Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Optional Preparation – Ground Rules For Classroom Discussion
Prior Learning Task – Community Perceptions Of Lived Homelessness
20 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
20 minutes – Part B: Discover: What Does the Community Think About Homelessness?
60 minutes – Part C: Taking Action To Change People’s Minds
20 minutes – Reflection

Prior Learning Task: Community Perceptions Of Lived Homelessness

Before beginning this lesson, inform students that they have a homework challenge. They will be seeking to find out more about what other people in their community know about the issue of homelessness, and whether they see a link between people experiencing homelessness, society and its institutions. They will be doing so by conducting mini interviews with their peers, their families and other people in their community.

Students will be required to ask one peer, one adult family member and one other member of the community the following questions (also available here):

What is homelessness?
How many people are experiencing homelessness in Australia?
Which people are experiencing homelessness - what do they commonly look like?
Why do people experience homelessness?
What is being done to address the issue of homelessness?

Remind students that the purpose of the interview is to understand community perceptions of homelessness, so they shouldn’t worry if their interviewees don’t know much, or if their perceptions aren’t the same as reality. Reinforce to students that they should remain non-judgemental during the interviews so that their interviewee will feel confident to respond to their questions.

Inform the class that they will discuss what they found out in their interviews in the next lesson.

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Use the Hexagonal Thinking Tool to help students establish and summarise what they have learned throughout the unit.

Invite students to cut out the hexagons on the Hexagonal Thinking Tool handout and work to place them in a formation that reflects their understanding of the links between each of the concepts or ideas on the hexagons. Extra blank hexagons have been included for students to add any other terms they think are relevant to understanding the issue of homelessness in Australia.

Step 2.

Once students' hexagons are placed, ask them to stick them down onto a piece of paper or into their notebook, then draw lines or arrows between each with a very brief explanation for how each of the concepts link together.

Step 3.

Invite student volunteers to share their ideas with the class. If possible, highlight that while there are many interpretations of how each of the ideas link together, there is no doubt that society, its institutions and people experiencing homelessness are all linked.

Highlight for students that their hexagon formations show that they have a much deeper understanding of how the issue of homelessness links to society and its institutions.

Part B: Discover: What Does the Community Think About Homelessness?

Step 1.

Hang these printed versions of the interview questions on the walls in the classroom, and invite students to take out the completed interviews they did for homework. Explain to students that they will walk around to each question poster and write down the responses they collected from their interviewees on the paper provided.

Option: Collate interviewee responses via a digital platform such as Google Slides or Padlet instead of printed poster questions.

Step 2.

Once all responses have been written down, invite the students to stand next to a question poster - try and divide the students evenly. Ask each group to create a quick summary of the responses using the information from the poster to help identify what the community thinks and feels about homelessness.

Step 3.

Invite students to return to their seats and facilitate a class discussion to summarise the class’s findings about community perceptions on homelessness. Use these questions to guide the discussion:

Were you surprised by any of the responses given by the community? Why?
Were you upset by any of the responses? Why?
Did any of the responses make you feel optimistic about the issue of people experiencing homelessness? Why?
Do you think it is important for people to be aware of social issues? Why?

Step 4.

Screen the following clip from Life After The Oasis as a way of introducing the idea that people can change others' perspectives on the issue of homelessness, by helping them to understand the realities of the issue.

Paul's Story (https://vimeo.com/348326904/7d9ee6ee2c)

Step 5.

Explain to students that for the rest of this lesson, they will be working to create social change around the issue of people experiencing homelessness. They will do so by coming up with an idea to take action in response to either of these questions:

"How might we change people’s minds about the issue of homelessness, so that they care more about the people experiencing homelessness?"
"How might we encourage people to actively pressure their elected representatives, to make policy decisions that will reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness?"

Optional Extension Activity: If necessary, remind students about the power of citizens in a democracy by watching this short Behind The News clip – What is Democracy? https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/what-is-democracy/10524786

Highlight for students that at the end of the clip, the voice over states that, “We have the right to voice our opinions and the freedom to make a difference”.

Part C: Taking Action To Change People’s Minds

Step 1.

Inform the class in this lesson, they will develop ideas and take action to influences citizen’s opinions on the social issue of homelessness, with the aim to influence government policy in order to reduce numbers of people experiencing homelessness. They can work independently, as pairs or as a group of three people.

Step 2.

Before students begin, show them this short clip from TEDed that explores the question: “How can you change someone’s mind?”

How can you change someone's mind? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58jHhNzUHm4

The clip highlights that there are three elements that must be taken into consideration when trying to change a person’s mind:

A person’s beliefs
Trusted sources
A person’s values

Encourage students to keep these elements in mind when they are planning how to change minds about the issue of homelessness.

Step 3.

Invite students to begin working to change peoples' minds about the issue of homelessness. They could use the following steps as a guide:

Choose a common misconception about homelessness to address.
Find the facts.
Choose a target audience and refine your message for them.
Share the information in an engaging way, so that people can’t help but be convinced.
Include a call to action - what do you want your audience to do now that they have learned something new?

If time permits you could invite students to conduct research into what existing agencies propose or do to help address people experiencing homelessness; it is always useful and important to consider the work carried out by people with a lived experience in co-designing and delivering responses to homelessness as they can provide tips and ideas for meeting your students' own social action goals.

Note: Some great examples of ‘guerilla marketing’ can be found here. They may provide inspiration for your students while they are in the planning stages of their action.

While students are working, check in with them at least twice. Ask them to give you a progress report about the following.

• What they have done so far?
• What they still need to do?
• When does it need to be done by?
• Who is doing it?
• What 'road blocks' are still in the way?
• What can they do to overcome them?

Step 4.

It is important to encourage students to share their message widely - both within their school and local community. Students could contact school or local council to ask if they can feature students’ work and to help increase the number of people who see the students’ message.

Reflection

Ask students to create an extended reflection piece on the process and learning throughout this social action lesson using these questions:

How did people respond to your message?
What did you do well?
If you worked in a group, what did your group do well?
What would you do differently?
If you were to continue to change peoples' minds about the issue of homelessness, what would be your next steps?

Differentiated Learning

Extension – Encourage students to find ways to share their message more widely, with a view to having a larger impact and being more likely to influence the decisions made by democratically elected representatives.

Provisions for Learning Support – Support students to make clear decisions about how they will go about changing peoples' minds. Guide them by suggesting the message they may want to convey, the audience they will target and by giving two options for how they will convey their message to choose from.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Life After The Oasis - Activating Citizens in Our Community

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