Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Mime the meaning

20 minutes

Find Out: Context clues

20 minutes

Take Action: It can be puzzling

5 minutes

Reflection: Gallery walk

Learning intentions

Students will:

explore how context changes a word's meaning

Success criteria

Students can:

demonstrate how context impacts a word’s meaning
explain contact, conduct, compulsion and content in an online context.

Tune In: Mime the meaning

Step 1

Write the word ‘light’ up on the board. Ask the students to mime the word’s meaning. Look for student examples of: Turning on a light (illumination) and/ or lifting something that feels light (not heavy). Explicitly reinforce that the word light has two meanings.

If only one meaning is mimed by the students, prompt further thinking by identifying that the word has two meanings.

Repeat this same activity using the words:

bark: a tree covered in bark or a dog barking
wave: waving hello/goodbye or an ocean wave
bat: an animal bat or a cricket/ baseball bat
ring: ring on a finger or a telephone ringing.

Explain to students that a word with one spelling, but different meanings, depending on how we use it, is called a polyseme.

Step 2

Run a 1-minute polyseme brainstorm challenge with your students. Place students in pairs and explain to them that they are going to write down as many other examples of polysemes as they can think of in one minute. After one minute, collect ideas and write a few on the board (for example, bank, duck, pet, match) and discuss.

Ask students ‘How do you know which meaning a polysemy word has when you read it?’. Confirm that it is important to think about the context or meaning that surrounds the word.

Find Out: Context clues

Step 1

Write the word ‘context’ on the board. Ask your students if anyone knows what this means. Explain that context means, “When you hear or read a word, it can mean something different depending on the place or situation”.

Refer back to the polysemes as an example:

When we see a ‘mouse’ in the kitchen, what do we think of?
What could ‘mouse’ mean when you’re using a computer?

Explain to students that they will be examining how four specific words can mean different things in online and offline contexts.

Learning support: Your students may need to define an online context and an offline context, as the concept can be a little tricky! An online context is when you use a device to access the Internet, and an offline context is any other time.

The four words are:

contact
conduct
compulsion
content

Use the presentation, The 4Cs in Context, to guide students through the meaning of each of the words in a school or home context.

After discussing the meaning of each term, ask the students to act out a real-world (offline) example of this. Some examples might be:

Word	Offline meaning	Possible student mime or action
Contact	Touching OR talking to someone.	• Shake hands • Pretend to tap someone on the shoulder.
Conduct	How you behave, movement of energy (electrical/heat) OR conducting a band or being a train conductor.	• Walk with pride • Pretend to help someone • Stand quietly.
Compulsion	Choosing what you do OR how you spend your time.	• One person yawns, making another person yawn • Scratching an itch.
Content	What’s inside a container OR being happy and satisfied.	• Open a box and pretend to show what’s inside.

Allow the students time to share their own meanings and actions. Facilitate a discussion around whether the behaviours linked to each of the 4C words are always positive or if they can have negative connotations. For example: Contact - tripping someone over.

Step 2

Explain to the students that they are to consider how the meaning of these words changes when we use them in an online context. Using the second part of the presentation, The 4Cs in Context, guide the students through each of the 4C words (contact, conduct, compulsion and content). Prompt students to consider if the behaviours online are always safe, or if some have potential risks?

Step 3

Now, it’s time to compare and contrast. Draw a two-column chart on the board. Label it offline on one side and online on the other. Work through each of the 4Cs, asking students to identify what is the same, what is different, and how we can ensure our behaviours are safe and respectful. Add key points suggested by students.

Some possible answers are:

Word	What’s similar	What’s different	How can we ensure our behaviours are safe and respectful?
Contact	Both are about who we interact with.	Online lets us connect instantly with people anywhere in the world. Offline, we are face-to-face and have more social clues like body language.	If someone receives unwanted contact online or offline, they should tell a trusted adult.
Conduct	Both describe behaviour.	Online, our words and actions reach larger audiences. Offline, we can receive feedback and reactions in the moment. For example, we can see the expressions on people’s faces and understand how they feel.	People can be upstanders to poor conduct online. For example, they can check in to see if someone is being left out.
Compulsion	Both are how you spend your time and who or what influences how you spend your time.	Online offers many ways for our attention to be captured, and people online benefit from other people’s attention. This can be likes, views, ad revenue, or just a stage for their opinion. Offline is about finding balance to keep ourselves healthy and not have our lives taken over by one thing.	Understanding ways to practice self-regulation, such as balancing their time between all the things they like doing.
Content	Both mean a thing we can consume or engage with.	Online means things people have made, like videos, blogs, posts, or comments. Offline means things inside something, like the contents of your lunchbox or backpack.	Every time someone reads something, they ask questions to help them understand whether it is true, kind, and fair.

Step 4

Play a quick-fire context game with your students. Call out the scenarios below and ask students to respond with either offline or online.

Content

Mr Beast has released new content! (online)
I scored a goal, so I am content (offline)
The heading of the video flashed, ‘White chocolate will make you smarter!’ (online)

Conduct

I was very impressed by your conduct at the assembly (offline)
It is good conduct to type GG in the chat (online)
Sharing personal stories about friends so that people around the world can read them (online)

Compulsion

Her compulsion to finish every level of the game kept her playing late into the night (online)
His compulsion to collect comic books meant he spent hours organising his shelves every weekend (offline)
She placed her laptop, phone and iPad next to the television, so that she didn’t miss any new releases (online)

Contact

She made contact with a new classmate by sitting next to them at lunch (offline)
He made contact with other students through a group chat about their science project (online)
He told me that if I shared my school name, he could email the bullies and stop them (online)

Ask students if they can think of any other words that mean something different online than in real life, such as stream, cloud, share, and scroll.

Take Action: It can be puzzling

Step 1

Explain to students that they will work together to design a helpful classroom display that explains each “C” word’s meaning in both online and offline contexts.

Divide the class into 4 groups, one for each “C” word. Assign a word to each group. Ask students to discuss and decide:

What does their word mean in an analog (real-life) context? What’s a good example?
What does their word mean online/in a digital context? What’s a good example?
How are those meanings similar or different?
How can we ensure this behaviour is safe and respectful?

Ask students to ‘check in’ and share their decisions before moving on to Step 2.

Step 2

Provide each group with a large paper puzzle piece (or students can draw/cut their own from poster paper) and ask groups to decorate their puzzle piece, adding:

the word (boldly at the top)

offline meaning (with a picture and a sentence)
online meaning (with a picture and a sentence)
similarity/difference (Venn diagram, table, or a sentence)
examples for each context (drawn or written)

If you want to display the 4 pieces as a completed puzzle, you may want to fit them together and write one heading on each so that the puzzle pieces are facing up when students write on them.

Learning support: Provide students with a worked example of a puzzle piece.

Learning extension: Use the extension template to provide students with an opportunity to classify and showcase their integrated understanding by completing a full puzzle using all 4C words.

Reflection: Gallery walk and display

Step 1

Ask each group to share their puzzle piece with the class, briefly explaining what’s on it. Facilitate a reflective discussion on why it is useful to know how these words are used online and in real life.

Step 2

Display all four pieces together on a display board, forming one big ‘4Cs in Context’ puzzle.

Cracking the Code of Online Words

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Summary

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