Civil Communication Lesson Plan
Overview
This lesson plan focuses on helping high school students learn and understand cultural diversity, empathy, and online bias as concepts to develop through civil discourse. It promotes debate and sharing of ideas regarding the three different themes. It is intended for pre-intermediate English language learners (A2-B1 CEFR).
Understanding Cultural Diversity, Empathy, and Online Bias
Lesson Plan on Civil Discourse Themes
Overview & Context
This lesson plan focuses on helping high school students learn and understand cultural diversity, empathy, and online bias as concepts to develop through civil discourse. It promotes debate and sharing of ideas regarding the three different themes. It is intended for pre-intermediate English language learners (A2-B1 CEFR).
Objectives
Students will be able to
- Understand cultural differences.
- Understand and apply the concept of empathy.
- Identify bias in online settings.
- Exchange ideas about concepts related to civil communication.
Materials
- YouTube videos.
How are you really feeling today?
- Feelings Handout
- Memes from Google images.
- Board, projector, speaker, markers
Lesson Outline
Warm Up. Community Builder (10 minutes)
I have never…
1. Put students into groups of about five or six.
2. Students should hold their hands out with all their fingers up.
3. One student in each group begins by creating a truthful statement beginning with “I’ve never…,” e.g., I’ve never eaten sushi; or I’ve never climbed a mountain.
4. Each group member who has done the activity in the statement must put a finger down. The next group member says his/her I’ve never statement.
5. The game continues until there is only one member with one or more fingers still up.
6. Remind the participants that the goal is to say things you think others have done.
Activities/Instructions
Theme 1: Cultural Diversity (60 min)
Step 1. Have students watch the video Greetings around the world. Ask them to pay close attention and take notes of the countries and the greetings mentioned in the video. (5 min)
Step 2. Ask student what the countries and greetings mentioned in the video are. Have pupils share the ideas with the whole class. Write their ideas on the board. Then, introduce the topic of the class “Cultural differences”. (5 min)
Step 3. Put students in pairs. Then, write on the board two questions: What greeting did you find the most interesting and why? What ways of greeting were similar to Costa Rican culture and which were different? Students share ideas with their partner. (15 min)
Step 4. Ask some students to share the ideas they discussed in their groups. After that, have students choose the greeting they liked the most. Then, they will come to the front of the class and play charades. While one student performs, his/her peers guess the country and greeting s/he is representing. (20 min)
Step 5. Debrief. Write on the board: What do the different ways of greeting tell you about cultural diversity? Why is it important to understand others' cultural differences? Students take two minutes to think about response to question number 1. Then, they share with the whole class. They repeat the same steps for question 2. (15 min)
Theme 2: Empathy (60 min)
Step 1. Recognizing emotions. How do they feel? Students will work in groups. Provide a copy of the feelings handout with pictures of people showing different emotions. In their groups, students will discuss how the people feel and will try to define why. Then, they will brainstorm ways in which they can give support to the people. They will write ideas on a piece of paper. Elicit some answers for students. (15 min)
Step 2. Group work. Have students watch the video: How are you really feeling today? Then, ask them about the responses the people give to the questions how do you feel today? and how do you really feel today?. After that, tell students they have to create a short video similar to the one they watched. Lastly, the video will be presented to the rest of the class. (25 min)
Step 3. Discussion. Call attention to the importance of recognizing how one feels on a daily basis. Ask students what difference it makes for them to understand their own and others’ feelings. Elicit answers from pupils. (15 min)
Step 4. Debrief. Write on the board the quote “Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.” by Charles Glassman. Emphasize that the focus of the class was learning about empathy. (5 min)
Theme 3: Online Bias (60 min)
Step 1. Memes. Look for memes that are familiar to your context and have students look at them on the board. Ask them to read the info aloud. Then ask, “how do you think memes influence our interaction with others?” and elicit answers from students. (10 min)
Step 2. Let’s Find out. Students will respond: What kind of messages do memes spread? Students will look for memes online or in their social media accounts. They will work in groups and will determine the types of messages portrayed in memes. Once they have come up with ideas, they will share them with the class. (20 min)
Step 3. Discussion. Students work in pairs. Project/write on the board the following questions: Are memes beneficial or harmful? Can you give examples? Do you think memes influence the way one perceives things? How? Students will take 3 minutes to think and write down their answers for each question. Then, have them share with the class. (15 min)
Step 4. Debrief. Tell students about the use of memes online (see resources section). Have students use guiding questions to evaluate information on the memes they found online. They work in groups and then share ideas with others in a mingle exercise. (15 min)
Guiding Questions
What is the purpose of the meme?
Does what I am reading make sense?
Who is the creator or author of this meme?
Is the information reliable?
Does this meme help me consider different sides to the issue or only one?
Debrief (10 min)
Draw on the board three columns with the titles Cultural Diversity, Empathy, and Bias. Distribute sticky notes for students to write their idea of what each of the concept means. Have pupils paste their notes on the board. Read of them aloud.
Resources
- YouTube videos.
How are you really feeling today?
- Feelings Handout available at ISL Collective
- Memes