Battlefront Classrooms
Activities
Activity 1HIV: A Global Concern
Objective: Students to investigate the HIV crisis in Africa
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- Students use the web to explore the HIV/ AIDS epidemic, esp. in Africa. Use UNICEF website, info from Condoms for Africa campaign, Avert site, the Clinton Foundation, along with search engines
- Hot seat HIV! - One student takes on the character of HIV; another, the character of condom; another, the character of Africa and another, a chat show host. The audience (rest of class) is invited to ask questions of any guest where the issues surrounding HIV and condoms can be explored
Activity 2Homophobia
Objective: To explore attitudes towards homosexuality & to justify and challenge opinions and prejudices
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- Watch the on the streets clips from the Homophobia – Zero Tolerance campaign
- Ask students to create a spectrum of opinion along a wall with strongly agree at one end/ then agree/ then disagree/ then strongly disagree at the other end. Read out the statements on the downloadable worksheet. Ask students to stand where their conscience tells them to for each statement (download support sheet labelled ‘Statements’)
- Ask if any members of the line would like to explain their positions before going on to the next statement
Extension task: Research current legislation on gay marriage & adoption
Essay question: Do gay couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples in the UK? Do you think that any changes need to be made to current legislation?
Activity 3Small Actions: Big Impact
Objective: To learn how individual action can have a national/ global impact; to assist in campaigning
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- Think of examples of how individuals can have a national/ global impact with their individual actions (e.g. turning off a light bulb, buying fair trade bananas, voting in elections…) Perhaps offer a prize (fair trade banana or chocolate?) for the individual or pair that can come up with the most
- What can you buy with 15p? Use the Activity 3 support sheet to help students consider this question. Students to rank these in order of importance (download support sheet labelled ‘What can you buy?’)
- What can 15p buy in Africa? See Siobhan and Becky’s campaign
Extension task: Students brainstorm ways in which they can support Siobhan and Becky’s campaign; Students to contact them on their blog. This action might include: Students to make a list of what they can buy for 15p on their local high street; Students could contact some charities on Siobhan and Becky’s behalf to research what 15p/ 30p/ 45p… can buy
Activity 4Muslim Aid
Objective: To investigate Muslim Aid as a charitable organisation
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- On a piece of paper, students in pairs, list as many charities as they can
- Pool answers together on the board
- Once they have done this students then cross off any that are not linked to a religious organisation
- What is the class left with? Discuss
- Watch the clip ‘Interviewing at Eid in the Square’ from the campaign Muslims Normal Too. Ask students to listen out carefully for the information about Muslim Aid (They may need to listen twice)
- Students make a spider diagram from what they have learned from the video
- Students try to unpick the meaning of this quote from the Hadiths: ‘He who eats and drinks while his brother goes hungry is not one of us’.This quote could be written in the middle of a page and students illustrate its meaning around the outside (download support sheet labelled Quote’)
- Using textbooks available to you on Islam, students link charitable action to one of the Five Pillars of Islam
Extension task: Research the work that Muslim Aid does at www.muslimaid.org
Activity 5The Sanctity of Life & Organ Donation
Objective: To relate the concept of the sanctity of life to organ donation
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- Students to share with a partner the best gift they have ever received. How did it make them feel to receive this gift? How have they used it? (Pair discussion so that one talks for 30 seconds and the other listens and then swap roles.)
- Class discusses (or writes responses) to question ‘Is life a gift?’
- Teacher explains that all of the world’s major religions believe that life is a gift – sanctity of life
- Students to draw a picture that shows how we look after and respect human life now-a-days (consider hospitals, food we eat, exercise, blood donation…)
- Ask the class if they would ever consider registering to be an organ donor. Make a tally YES and NO. Explore some reasons for and against
- Watch the Battlefront campaign ‘The Gift of Life’
- Revise the tally – were any swayed by the experiences they saw on this site?
Extension task: Have a conversation with their parents/ carers about organ donation. Research what different religions say about organ and blood donation
Activity 6Natural and Manmade Dangers
Objective: To understand the difference between natural and manmade evil; to be able to identify these in the campaigns on the Battlefront site
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- At either end of the room is a sign – one reading MANMADE DANGERS and another reading NATURAL DANGERS. Students are given a small card as they come into the room (download support sheet labelled ‘DANGERS’).
- They must work out which side of the room they belong on. Some may not be able to as they identify that their card could be either
- Together class define what constitutes natural dangers and what constitutes manmade dangers
- Visit Battlefront site and view variety of campaigns (STOP: Gun and Knife Crime, Bring Your Own Coffee Cup, You smoke - I choke, Make a Big Change - With your Small Change, Teenage Suicide, Condoms For Africa, The Gift of Life) and as individuals, pairs or groups each campaign is looked at and categorised as dealing with natural or manmade dangers
Differentiated Activities
Gifted and Talented Activity 1Random Acts of Kindness
Objective: Students research individuals to understand term philanthropy, and to understand what motivates people into being philanthropic
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- Students research individuals such as: Mother Theresa, Bob Geldoff, Thomas Barnado, William Booth, Eli Broad, Muhammad Yunus, Mahatma Gandhi, etc. (‘Philanthropists’)
- You may refer to the entry ‘Well known Do-gooders’ on Tom Robbins’ campaign
- Students who have researched the same people gather in groups to discuss their findings and consolidate their knowledge
- Class debate: who deserves the title of Best Philanthropist of all the people investigated (in the debate students should refer to impact and level of sacrifice)
Extension task: write an obituary for one of the philanthropists studied
Gifted and Talented Activity 2Tackling Islamaphobia
Objective: To understand what forms our opinions and to challenge stereotypes and prejudices; to analyse media for bias and manipulation
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- Have the word Muslim written on the board
- As students come into the room give them a post-it and ask them to write on it their reaction to the word on the board and stick it on the board
- Ask a member of the class to lead a discussion on the words posted on the board (Tell students they are entitled to their views as long as they are not offensive and they can be justified)
- What forms our opinions? Students to brainstorm in pairs and talk about influences that shape our opinions (e.g. parents, friends, TV programmes, newspapers, personal experiences and so on). Discussion of findings. Look at the following newspaper front pages (download support sheets: ‘Front Page 1’, 'Front Page 2’ and ’Front Page 3’)
- On their own and then in groups students to consider how these headlines are inflammatory and manipulative. This activity could also work as a carousel
Extension task: Look at Zainab Zaniju’s campaign Muslims are Normal Too. Can students think of anything else Zainab could do to strengthen her campaign? Email her with their suggestions and thoughts
SEN ActivityRandom Acts of Kindness
Objective: To consider what is important in human life & the impact of being kind; to undertake their own acts of random kindness
Click here for curriculum relevance information
Suggested activities:
- Teacher explains that the author Henry James said that three things in human life are important and then asks the class for their thoughts on what these might be (think: Pair: Share)
- Put this quote up on the board: Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind – (Henry James)
- Discussion around whether it is important to be kind. What are their experiences of kindness and of being kind recently? Students pair up and sit to face one another. One talks about their experiences of kindness for 30 seconds while the other listens. Then they swap talking/ listening roles. Repeat the activity for experiences of being kind to others
Watch excerpts from Tom Robbins’ Campaign Random Acts of Kindness esp. launch video, Sept. 2008. What was the last helpful thing you did? Discuss people in their lives who do good things; what about in public life?
Group discuss reactions to his campaign. They must come up with three words to describe HIM and the CAMPAIGN
Students are set the challenge of performing their own random acts of kindness over the next week and recording their act, its impact and how it made them feel. They could record their experiences on Tom Robbins’ blog and looked at in the next lesson or they can create their own blog
Family ActivityGet Involved!
What issues affect the community in which you live? Which parts of your community do they most affect? Are these issues related to just where you live? Or are they issues that affect everyone in different parts of the country? Can you do anything about them?
Activity
- Become a campaigner and submit your campaign to the Battlefront website
- Choose on issue that is affecting the area you live in, an issue that affects you personally or an issue you feel passionately about
- Interview 10 different members of your community (parents, neighbours, local counsellors etc) and make notes on their thoughts and feelings about this issue. Record as many different points of view as possible to build your campaign
- Using the Campaigner’s Handbook on the Battlefront Website, design a campaign strategy on your issue using the tips and advice
- contact one of the Battlefront campaigners to ask them about their experiences and what positives (and negatives!) to expect when starting a campaign
- contact a mentor campaigner via the Battlefront website to get guidance, tips and advice from people who have careers in this field
- Level:
- 14 – 19yrs: KS3; KS4; Post 16; S1-6
- Curriculum Relevance:
- Citizenship; PSHEE; RS; SRE and other curriculum areas
- Benefits:
- encourages active citizenship and engagement with local, national, and global issues
