Produced with Scholar
Icon for Year 10 Pastoral Care

Year 10 Pastoral Care

Giving to Self, Others, the Community and the Environment.

Learning Module

Abstract

This learning module introduces students to their pastoral care program where the focus is on developing well being and resilience. Students explore the topics they will cover, and develop their social and collaborative skills through giving to self, others, community and the environment.

Keywords

Resilience, Well Being, Happiness,Pastoral Care, Giving, Circle Time, Health, Personal Development

Knowledge Objectives

As a result of completing this learning module, students will be able to:

EXPERIENTIAL OBJECTIVES

Interacting and responding

Literacy: Responding to texts

Share, reflect on, clarify and evaluate opinions and arguments in cooperative learning activities.

Language for Interaction

Understand that roles and relationships are developed and challenged through language and interpersonal skills.

CONCEPTUAL OBJECTIVES

Big Understandings

Understand that giving includes giving to self, each other, the school, community and the environment.

ANALYTICAL OBJECTIVES

Why is this learning significant?

Understand that giving can build relationships and contribute to well being, happiness and resilience.

APPLIED OBJECTIVES

Giving beyond the classroom

Apply giving in the classroom and beyond.

We address the following capabilities of the Australian Curriculum:

1. Pastoral Care- What Might It be about

For the Student

Learning Intention: To brainstorm possible topics we might cover in our pastoral care program.

In this class we will explore:

What impacts on well being and resilience?

How can I give to my classmates?

In groups of three to four, brainstorm all the possible topics you think we should study in pastoral care. Record each idea on a separate post-it note. As each idea is recorded, a runner from the group should place it on the white board. At first there will be a few random post-its but the job of the runner will be to look at what is there and place the post-it next to ones that are the same or have similar ideas.

So the post-its will be categorised and recategorised as more and more post-its are created. This is an Affinity Diagram. After five minutes stop and as a class make a final decision about how the post-its are sorted. Then give each category a title.

Tick the ones we will be covering in year 10.

You are to now complete Page 11 in your Pathways Plan by completing the two quizzes found at the following sites.

Gardner's MI Quiz

Learning Styles Questionnaire

Fig. 1: Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

Comment: Based on the results of your quiz, what were your strengths? Do you think the quiz is accurate for you? Do you think it is accurate for your peers? Comment on each other's findings.

For the Teacher

Purpose

The purpose is to energise students as they are introduced to the year 10 pastoral care program.

Teaching tips

The Affinity Diagram is introduced here as an opportunity to interact positively with other students in the group. Using and reusing a small number of cooperative learning and thinking tools will set up routines in your class which will support student management as well as further student learning.

In the Affinity Diagram, as students place their post-its on the board, they can categorise and recategorise the post-its of other students. They can ask for clarification of an idea by its author. Take care to prevent judgement of any ideas in this process. To help do this you could link it to giving and supporting each other.

Allow about 10 minutes in total for this activity.

The final comment promotes reflection on the activity.

2. Pathways - What do We Know?

For the Student

In your opening circle time discuss why all schools in the ACT take part in the Pathways process.

Why is it important that we have specific goals?

What are some good goals to have in high school?

After discussing the importance of why we do Pathways complete pages 3 and 4 in Pathways booklet.

These pages are simply an Information Profile.

Comment: Share some goals that you have that you are happy to share with others in your class. Comment on other students' goals, noting similarities and differences. Remember to be respectful of others in your comments.

Fig. 2: Goal Setting

For the Teacher

Pathways - What do we know?

3. Introducing Giving in Pastoral Care

For the Student

Learning intention: To reflect on giving to others.

'Giving' is the focus of our pastoral care program at Lanyon High School. In year 10 the focus is giving to others. Let's look at the following videos on youtube which are about giving to the community through fun.

The World's Deepest Bin

The Play Belt

The Speed Camera Lottery

Use a Think-Pair-Share (T-P-S) to discuss your thoughts, feelings, connections and ideas. Then move into a group of four and in a Think-Pair-Square, share a few things from your T-P-S discussion. Decide on one idea that your group will share with the whole class. One person in each group can volunteer to be the reporter when called upon.

Make sure that you 'give' to each other by active listening and contributing your ideas.

Comment: Reflect on what you learnt through the year 9 Giving Exhibitions.

Now it is time to write a reflection in regards to the question: Would Lanyon High School be a better place if we had things like the world's deepest bin, the play belt and the speed camera lottery?

Fig. 3: Giving

For the Teacher

Purpose

The youtube clip is used as the initial activity to engage students in the topic of 'giving'. This activity also introduces them to writing reflective journals.

Teaching tips

Be very specific about time limits in the discussion activities. For example, in the Think-Pair Shares, allow one minute for thinking and demand silence while this occurs. Then allow two minutes for sharing (one minute for each person). After one minute, tell students that the second person should now be sharing. Too much time will lead to a loss of focus for some students. Initially some students may not participate fully but have high expectations of them and build in accountability wherever possible, eg recording ideas on post-its, calling upon someone to share or to share what their partner said.

Emphasise to students that active listening and contributing ideas in cooperative learning and thinking activities will be central to our pastoral care program in order to practise 'giving' to each other as well as developing deeper knowledge and understanding of the topics being covered.

Further, name the cooperative learning tools for the students as they use them. This is important as after a while you won't have to explain the processes of the activities. For example, in a Think-Pair-Square, students will know the process of moving from pairs to fours, and listening and contributing ideas.

REFLECTIVE JOURNALS

Students will be keeping a reflective journal. This and their Pathways booklet will be their assessment items. The journal may be recorded in Scholar through students creating an Update that they add to throughout the term.

There are some key questions that can guide this and other reflective journals that students will be required to ensure metacognition. These include:

What have I learned - facts, knowledge, skills?

What are my questions?

What connections have I made, eg to other learning, to my life in and outside of school?

How am I feeling - confident, unsure, happy, unhappy? Why?

What are my concerns?

What am I planning to do next?

The ongoing self-reflection will also enable students to monitor their mood and general wellbeing.

Background information

In 2012 our school was part of a Giving project supported by an environmental group, the Southern ACT Catchment group and ACTEW Water, our local water supply agency. The focus was on action to protect the source water for our water catchment area. In the year 9 Exhibitions program at Lanyon High School giving expanded to all acts of giving. Interviews of students, teachers and parents in our Cluster schools showed that people wanted this to continue in 2013 and so it has been included in the new LHS pastoral care program as well as in as many subject areas as possible.

Giving

Giving is said to make you healthier, more resilient to deal with stress in your life, and give you a greater sense of well being. Giving up smoking will help you to live longer. Giving is even more powerful to enable you to live longer than giving up smoking! See the work of Thomas Nielsen on giving, well being, resilience and academic success, and also the work of Martin Seligman on authentic happiness.

4. Savouring, Strengths and Passions

For the Student

Learning Intention: To experience giving to self and learn more about giving to others.

Take a chocolate and put it on your desk. Use all of your senses to enjoy it fully:

Sight: Look at it and note its colour, shape, any words on the wrapping and texture. Imagine what it will taste like.

Touch and hearing: Touch it and note its texture and the sound of the wrapping as you feel and unwrap it.

Smell: Place the chocolate on the open wrapper and take it to your nose and smell it BUT don't eat it. Imagine what it will taste like.

Put it back on your desk on the wrapper and close your eyes. Imagine taking it to your mouth and eating it slowly. What will it taste like? What flavours and textures can you imagine? Now pick it up and take it to your mouth. Wait a few seconds and really savour the experience.

Now take a small bite. Don't chew it yet - just experience its texture and the initial taste. Then slowly chew it. Don't swallow it too quickly. Really enjoy it! Continue taking small bites and savouring it until it is all gone.

Now share the experience with other people on your table. When you give to yourself, how do you feel? Did you enjoy the chocolate? Why or why not?

Make sure you give to each other by active listening and contributing your ideas.

Now watch another two youtube clip about strengths and passions.

These videos are about different people who are passionate about their lives and are aware of the strengths they have.

Dwight Howard

Jessica Watson

Rex Pemberton

John Butler Trio

Again share your personal responses about the clips in a Think-Pair-Share. Firstly, think individually about:

- Did you like the clip? Why/Why not?

- Did it remind you of someone or something else?

- How was it the same or different to the other clips?

Then share your ideas with your partner.

Comment: Share some of the ideas from your discussion. Then comment on others' comments, saying why you agree or disagree with them.

Fig. 4: Chocolate

For the Teacher

Purpose

The savouring activity and you tube clip are used to further engage students in the 'giving' topic and to expand their thinking about 'giving'.

Teaching tips

Students will have experienced the savouring activity in year 9 so you can repeat it or choose another food to savour.

This activity will be difficult for some students; others may not like chocolate. These students can be observers, recording what they see as students savour the chocolate. So students should have a book or paper on hand and if they eat the chocolate too quickly, they can then become an observer for the rest of the activity. Value the input of the observers by asking them to share what they record. Not everyone has to share but create an expectation that they will and then call upon a few, ensuring that over a few lessons, everyone has a turn.

Encourage discussion of the experience in pairs or fours before sharing with the whole class. Each student's experience can be valued in this way, including the observers; it also ensures everyone is thinking!

The savouring activity should take about 10-15 minutes.

5. What are My Strengths, Passions and Networks?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To define personal strengths, passions and to find personal support networks through cooperative learning.

Last lesson multiple videos were viewed that demonstrated how some people are passionate about what they do in their lives. They were involved in areas of personal strength and mentioned the support networks they had around themselves.

Discuss, during circle time, the following questions:

Why is it beneficial knowing your strengths as a teenager?

What are the positives and negatives of pursuing things we are passionate about?

Keeping the discussion in mind go and complete part 2 (on page 5) from your Pathways book. (Strengths and Passions)

Reform the circle to discuss the following questions:

Who are the people that are currently in our support network?

What kind of person should we be trying to include in our ideal support network?

After finishing this discussion once again, go back to your Pathways book and complete Part 4 (Page 7). (My Support Networks)

If you finish both of these tasks, have a look at Part 3 (Page 6) and start contemplating what your dreams/hopes and aspirations for the future are.

Encourager_and_Recorder.docx

For the Teacher

Purpose

The purpose here is to broaden the idea of giving from giving to self to giving to each other, the community and the environment. It is also to experience giving to each other through sharing ideas.

Teaching tips

To encourage giving to each other, allocate roles of recorder, reporter, cop and spy. These roles are based on the functional roles in MyRead. Once students have been given information about their roles, allow them about 10 minutes to work on the Giving Activity worksheet.

The Cooperative Learning roles are included in the Giving Activity worksheet but are also on a single sheet if you wish to use them in other activities. Please note that these are functional roles and different to the Cooperative Reading roles of codebreaker, text analyst, text user and text participant that students will have used in English.

6. Planning My Goals

For the Student

Planning goals in your life is a great way to have focus and purposeful direction.

Go to page 8 of your Pathways book and begin working through the Planning My Goals.

You will also need to visit the sites provided to help assist with this tasks on page 9.

Once you have completed page 9 proceed to page 10, identify three of your goals and then complete page 10.

Now you have successfully set your goals your should reflect on if they are SMART goals (see page 8).

For the Teacher

Planning my Goals

7. Why is This Knowledge Helpful?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To analyse the effects of planning and goal setting.

In your circle time discuss the following questions:

What is the significance of the learning we have completed so far?

How does it help me?

How can I use it?

How can I use my understanding of giving to enrich it?

Comment: Now write a reflective journal about what you have discussed and include ideas that you'd like to explore further.

For the Teacher

Why is this knowledge helpful?

Purpose

In this activity students deepen their understanding of giving by learning about its significance for both the giver and the receiver.

Teaching tips

The reflective journal is critical in this activity so students have metacognition of the significance of their learning.

8. Acknowledgements

The original version of this learning module was written by Garth Bradfield.

Title: (Source): Fig. 1: Rita van Haren; Fig. 2: (Source); Fig. 3: (Source); Fig. 4: (Source).