Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: What is failure?

50 minutes

Find Out: Discussion circle

20 minutes

Take Action: Failure time stations

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

collaborate with others
investigate the importance of learning through failing.

Success criteria

Students can:

recognise emotional responses of themselves and others by participating in various collaborative activities.

Preparation

4-6 weeks before this workshop, invite local community leaders to facilitate the ‘Failure Time stations’ for this workshop. Involve mentees to participate in this process. Use the activity idea below to help!

Outline to mentees that the next workshop will focus on learning through failure. For this process, they must invite local community leaders and members to help facilitate the workshop. With your mentees, create a list of people they could invite.

Select 12 people to contact and invite them to the workshop using their list. You and your mentees can do this by email, phone or letter. You should provide a script for your mentees to use to support their communication with the community leaders.

Once attendance is confirmed, provide community leaders with station instructions from the Activity Sheet.

Tune In: What is failure?

Step 1

Explain to your mentees that this workshop focuses on learning through failure. Trying new things can be scary, but through trying and failing, we learn. Provide a volunteer with a set of Value Cards and ask them to select one card from the pack and read the description. Explain to mentees that they are to use this value as a lens to use throughout the lesson.

For example, if ‘Asking Questions’ is the value selected, this may prompt mentees to think about how this value relates to failure and how reflecting on mistakes allows us to grow from them.

Step 2

Watch the following video as a cohort to learn more about the workshop!

Failure Time: Round 2 - (vimeo.com/1017763568?share=copy#t=0)

After viewing, introduce the community leaders to the mentees and invite them to provide a brief introduction about themselves and what they do for the local community.

Step 3

Now we’ve learnt from community leaders, it’s time to learn about our own experiences with failure. Lead mentees through a ‘Step In, Step Out, Step Back’ thinking routine to spark their curiosity and understanding.

As you lead this thinking routine, use the prompts below to create a discussion.

Step In:

What do we feel, believe or learn when we experience failure?
When have you experienced failure?

Step Out:

How can we learn and understand failure better?

Step Back:

Why is it important to experience failure?
Why is failure something we should not be ashamed of?

Find Out: Discussion circle

Step 1

Invite mentees to sit in five separate circles for a discussion with one community leader per group. Encourage mentees to facilitate the discussion as they rotate by sharing their responses to each question:

What do we learn from failure?
Why is it valuable?
How does failure apply to school and life?

Step 2

Invite each group to report to the class about the discussion shared in their discussion.

Take Action: Failure time stations

Preparation

Before the lesson, set up the stations in an open space with the required materials. The activity sheet contains 12 Failure Time activities. We recommend hosting ten stations for big groups but feel free to adjust this according to your cohort size.

Print at least two copies of the activity instructions for each station so mentees can help facilitate the workshop, too! The instructions can be accessed from the Activity Sheet.

Step 1

Divide the mentees into groups of 5-8. The group size must be adjusted according to the number of mentees. Your mentees' task is to work collaboratively to embrace learning through failure by engaging in various activities at each ‘Failure Time station’, where a community leader will facilitate each station.

Step 2

Set a five-minute timer and remind groups when to rotate to the next station. The aim is for all groups to rotate through each station.

Step 3

Once mentees have rotated through each station, invite them to stand in a circle. Working anti-clockwise, ask students to share one word summarising their feelings about the station activities.

Reflection

Invite one or two mentees to close the workshop by facilitating a short reflection activity of their choice. If your mentees are stuck, prompt them with ideas such as:

Creative mapping: Mentees draw or create visual representations of their thoughts or experiences on failure and explain their maps to the class.
Silent reflection walks: Mentees guide the cohort through a silent walk, focusing on observation and introspection.

MentorClass: Failure Time

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Summary

Lesson guides and printables

In this lesson