader in their community,” Grady said.

Vedant Apsangi, an eighth-grade student who ran icebreakers, described an activity that showed students “a series of zoomed in images and asked them to guess what each object was,” then used the reveal to discuss how people can hold different perspectives. “This fun and interactive game helped us connect to 1 of the key themes of our workshop, understanding and respecting diverse viewpoints,” Vedant said.

Claire Jacques, who led an “agree/disagree” segment, said the group discussed students’ stances on statements about race, leadership, religion and gender. “It was really interesting to see their different stances on these topics,” she said. Phoebe Smith, another student leader, described scenario-based small-group work in which participants talked through how they would react and sometimes shared back to the full group.

The superintendent, who introduced the students during the superintendent’s report, told the committee the sessions were notable because Playbook workshops are typically run by high-school students for middle-school students. The superintendent said a high-school volunteer ran the first workshop and then, because of senior-level commitments, could not return; the four AMS students “did not hesitate at all to step up and take the lead.” The superintendent praised the students and said staff reported the second session felt “one of the best workshops that AMS has had.”

School staff and committee members asked the students whether the workshops had started or sustained conversations outside the sessions; students said participants had continued to discuss scenarios and could apply what they practiced to intervene in bullying or other incidents.

The AMS presenters said the district and the school plan to compile a running list of topics identified by students and to pursue ways to reach more pupils with the Playbook format next year.