Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

30 minutes

Part A: Identifying the Issue

30 minutes

Part B: Ideas for Change

60 minutes

Part C: Designing Change

30 minutes

Reflection

Part A: Identifying the issue

Step 1

Start the lesson by providing students with an overview of human rights. Invite students to position themselves so that they can see a screen and watch the clip below:

What are Human Rights? (https://youtu.be/WJsUfck01Js)

Step 2

In a quick class discussion, ask students to clarify their understanding of the concept of human rights:

What was the video about?
What do you know about human rights?

Summarise for students that the concept of human rights recognises the inherent value of each person, regardless of background, where we live, what we look like, what we think or what we believe.

These rights are based on principles of dignity, equality and mutual respect, which are shared across cultures, religions and philosophies. They are about being treated fairly, treating others fairly and having the ability to make genuine choices in our daily lives.

Provide some more tangible examples by highlighting that human rights include the right to:

live with your family
an education
be treated equally by the law
think what you like and practise any religion
say what you like (without inciting hatred or violence)
an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing
access to appropriate health care
maintain your culture and language
freedom of movement
privacy
be free from discrimination

Step 3

Illustrate what human rights violations can look like by reading the following true story that a teenager told the Australian Human Rights Commission about a few years ago:

“A few years ago a new boy came to my primary school. He was Asian and didn’t speak much English. At lunch times he stayed by himself eating food that no one had ever seen before. Some boys started picking on him – calling him names, throwing rocks at him and pulling their faces so their eyes were squinting. I knew that it was wrong, the boy was helpless, no one was there to help him and I’m not sure he even understood what the boys were saying. I didn’t think there was anything I could do, or maybe I didn’t want to do anything at the risk of being bullied myself. I watched as the boy was tormented and just like him felt helpless. I didn’t know what I could do. I don’t think this sort of bullying is what Australia is supposed to be about. Racism in the schoolyard should be stopped because it’s just as cruel and hurtful as racism on a bigger scale.”

Source: Claire, 14, NT, ‘Helpless in the playground’, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Voices of Australia 2005, p 43.

Remind students about the human rights discussed in Step 2. Invite students to reflect on Claire's story by asking students to respond to the following questions:

Have you ever witnessed something like this before?
Do you think that we have a responsibility to step in?
What do you think is the best thing to do in this kind of situation?

Remind students that they should only intervene in situations where they feel that it is safe to do so.

Students could respond to the questions by completing the 'Think- Pair-Share' visible thinking routine.

Think Pair Share
Think pair share is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question.
Think - Students independently think about an issue or questions and record their thoughts.
Pair - Students work in pairs to discuss their ideas and record new thoughts.
Share - Students share their thoughts with the whole group or with other pairs to reach a consensus.

Source: Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Students’ responses could include:

comfort the boy
talk to friends about inviting the boy to join their group so that he’s not sitting alone
tell a teacher or other authority figure about what you saw
ask the teacher or authority figure about how to stop racism in the school
highlight the issue of bullying in the school.

If students are concerned about racism in their school or community, you could encourage them to check out the Racism. It Stops with Me campaign, which includes information about responding to racism.

Step 4

Explain to the class that showing support for a person's human rights does not need to be prompted by a violation of those rights.

Explain that by the end of this social action lesson, students will have come up with ideas to create positive change in their local community. They will work in groups to design and deliver their own social action project that will contribute to the protection and/or promotion of human rights.

Inform students that there is much that can be done to continue to improve how the human rights of all people are supported within their community.

Ask students to choose a human rights issue that they would like to address in their local community. If they need guidance, you may like to suggest that they choose an issue related to:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Older people
Refugees and people seeking asylum
Children and young people
People with disability
Cultural diversity
Gender equality
LGBTI people.

Step 5

Help students to form groups based on their common interests. Attach these Human rights areas of work posters to the classroom walls and ask students to position themselves under the area that they would like to work in. Invite students to form groups of 3-5 people who indicated an interest in the same human rights area.

If your class requires a more scaffolded approach, help them to select the specific areas that you believe they could work on.

Step 6

Ask the class to arrange the classroom furniture so that they are seated together in their groups around a table with at least one web-enabled device or other research materials between two students. Allow students a period of time to conduct some research to gain a deeper understanding of the human rights area they’ve chosen to focus on.

Encourage students to use the 5 W’s to set themselves some guiding questions for their research.

Students could start their research at the Australian Human Rights Commission’s “Our Work” page. There are a number of external links through the Commission’s website that students may find useful. The school library may also have a variety of relevant publications.

Step 7

Distribute a Human Rights in Our Community table to each group. Encourage groups to write the area of human rights they’ve chosen to focus on at the top of the page. Ask students to consider what they have learned in their research about their chosen human rights area and apply it to their local community. Students should do this by thinking about and sharing examples and situations they have experienced and observed in their community that highlight the human rights area they are focused on. Each group member should contribute at least one observation.

Students should share their observations with their group, then work together to decide and note down the positive things observed in the ‘positive’ column, the negative things noticed in the 'negative' column, and the observations they are unsure about in the ‘unsure' column.

Examples of observations for the issue of ‘disability’ could include:

Positive: Local library has ramps, lifts and other access points for wheelchair access that make the facility more accessible to people with mobility issues.
Negative: Local swimming pool change rooms do not have braille on the signs.

Examples of observations for the issue of ‘racism’ could include:

Positive: Our school is a member of the ‘Racism. It Stops With Me’ campaign.
Negative: The media has reported that some members of the community have abused international visitors at the local shopping centre.
Unsure: The people we mostly see and hear from in the media do not represent our multicultural society.

Step 8

Once students have listed their observations, ask the group to choose one observation that they would like to focus their social action work on.

Groups do not need to choose from the negative column. Students could choose a positive observation that they would like to see more of, or take action to inform more members of their local community about its existence, or adopt as an idea at their school.

Part B: Ideas for change

Step 1

Introduce the concept of a design challenge question to the class. Explain that a design challenge question helps us to think, explore and create many different solutions to one problem. For this lesson, the design challenge question will be framed as a ‘How might we…?’ question.

Invite students to consider what the problem they are trying to solve is, for example:
“No braille on public signs results in difficult or reduced access for people with vision impairment.”

Then invite students to frame this problem as a "How might we...?" question, for example: “How might we ensure that public areas are accessible for people with a vision impairment?”

For more information from Ideo.org about framing a HMW question, click here.

Invite students to write their ‘How might we…?’ question on the Student Worksheet.

If students are wondering about the purpose of a "How might we...?" question, explain that they are problems that have been rephrased as challenges or tackleable questions. The "How might we...?" phrasing is used because it suggests that a solution is possible and that the challenge can be addressed in a number of ways.

"How might we...?" questions, when properly phrased, don't suggest one solution - rather, they provide a great frame for innovative, out-of-the-box thinking.

Step 2

Invite students to spend some time researching human rights campaigns to help give students ideas about how to take positive action around human rights. Some examples include:

Students’ social action could involve highlighting the work of, fundraising for and/or volunteering with, organisations and people in the local community who work to ensure that human rights are enjoyed by people in the community.

Step 3

Invite students to arrange the classroom furniture so that they are comfortable enough to think expansively and creatively. The group may like to work on the floor, around butcher's paper attached to the wall, or on a whiteboard. Provide each group with three sheets of butcher's paper, markers and sticky notes.

Sticky notes allow students to physically move two or more ideas around, mixing and matching to shape something special.

Facilitate groups to complete a three phase brainstorming activity:

Phase 1:

Discovering actions we can take.

Invite students to create a list of actions, (or 'doing' words) that could be taken to address their ‘How might we…?’ question. Inform groups that they should aim to come up with as many different actions as they can. There will be time to consider the best ideas after the brainstorm. Ask students to write the heading “Actions” on the first piece of paper. If necessary, share a few examples of actions before students begin the first phase of the brainstorm.

Actions:
Stop Start Replace Reduce Buy Make Run Swim Change Donate to Promote Fundraise Campaign Volunteer

Direct students to put only one action on each sticky-note and to use only one colour sticky-note for this phase. (This is important for the third phase, which requires the notes to be moved around.)

Then, get students started on three minutes of fast thinking (you could use this online stopwatch to track time). Let students know when three minutes is up, then congratulate them on their quick thinking. Ask them to put that sheet of paper to one side for now.

Phase 2:

What are our skills and interests?
Ask groups to select a different colour sticky note and a new sheet of paper. Invite groups to write the heading: “Skills and Interests”.

Explain that the next five minutes will be used to list the skills and interests of people within the group. Help students get started by providing examples, then let them know they have another five minutes. Ensure that students write one skill or interest per sticky-note.

Actions:	Skills and Interests:
Stop Start Replace Reduce Buy Make Run Swim Change Donate to Promote Fundraise Campaign Volunteer	Soccer Shopping Computers Drawing cartoons Music Photography

Encourage thinking about ‘hidden' or 'quirky' skills: e.g. costume design, public speaking, illustrations, coding, playing a musical instrument.

Phase 3:

Mix and match to create our idea.
Ask groups to take the last sheet of paper and write their 'How might we...?' question at the top of the page. Challenge groups to come up with five or more ideas to address the ‘How might we…?’ question by matching sticky notes from each column. Encourage students to come up with all the ideas they can - let groups know that they don’t yet need to think about how feasible the ideas are. For this phase, students should aim to have fun playing around with possibilities. If necessary, scaffold this phase by providing some examples.

Actions:

Skills and Interests:

Creative idea:

Stop
Start
Replace
Reduce
Buy
Make
Run
Swim
Change
Donate to
Promote
Fundraise
Campaign
Volunteer

Soccer
Shopping
Computers
Drawing cartoons
Music
Photography

Human rights film festival to highlight the range of issues encompassed by human rights.

Write and perform a play about a human rights issue and how to address it.

Run a drive to collect blankets and clothing to donate to a local support organisation.

Create and run an awareness raising campaign about ethical products.

Create and implement a Reconciliation Action Plan for the school in consultation with the staff/leadership.

Some other ideas for action include:

Consult with students and staff to create a charter of rights for the school.
Audit school for access for people with disability and make recommendations for change.
Coordinate a campaign within the school such as the Racism. It Stops with Me Campaign or another similar campaign.
Identify a human rights issue in the local community (such as ramp access to public buildings) and petition the local council to make changes.

Allow at least ten minutes for this phase of the brainstorm, encouraging students to think expansively and creatively and to talk through their ideas with each other. While students are working, watch for indications of a slowing down of ideas.

Step 4

Help groups land on an idea for action, including key logistics and framing how it will actually work by asking groups to talk through their favourite ideas and applying the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. They will also find the criteria on the Student Worksheet.

The criteria above was inspired by this article found on the Creative Educator website.

Step 5

Ask students to decide on their idea. If required, they could cast a vote. Once a decision has been made, invite students to record their idea to address the ‘How might we…?’ question on the Student Worksheet.

Part C: Designing change

Step 1.

Once groups have decided on the action they will take, allow time for students to plan. Distribute a copy of the Project Planning Tool to each group and invite them to fill it out.

Step 2

Hold a ten-minute conference with each group to discuss their plan. Use these questions to guide the conference:

What are you planning to do?
How is it addressing your ‘How might we…?’ question?
What help do you need to get it done?
When do you plan to have completed your project by?

Part D: Delivering change

Step 1.

Distribute a Project Checklist to groups so that they can keep track of what they need to do to deliver their project. Provide students with information about the deadline for delivery of their project and any relevant logistics relating to your school, such as other staff who could support them, how to book resources such as cameras and rooms, or who to speak to for permission for their intended action.

Tips for Guiding Students Through a Project:

- be clear about time allocation - remind students how much time they have to complete the project and encourage students to be realistic about the tasks they have to complete in that time
- keep communication high, making sure everyone has everything they need to complete the work they have been allocated and that everyone knows what they should be doing
- talk to your principal, parents and staff about what the students are doing and how/why they are completing and actioning their projects
- remind students to prepare for setbacks and remind them that making change can be hard. Encourage them to continue even in the face of obstacles or challenges.

Step 2

At appropriate intervals, conference with each group to discuss their progress. Use these questions to guide the conference:

What have you done so far?
What needs to be done next?
When will it be finished?
What help do you need to get it done?

Step 3

Publicly showcase and celebrate student projects, for example by:

Working with students to create a class newsletter about their projects to distribute to parents and community members.
OR
Tasking students with producing and screening a two minute video that documents their social action projects.
OR
Hosting an exhibition in which students showcase their social action project and speak to the local community in detail about it.

Ensure that each group provides the following details about their project:

What was the ‘How might we…?’ question your project was working to address?
What action did your group take?
What impact did your project have?
How could you extend or continue the project?

Reflection

Host a circle of celebration of achievements with the class. Not every group may have managed to deliver their project by the set date. Many groups may have delivered something that was not exactly what they envisaged. Emphasise that this is often the case for everyone, and that success is recognising and learning from the process.

Share the skills, attitudes and capabilities you observed in your students. Discuss the importance and transferability of these qualities with the ability to succeed in life.

Invite students to complete the project reflection and personal refection (available on the Student Worksheet). Each student should complete both sets of reflection questions independently.

Project reflection:

Give a short overview of the action your group took.
Describe the change your action made (small or large)?
What parts of the action were the most successful and why?
What parts of the action were the least successful and why? How could we improve these parts?
Overall, how could we improve the action?
What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
How could you extend or continue your project?

Self reflection:

Which of your skills and interests were involved in delivering your social action project?
How did you contribute to your group's success?
What would you do differently next time?
What was the best part of working on this project and why?
What was the worst part and why?
What impact did you have?
What are you most proud of?

Extensions/homework

Students could host an exhibition where the process and final result of their projects are displayed.

Groups can respond in person to questions from invited guests (for instance, school leadership, other school staff, students, families and local community representatives).

Assessment

Assess students' reflection piece - have they addressed the overarching learning goals from the start of the lesson in their responses?

Develop skills and confidence to plan and deliver a social action project.
Identify human rights issues within their local community and work together to frame an idea to create change.
Develop the skills required to plan and deliver their idea for change.
Reflect on the effectiveness of their social action.
Reflect on their own personal contribution to the social action.
Reflect on their own personal growth.

Story of Our Rights and Freedoms - Human Rights in Our Community

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