Lesson powerpoint here
1. Stories of friendship
- Ask students to discuss with each other in small groups what they love about their mates.
- Ask small groups then to tell each other stories of great friendship: either of their own, or that they have heard.
- Feedback to class as a whole.
2. Friendship: what is it?
- Perhaps use this 12 minute clip from Stand By Me as stimulus to identify what friendship is. What aspects of friendship do the students see?
- Look at the sheet of quotations on friendship in small groups. Ask students to use these quotations to help to create a definition of what they think friendship is.
3. What do friends do?
- Using the slide on the lesson powerpoint, ask the students in small groups to prioritise the different things that friends do. Is there anything missing from the slide?
- Feedback.
4. A friend in need.
- The playwright Euripides said ‘friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.’ Ask students to discuss how they would know if someone is in trouble and in need of a friend.
- Play the 12 minute ‘death of a schoolfriend’ clip.
- Ask students to discuss where friendship came in to the death of Gary Findon.
- Look at the ‘depression the warning signs’ slide on the lesson powerpoint: double-check that students know how to notice if someone is depressed.
- Have a look at the next slide which provides some suggestions for what to do if a person is in trouble. Ask students to discuss those that are there, or think of any that are missing.
Prep: ask students to write about something they do between lessons that could be described as an act of friendship. Even better if it is for someone they don’t really know.