Lesson powerpoint here
Purpose of session: this session is concerned with developing students’ understanding of how they are connected to other people, what actions/attitudes/beliefs can strengthen the connections they have with others and what actions/attitudes/beliefs can weaken those connections.
- Play outrospection part 1 (5 minutes long).
- Ask students to think of all the things that we can do to strengthen and enrich our connections between other people and to write them down on post-it notes. It might help them to think of the things they most enjoy doing with friends/family, or the things they do to help others.
- Get students into pairs/threes, but make sure that they sit apart. Give one of the students the reel of coloured elastic (in WB classroom) and ask them to pass it to their partner, so that they are linked by a single thread of coloured cord. Using the ideas from the post-it notes, ask them to discuss the different things that people can do to strengthen relationships. For each idea they discuss, they should pass the cord between them, strengthening the connection. As they do so, the students should discuss the beneficial effect of each thing they discuss on a relationship.
- As a group, share the ideas that were discussed in pairs: write the different things suggested up on to the whiteboard. Also discuss the following points: * Are some techniques for strengthening relationships better than others? * Are some techniques more appropriate to some types of relationship than others? * Are any of the techniques potentially harmful to a relationship? How? * What might the gap between the pairs, bridged by the cord, represent?
- Ask students, again on post-its, to think of the different things we do that weaken our connections with other people. Discuss as a group.
- One of the ideas that Roman Krznaric mentioned in the film, was the different prejudices we carry in our minds about other people, and how these can be a serious barrier to building strong and positive connections with others.
- On the lesson powerpoint, there is a slide with pictures of famous people. Ask students to pick 3 and on post-it notes jot down whatever thoughts come into their minds when they think about that person.
- Ask students to discuss what they have written with another person. Do they agree with each other? Where do these thoughts come from? Are they true? How would the thoughts that they have about that other person affect the way that they treat them?
- Play students the (11 minute) David Starkey Dream School clip.
- What role do prejudices (on both sides) play in the unfolding of the conflict between David Starkey and the class? Thinking about the end of the clip, what relationship strengthening connections does Jamie Oliver use to try to resolve the conflict? How does he display empathy where David Starkey does not? What do David Starkey and the students have to do to improve their learning relationship?
Prep. Pick a person that you don’t really get on with and try to use one or more of the relationship strengthening strategies with them. What effect does it have? Write about your experiences.