Support Services

Key words: relationships, safety, consent, abuse, violence, controlling behaviour


The purpose of this lesson plan is to allow students to explore the content of the Is Your Relationship Healthy video in more depth, reflecting on the drivers of unhealthy relationships and discussing the characteristics of healthy relationships.

Class grouping: Whole Class, Small group, Individual
Time: 60 minutes

 

CONTENT WARNING: ‘Is Your Relationship Healthy?’ contains explicit reference to relationship violence, including descriptors of physical, emotional, financial and social violence.
It’s a good idea to inform students that they have permission to close their eyes, put headphones in or to leave the room if needed.

Though there are some national support services mentioned in the video, you may also wish to find out which services are available in your state or local area in case one of your students
requires support.

It is preferable to share support information with students before commencing the class.

Teachers should also ensure that the resources are easily accessible afterwards.

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See video transcript here.

Teacher Instructions


Activity: ABCs of Healthy Relationships 


PREPARATION AND MATERIALS:
  • Access to the internet
  • A4 blank paper
  • Pencils, markers
  • Tracing paper (optional)
Process:

PART 1 Respond to Rosie video ‘Is Your Relationship Healthy?’

  • After watching the video, ask students to remind you of the five different kinds of abuse identified in the clip (physical, emotional, social, financial and sexual abuse).
  • According to your preference, write or type and project responses onto the white board.

PART 2 Reflection

  • In small groups, ask students to reflect on the following question: The ‘Rosie’ video outlines what an unhealthy relationship looks like. Keeping the categories of violence outlined in the video in mind, what do you think a healthy relationship would look like in comparison?

PART 3 Identifying Healthy Traits

  • After allowing time for reflection, solicit some brief feedback from each group about their discussion.
  • Then ask each student to individually identify one key characteristic of a healthy relationship.
  • Encourage students to be thoughtful and creative, but also to identify a trait or behaviour that is important to them personally. The characteristic should be articulated using one word, e.g. ‘respect’ or ‘independence’.

PART 4 Symbolism

  • Conduct a brief whole-class brainstorm to try to imagine an icon, action or animal that could symbolically represent a characteristic of a healthy relationship. E.g. ‘communication’ could be represented via an image of a mobile phone, or a bird feeding its baby could represent ‘nurturing’.

PART 5 Art time!

  • Using the first letter of the characteristic/word that they have chosen, ask students to contribute one letter to an illustrated ‘alphabet’ of healthy relationships (see below for example).
  • The illustration of the letter should symbolically represent the characteristic it stands for. Students may wish to consider using an icon, an action, an animal, or a colour.

PART 6 Creating a visual reminder

  • Once completed, display students’ letters on the classroom wall alphabetically. You will not have a full alphabet, but you will create a visual reminder of the ‘ABC’s’ of a healthy relationship for your class.

Example illustrated letter:

Student Instructions

 

Activity: ABCs of Healthy Relationships 


Task:

After watching Rosie video ‘Is Your Relationship Healthy?’, you are going to reflect upon the qualities that you value in a relationship in order to contribute to an ‘illustrated alphabet’ to display in your classroom.

Instructions:

PART 1 Key qualities of a healthy relationship

  • After your class discussion about what makes a relationship healthy, you need to decide upon what you think is the most key quality in a relationship. You should identify a single trait or behaviour that you feel is the most important in a healthy relationship. The characteristic should be able to be summed up in one word, for example ‘respect’ or ‘independence’.
  • Take some time to think about this and write or type a list of qualities before deciding on one that you think is particularly important to a healthy relationship.

PART 2 Choose your symbol

  • Once you have decided upon the quality that you consider important, try to imagine an icon, action, colour or animal that could symbolically represent it. A helpful way of doing this is to conduct an individual brainstorm. Think about all of the actions, objects, colours, or behaviours that could be associated with the word. Then narrow your list down to one thing that you think best symbolises the quality you want to represent.
  • For example, if you chose ‘openness’, that quality could be represented by a drawing of a person ‘wearing their heart on their sleeve’. If you chose ‘loyalty’ you could use a drawing of a family dog.

PART 3 Art time

  • Using the first letter of the characteristic or word that you have chosen, you are now going to create one part of an illustrated alphabet. For example, your drawing might show that ‘O is for Openness’ or that ‘L is for Loyalty’. Your drawing should look like the example given on the next page.

Your drawing must include:

  • A large letter that dominates the page
  • The word that begins with the letter you have chosen
  • A drawing of something that represents the word you have chosen
  • A border around the page
Hot tip:

You might find it useful to search YouTube for some examples of illustrated alphabets. The ‘Usborne Illustrated Alphabet’, ‘An Illustrated Alphabet by Alisdair Wright’ and Graeme Base’s book ‘Animalia’ are all helpful examples.

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