Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: A litter communication project

Step 1.

Remind students of the previous activities in this unit, such as Mapping the litter in our school, How many bags? and Bag breakdown.

In Mapping the litter in our school students would have learned about the 'litter hot spots' in the school, the main types of litter found around the school and had started to consider some possible reasons of why these types of litter are found in the school.

In How many bags? and Bag breakdown, students learned about different sorts of bags (which are common components of litter) and the time that these bags take to break down under different conditions.

Explain to students that in this activity they will draw together all they have learned from those three activities and design and construct a communication project that will help to raise awareness of not littering the school.

Step 2.

Discuss some familiar promotions that have taken place in the media. These could be related to road safety, eating wisely, bullying, smoking and exercise. Which ones do they think work best with people their age group? Why is that? What are some features of these successful promotions that they think work best with young people? Which one could be applied to a communication project around litter at your school?

Explain to students that they will be working in groups to design and implement a communication project that highlights the amount of litter in the school, the harm it causes and tips/suggestions/hints that will remind people about littering less and so help cut the litter in the school.

Students can revisit their ideas from the previous activityies and then select several key messages that they would like to communicate to the rest of the school and choose a medium to deliver this message.

Students work in small groups, with each group working on one of these key messages to design the campaign. The following steps may help them to do this:

1. Choose your audience

Who are you sharing your message with, for example teachers, students, or families from your school?

2. Choose your message

What aspect of littering do you wish to communicate? Students could complete a timed brainstorm session to help them decide on the idea they want to share. your brainstorm could be run like this:

Give each group a piece of butcher’s paper and each person a marker pen.
Before starting the countdown, ask students to write the following question on the top of their piece of paper: What message about littering do we want to share?
Students should stand around the tables rather than sit in their chairs as this encourages more creative thinking.
They should:
- Write everything down as fast as possible on the butchers paper.
- Work fast: they only have 5 minutes.
- Do not discuss the ideas...just get them recorded.
Encourage groups to work quietly to come up with 10 ideas on their own first for a minute and then share with the group in the remaining time.
Give time markers as they progress - "Three minutes left! Two minutes! One minute left!"
Share a rough figure of how many ideas have been generated across the whole team - remind students how productive they can be in 5 minutes!

If you have time, you could run this brainstorming challenge in its traditional form: 100 ideas in 10 minutes!

Once complete, ask the class to spend the rest of the brainstorming time viewing and discussing the list of ideas. They should then nominate their favourites. Invite students to:

Draw a star next to the idea they think is the most creative
Draw a smiley face next to the idea that they like best

Students should now choose an idea to refine. Groups could choose to work on either the most popular idea or the idea they think is the most creative.

3. Choose your medium

There are many ways of presenting your key message. These could include (but not limited to):

Draw a poster.
Make small signs prompting students and teachers to not litter.
Draw a banner.
Paint a mural on a wall of a school building (with permission, of course).
Write a song, story or poem.
Create sculptures or other crafts from litter (using clean and safe items only).
Write a play and perform it at school assembly.
Write an article for the school newsletter or the school website.
Make a video to show on the school website.
Give a short talk at an assembly.
Make badges with anti-littering messages.
Make a presentation (stills or movie) for to use when inducting new students or show to visitors.

Students should work in their groups to choose a medium for delivering their message, considering which one would best suit the message they want to share.

4. Give everyone in your group a job to do

Depending on the project, you may need the following:

Manager - The manager is in charge of any equipment the group needs. And is responsible for collecting and returning the equipment. In addition, the manager needs to tell the teacher if any equipment is broken and missing.
Director - The director is in charge of ensuring the project stays on track and that all group members understand what is expected from the project and from each step of the project. The director also needs to offer encouragement and guidance, but is not the group leader (This responsibility falls to all students - see above).
Speaker - The speaker is in charge of asking for help from the teacher or from other groups. They are the only group member who can leave the group to seek advice from outside the group and speak to all group members. And all group members can share the groups ideas and results when asked.

You may also need to think about what other roles might be relevant to your project, such as graphic designer, camera operator, actors or sound engineer.

5. Do a first draft

Working as a group and remembering their roles, invite students to create a first draft. Remind students that it doesn't matter if it's not perfect at this stage; the aim is to get ideas down on paper or on the computer, camera or movie camera.

6. Complete the communication project

Allow students the time to complete their project. This is the really exciting part of the project when your ideas come to life.

7. Trial it with a small group of your friends

Invite students to share their ideas with the rest of the class, and encourage groups to provide feedback to each other.

When assessing the work of other groups, encourage students to consider:

Did you understand the message?
Is it interesting?
Will it appeal to the target audience?
How could it be improved?

Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback:

Be Kind - It can hard sharing your ideas with other people so make sure you remain kind and supportive
Be Specific - Be clear about wat you think and why. Rather than saying "I like the colours". Say something like "I like the way those colours help create a mood that supports your message".
Be Helpful - Try not to just say what is strong or weak, but also make suggestions about how things could be improved.

8. Share

Share your message with your audience!

Part B: A litter plan for the school

Step 1.

Explain to students that in addition to spreading a message about reducing litter, students may also have ideas about what policies and procedures at their school could be changed to reduce the amount of litter at school. Students use the results from the three earlier activities to identify some recommendations to put to the Principal in order to cut the litter in the school.

Invite students to work together to create a mind-map of ideas to identify as many ways as possible to reduce the amount of litter in the school. Create your mind-map on the board.

Once you feel you have exhausted potential ideas, you can give each student a felt pen (or stickers) and ask them to tick five ideas (or place stickers) that they believe would best cut the litter produced by the school.

Add up the number of ticks for each idea and circle the ten that received the most votes.

These top ideas can become recommendations to put to the rest of the school.

Students then type up the ideas and include them in a letter to the Principal.

Step 2.

Provide students with a copy of the Letter Writing Tips and the Persuasive Writing Tips.

Students should aim to write a one-page letter. Once complete, they should share their letter with a classmate for feedback. Again remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback.

Take it further

Celebrate the completion of the unit with lunch held outdoors in a beautiful litter free place.

Extension

Students may like to repeat the mapping activity in Mapping the litter in our school a few months after their communication projects have been completed and to compare the before and after results. This would give them an idea of the effectiveness of their communication projects.
Students use their knowledge of litter and litter reduction ideas to plan and complete a litter project in their local community. Some examples of possible projects include:
- Join other volunteers to clean up local sites on a Clean up Australia Day activity (adhering to all the safety guidelines of the organisers).
- Take a series of photographs of litter in local parks and exhibit their photos in the Council offices.
- Make a video of 'litter hot spots' around the community and place this on the school website.

A litter free school

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Curriculum Mapping

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