All different all equal - dear friend letter

Topic Area:

Deconstructing Barriers

Title of lesson:

All Different, All Equal: ‘Dear Friend’ Letter

Reference:

Based on activity from All Different All Equal Educational Pack - European Youth Café

 
Age group: S1
Time needed: 1 lesson
Delivery Method: Class

Materials needed: Prepared letters
Prior knowledge/learning: Background knowledge about the minority groups in question (e.g. pupils from parts of the UK other than Scotland; gypsy travellers; asylum seekers).
Other/Related reference material: None

Aims, Objectives, and Outline Process

Aim:

To provide insights into the hardships which different ethnic groups can face, due to discrimination, racism and challenges in re-settling in a new country.

Objectives:

• to demonstrate empathy for the situation of the young people;

• to demonstrate ability to offer comfort and support to such individuals;

• to offer advice which is likely to be helpful.

Process:

1. Spilt the pupils into groups and give each group a letter, which is from a young person in the groups noted above (e.g. young English person; asylum seeker; gypsy traveller). Explain that the letter writer is a friend of theirs. They have written to them because they are experiencing a difficult time and are ‘reaching out’ for support and advice.

2. Ideas in the letters could be: asylum seeker whose mother is finding it very difficult to adapt to new surroundings / climate / language; gypsy traveller who is taunted in school because they don’t have a permanent address; an English pupil who is being bullied by others due to her accent.

3. Each letter should end with a few questions, where the writer is asking for advice and support.

4. Depending on the pupils, either get them to discuss how they might respond before doing so individually or get them to work individually on their response to the letter.

5. Get pupils to share their ideas in their own groups and discuss what might / might not be effective. Get them to prepare a summary of the best ideas from letters, focusing on: how did you get across the idea that you are sorry and supportive? How did you demonstrate that you understand what the situation might be like for the young person? What suggestions did you make for how the young person could deal with the situation?

6. Get each group to share their summaries with each other.

7. Discuss with pupils any experiences that have had / heard about which are relevant to the letters and how they felt and / or dealt with the situation. Is anything different now that they’ve had a chance to write the letters?

Ideas for development/follow-up:

n/a