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Year 8 Pastoral Care

Giving to Self, Each Other, 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

Happiness, Well Being, Resilience, Pastoral Care, Giving, Social Skills, Collaboration, 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:

Literacy

Personal and social capability

Ethical behaviour

Intercultural understanding.

1. Getting to Know You - Welcome to Year 8

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand how year 8 will be different to year 7, to remind ourselves of the expectations at Lanyon High School and to get to know your pastoral care class.

In this module, we will explore:

What impacts on well being and resilience?

How can I give to my classmates?

In a circle time your teacher will give you some information about year 8 and lead you through some activities to help you get to know your pastoral care group.

Fig. 1: Circle Time

For the Teacher

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to have the time for students to be given important information about year 8 and to be given the opportunity to get to know the class that they are going to be completing the pastoral care program with in 2015. The focus of this program will be the development of community and the creation of a culture of giving across the whole school and cluster.

Resources

Circle Time Resources:

  • 'Week 0 SS Circle Time Powerpoint'
  • 'Circle Time Energisers'
  • 'Circle Time Basics'
  • 'Circle Activities to Promote Communication'
pastoral_care_week_0_PD.pptx
Circle_Time_Energisers.pdf
Circle_Time_Basics.pdf
Circle_Activities_to_Promote_Communication.pdf

Teaching tips

Using the information provided to you during the Week 0 Professional Development run a circle time that includes establishing the rules for circle time, mixers and getting to know you games.

Pastoral Care Teachers will be providing students with the following information as part of this activity:

  • High expectations at Lanyon High School - school rules e.g. uniform, electronic devices policy in addition to your individual classroom rules
  • Individual timetables (year 8 students will need the new system of classes to be explained to them as they are no longer with the same class all day, every day)
  • 2015 Lanyon High School Diary and how to use it
  • Point of contact and protocols to follow for when they are experiencing different types of pastoral care concerns e.g. bullying, trouble in a particular class, mental health concerns

2. 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 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 8.

Fig. 2: Affinity Diagram

For the Teacher

Purpose

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

Teaching tips

This is a circle time activity.

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.

Alllow about 10 minutes in total for this activity.

Topics covered in the year 8 pastoral care program include:

  • Pathways (life, learning and career planning)
  • Giving
  • Cyber Safety
  • Managing Conflict within relationships
  • Sex Education

3. Introducing Giving in Pastoral Care

For the Student

Learning intention: To learn about giving to others.

'Giving' is the focus of our pastoral care program at Lanyon High School. In year 8 the focus is giving to others in our school community - giving to the school. Let's look at the Free Hugs youtube which is about giving.

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:

  • Why do you think this man began offering 'free hugs'?
  • What do you think this man got out of offering free hugs? Why?
  • How does this topic relate to our topic of giving?
  • How is this giving?
Fig.3: Giving

For the Teacher

Purpose

The youtube clip is used as the initial activity to engage students in the topic of 'giving'.

Teaching tips

This is a circle time activity.

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.

Free Hugs official website provides more information.

There are some key questions that can guide this and other activities 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.

4. Savouring and Giving to Others

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 'giving'. Piano Stairs. Bottle Bank Arcade.

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 clip and the experience of giving to yourself through savouring?

Then share your ideas with your partner. You may be called upon to share your own ideas or to report the ideas of your partner. So listen well!

Fig. 4: So many chocolates!

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

This is a circle time activity. 

Students will have experienced the savouring activity in year 7 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 is Giving?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To define giving and to experience giving to each other through cooperative learning.

In the chocolate activity, you were giving to yourself through savouring and giving to others through active listening and contributing to discussion. Other forms of giving are giving to the community and giving to the environment.

On the 'Giving Activity worksheet', allocate your roles of:

Giving_Activity.docx

Encourager and Recorder

Encourager and Reporter

Encourager and Cop

Encourager and Spy

If there are only three in your group, then someone can take on two roles.

Now brainstorm ideas and record these in the table. Make sure you give to each other through active listening and contributing ideas in your roles. The spies must not move until directed by the teacher.

Giving to self Giving to others Giving to the community Giving to the environment












Now come up with your definition of giving to share with the class.

Encourager_and_Recorder.docx

For the Teacher

Identifying forms of giving

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

At the beginning of this lesson you will need to have a reflection of the chocolate activity from the previous lesson due to the two week break between pastoral care classes.

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. Why is Giving Important?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To analyse the effects of giving on the giver and the receiver.

Watch another youtube clip (insert link) on giving. Discuss your reaction in a Think-Pair-Share. Then in your groups think of scenarios of 'giving' and decide on the effects of 'giving'. In some examples you can be the giver and/or the receiver. Look back at your ideas in the last activity and add them to the 'table'.

Act_of_Giving_Table.docx
Act of Giving Giver Receiver
Birthday Gift

Feels good buying for a person you like

Feels good to see the reaction of the person opening the gift

Feels good to know that someone values you

Likes the gift
Getting fit
Helping someone to finish their work
Singing at a retirement village
Giving free hugs
Making musical steps
Compliment

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

For the Teacher

Purpose

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

Teaching tips

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.

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

7. Individual Giving Projects

For the Student

Learning Intention: For each pastoral care group to create a project to give to the school

Each pastoral care group will be creating a giving project that focuses upon Giving to the School

In a circle time discussion decide as a class what kind of project you could complete and how you are going to execute it.

Present your project and the response to it from other members of the school community and yourselves (how did this kind of giving make you feel?) to the year 8 cohort at the year 8 assembly in week 9.

Fig. 5: Giving to Others and Friendship

For the Teacher

Teaching tips

Examples of Projects that your Pastoral Care Group could complete include:

  • Environmental work around the school
  • Raising money for something the school needs more of e.g. sporting equipment, classroom supplies
  • Creating posters with supportive and culture affirming messages

Try and think outside of the box and use the pastoral care meeting information and ideas in addition to those of your class to help you devise the project. This activity will take three lessons to complete and during this time you will lead your home group through devising, executing and preparing a presentation to the year 8 cohort at the year 8 assembly during week 9.

8. Reflection

For the Student

Learning Intention: to reflect upon what you have learnt about giving this term.

  • What is giving?
  • What have you learnt about giving?
  • What was successful in your giving project?
  • What would you change next time to make it better?
  • How did your year 8 peers respond to your presentation?

Complete the online survey by following the link provided to you by your Pastoral Care Teacher.

For the Teacher

Reflection

9. Acknowledgements

The origianl author of this learning module was Jennifer Nott.

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