Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Sticker groups

15 minutes

Find Out: Silent snowball

30 minutes

Take Action: Designing an inclusion initiative

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

explore how inclusion is built through respect, representation, and community participation.

Success criteria

Students can:

define inclusion and explain why it matters
reflect on their own role in making spaces welcoming
create a strategy to support inclusion in their school or community.

Tune In: Sticker groups

Step 1

Give each student a coloured sticker on their forehead without letting them see the colour. Ask them to form groups with people with the same colour sticker, without speaking. Ensure everyone is included in a group.

After they form groups, ask them to share how it felt to be part of a group. Explain that everyone being included is known as inclusion.

Step 2

Replay the game, but tell the students that you or an assisting teacher is playing, too. Place a white sticker (or a different colour not present in the other groups) on your/their head.

Step 3

After finding their groups, ask the students how they thought you or the assisting teacher with the white sticker felt, and discuss as a group. Explain that leaving someone out is called exclusion.

Step 4

Discuss with the whole group how inclusion makes everyone feel valued and how exclusion can make someone feel left out. You may like to use the following discussion prompts:

How do we feel when we are included in a group?
What are the ways people show that others are welcome?
What might happen when someone is left out on purpose?
How can small actions help others feel like they belong?

The key topic words for this lesson are inclusion and exclusion. If you have a vocabulary space on your whiteboard, you may like to write these words clearly for students to reference at the beginning of the lesson.

Find Out: Silent snowball

Step 1

Play the following video of the Collingwood Football Club's Wheelchair Team Captain, Ben Jankovski, demonstrating the importance of inclusion and what it means to make someone feel included, to students.

Collingwood Football Club - Inclusion Starts with Us -(https://vimeo.com/1091068666/b921594800?share=copy)

Step 2

Next, watch the video of Collingwood Football Club’s AFL and AFLW players speaking about what inclusion means to them.

Collingwood Football Club - Inclusion Starts with Us 2 - (https://vimeo.com/1113407527/7004373581?share=copy)

Step 3

Introduce silent snowball, an anonymous activity that encourages student participation and allows them to share vulnerabilities around a topic. Invite students to reflect on the words and actions of the players in the videos. Begin by asking students to write down 2 things on a piece of paper:

When was a time you felt included?
What was it that made you feel that way?

Step 4

Instruct students to scrunch up the piece of paper to form a ball and throw it to the centre of the classroom. Stand in front of the class as you unravel and read each piece of paper aloud. Then, begin to list the actions or common themes from the messages on the whiteboard for visual reference. Students' answers may vary. For example, ‘being listened to’ or ‘invited to join in’.

Step 5

After the snowball unwrapping is completed, ask students if there are any other small actions they can take to help others feel a sense of belonging that they believe should be added to the list.

Take Action: Designing an inclusion initiative

Step 1

Ask students, ‘What is 1 thing that would help everyone feel like they belong?’. Jot student responses on the whiteboard. They may refer to these later.

Step 2

In pairs, instruct students to brainstorm ways to make their school more inclusive. You may like to encourage ideas such as:

a buddy program to support new or younger students
a celebration day that highlights different cultures and traditions
a storytelling circle where students can share experiences or cultural stories
a kindness campaign with posters and shout-outs
a 'Welcome Wall' with greetings in different languages.

Step 3

Invite each pair to choose their strongest or most realistic idea, which they could develop into an achievable and meaningful initiative. Guide students to the Student Worksheet to design their inclusion initiative.

Step 4 (Optional)

Invite 1 or more school leaders into your classroom. The leaders could be teachers, community members or student representatives. Ask pairs to present their inclusion initiative to the class and the leaders. Encourage the leaders and students to ask questions or offer positive suggestions.

Learning opportunity: You may like to extend this task over another lesson and provide students with additional resources to finalise their inclusion initiative and embed them into the school community.

Reflection

On a sticky note, invite students to reflect on their inclusion initiative by finishing the following sentences:

One action I will take to include others is…
One way I will speak up against exclusion is…

Inclusion Starts with Us

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Summary

Lesson guides and printables

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