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Key words: friendship, self-awareness, social awareness, social management

The purpose of this lesson plan is to allow students to explore the content of the Let’s Talk about Friendship video in more depth, evaluating ideas about friendship, self-awareness, social awareness and social management.

Class grouping: Whole Class, Individual
Time: 45-60 minutes

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See video transcript here.

Teacher Instructions


Activity 1. Friendship Word Cloud


Preparation and Materials:
  • Access to the internet
  • Paper
  • Coloured pencils, markers
  • Adhesive
Process

PART 1 Respond to Rosie video ‘Let’s Talk About Friendship’:

After watching the video, ask students to reflect on the following questions (responses should be written or typed):

  1. What are some of the qualities that Elizabeth and Bethany value in a friendship?
  2. What are some of the qualities they think may make someone a ‘bad friend’?
  3. What do you notice about the way in which Elizabeth and Bethany interact with each other?
  4. What does friendship mean to you?
  5. What qualities do you think you could bring to a friendship?

PART 2 Thought Bubbles

  • Ask students to look over their responses and circle as many words as they can that capture their thoughts about the ideas in the video, and about friendship in general.
  • For example: if they have said in response to question three that ‘Elizabeth and Bethany make eye contact and give each other time to speak’, students might circle the words ‘eye contact’ and ‘time’.

PART 3 Identifying Healthy Traits

  • Ask students to come up with a list of qualities or words that they associate with being a good friend.
  • They should come up with at least 10-15 words.

PART 4 Word Cloud

  • Ask students to create a hand-drawn ‘Word Cloud’ that incorporates all of the words they have chosen that relate to the idea of friendship (see Appendix I for example). A word cloud is an image composed of words that relate to a single topic or theme. For the purpose of this task the size of each word should relate to the emphasis placed upon it by individual students.
  • Once completed, display students’ word clouds on the classroom wall.

Activity 2. Recipe for Resolution


Preparation and Materials:
  • Access to the internet
  • Paper
  • Coloured pencils, markers
  • Adhesive
Process

PART 1 Making Peace

  • Ask students to imagine that they have had an issue with a friend that they would like to resolve.
  • Next, ask them to think about the process they could follow to repair the relationship, keeping in mind any tips that Elizabeth and Bethany have provided in the ‘Let’s Talk About Friendship’ video.

PART 2 Making a Plan

Ask students to consider questions such as:

  1. How could they approach their friend?
  2. Do they need to talk to them in person?
  3. What message do they want to get across to their friend?
  4. What sorts of factors enable effective verbal, nonverbal and digital communication?
  5. What needs to occur for the conversation to go smoothly?
  6. What do they want the outcome to be?

PART 3 Make-Up Cake

  • Ask students to create a recipe for their friend that explains the key ingredients and the method required for repairing their relationship.
  • The recipe should follow the rules for procedural writing, providing a list of materials and step-by-step instructions that lead to an outcome.

PART 4 Illustrate it!

  • Once all the steps are complete, ask students to illustrate their recipe and give it their own creative title. They may also wish to share their work with the class.

Example Recipe:

Make-Up Cake

Serves: 2
Prep time: 5 years
Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

  • 50g of text messages (sent promptly)
    OR
  • 1 face-to-face request
  • 1 safe meeting place
  • 2 cups of discussion
  • 1 cup of apology
  • 1/4 cup of ‘respectfully disagree’
  • 200g of good quality promises
  • 1 cup of commitment
  • A sprinkle of goodwill

Method:

  1. Contact friend (via text or face-to-face) and request a safe meeting place and time.
  2. Add two cups of discussion, and stir well.
  3. When the discussion is simmering, gradually sift in 1 cup of apology!

Student Instructions


Activity 1. Friendship Word Cloud


Task:

After watching Rosie’s ‘Let’s Talk about Friendship’ video, you are going to create a ‘word cloud’ that reflects your own thoughts and feelings about friendship.

A word cloud is an image made up of words that are used in relation to a specific subject. The size of each word indicates how often it has been used or how important the word is to the person who wrote it.

Instructions:

PART 1 Identifying The Habits Of A Healthy Friendship

In preparation for creating your word cloud, write a response to the following questions:

  1. What are some of the qualities that Elizabeth and Bethany value in a friendship?
  2. What are some of the qualities they think may make someone a ‘bad friend’?
  3. What do you notice about the way in which Elizabeth and Bethany interact with each other?
  4. What does friendship mean to you?
  5. What qualities do you think you could bring to a friendship?

PART 2 Finding the right words

  • Look over your answers and circle as many words as you can that capture what you thought about the friendship between Elizabeth and Bethany, as well as words that describe the things that you value about friendship.
  • The more words you can circle, the easier it will be to create your word cloud.

PART 3 What makes a good friend

  • Next, write a list of qualities or words that you associate with being a good friend. You should come up with at least 15-30 words.
  • Try to come up with more than that if you can. Chat to a classmate or use a thesaurus if you get stuck.

PART 4 Make your word cloud

  • The final step is to use the words you have circled in part 2 as well as your list of the qualities of a good friend to create a handdrawn word cloud. You will see an example of a word cloud below.
  • To create your own personal cloud, make sure that the words that are the most important to you are the largest in size.
  • When you are finished, share your word cloud with your teacher and your classmates.

Example Word Cloud:

Image from nytimes.com

Activity 2. Recipe for Resolution


Task:

After watching Rosie’s ‘Let’s Talk about Friendship’ video, you are going to create a recipe that provides a list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions that spell out how to resolve an issue within a friendship. Happy baking!

Instructions:

PART 1 Identifying the habits of a healthy friendship

Imagine that you have had an issue with a friend that you would like to resolve. Think about what you could do to repair the friendship. What steps could you follow?

Keep in mind the tips that Elizabeth and Bethany have given you in Rosie’s ‘Let’s Talk About Friendship’ video.

Think about the following questions:

  • How could you approach your friend?
  • Do you need to talk to them in person?
  • What message do you want to get across to your friend?
  • How can you communicate with them clearly? Think about verbal, nonverbal and digital forms of communication.
  • What needs to occur for the conversation to go smoothly?
  • What do you want the outcome to be?

PART 2 Get cookin’

Once you have answered the above questions, you are ready to write your recipe! When you are formulating your recipe, imagine that you are writing it as guide for a person having a problem with a friend who might not be sure how to work things out. You will need:

  1. Key ingredients:
    It’s just like making a cake: the ingredients of the recipe inform you that you will need 2 eggs, 250ml milk, 2 cups flour, 60g butter etc. to make the cake. Your recipe will list the substances or places or qualities (and quantities) that the person using it will need in order to make up with a friend. E.g. 1 TB of calm, 1 cup of goodwill and 200ml of apology.
  2. Method:
    The method is the name given to the instructions provided in a recipe. If you were making a cake, the method would tell you to preheat the oven, to beat the eggs and to add the flour. A method follows the rules of procedural writing, which means that you need to provide step-by-step instructions that the reader can follow to accomplish a goal. The goal in this case is to resolve a dispute between friends.

PART 3 Give it a title

  • Once you have written your recipe, give it a creative title. You could also draw an illustration to go with it.
  • Share the recipe with your teacher and your classmates. Ask them to check if the instructions are clear, and make any changes that are needed to ensure that your recipe can be followed easily.

PART 4 Share it around!

  • Share your recipe with a friend or tuck it away for a rainy day 🙂
Tips:
  • Refer to the recipe ‘Make-up Cake’ as an example of how to write your own recipe. Keep in mind that this is a partial recipe and that your dish will require more steps!
  • If you are not a regular cook, it may also be helpful to look at the layout of a recipe online to get some ideas for cooking techniques. E.g. sifting, beating, sautéing, baking, whisking, simmering or frying.

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