Students will be able to identify traits that make us similar and different and connect this to the concept of treating everyone equally.
This lesson will allow students to explore their similarities and differences and discuss why it is not appropriate to exclude others because of their differences.
Organise the students into pairs. Have them brainstorm the things about them that are the same and the things that are different and record their ideas.
Write all the things that are the same on the inside of the body, and write all the things that are different around the outside of the body. Repeat the activity using different pairs.
After completing the activity twice, students look at the differences and similarities and note anything they find interesting, for example, something that was a similarity with one pair may be a difference with another pair.
Share the findings as a class. Discuss how we all have things that make us the same and we all have things that make us different. Record these features and qualities on the IWB or butchers paper.
Watch the Behind The News (BTN) clip on Discrimination (18 March 2008). Lead a class discussion using the following questions:
Conclude by reviewing the features and qualities that make us the same and different. Get the students to stand up. The teacher then calls out a quality or feature from the list and ask students to find someone who has the same feature and then find someone who has a different feature, for example, find someone with the same hair, then find someone who has different hair. Repeat for a few of the features and qualities listed.
Have students share any observations they made, for example “I was with John for the same hair but I was also with John for different height’. Highlight that even though we have differences we also have similarities, and we should not treat people differently because of these differences, as we all have differences.