Part One: Making a Class "Idea Wall"

Time: ~15 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

• Beginning (5 minutes): 

  • Have students jot down what they know about trauma on sticky notes and place them on the board. Encourage them to write down any background knowledge that they may have.

  • Make sure the students know that this is low pressure; there are no wrong answers, it's just to gauge and see what the class already knows about the subject matter.

  • Give students 3-5 minutes to write on their sticky notes. As they do so, walk around and encourage hesitant students to write things down. Remind them that they can write anything that comes to mind.

• Collect and Discuss (~8-10 minutes):

  • Have the students bring their sticky notes to the front of the class and put them on the board.

  • Read through each sticky note and discuss similar/common themes students wrote. For example, you could see if students understand that there are different kinds of trauma or different ways that someone could have trauma. 

  • Facilitate discussion on some of the common themes/groupings that come up. 

  • Ask guiding questions such as “What types of trauma did we write down? What can cause people to have trauma?”

  • (Optional visual aid): Use the board where the sticky notes are placed to group together ones with common themes; use the board to draw connections between some ideas to highlight the diversity of trauma experience.

Part Two: Reviewing Important Keywords

Time: ~10-12 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

• Go over keywords relating to trauma; pull up these slides with the following definitions:

  • Trauma: A deeply distressing or disturbing experience.

  • Stress: A mental or emotional strain caused by challenging situations.

  • Flashback: A sudden, vivid memory of a traumatic event that feels real.

  • Coping: Strategies or actions used to manage stress and emotions.

  • Triggers: Events or situations that remind someone of their trauma and cause distress.

  • Support: Help or assistance from friends, family, or professionals during tough times.

  • PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder): A mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event.

  • Anxiety: A feeling of worry or fear that can arise after trauma.

• Go through each term. Provide real-world examples that may resonate with your students and encourage them to ask questions.

• Have students write these definitions in their notes. They will need to consult them to complete the lesson and it would be beneficial to memorize these definitions moving forward.

Time: ~15 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

• Explain to your students that they will watch two short videos about trauma. 

• Ask students to pull out a writing utensil.

• Distribute this activity sheet with questions related to the videos. The activity sheet is meant to ensure student comprehension.

• Play this video. Pause the video after each question on the activity sheet gets answered so that students have time to write their answers without missing any other information from the video.

• At the end of the video, have students get up and move to a new seat. With 1-2 new people around them, have them each read aloud one answer they wrote down from the first part of the worksheet to their peers.

Time: ~15 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

• Play the next video. Once again, pause the video after each question on the activity sheet gets answered so that students have time to write their answers without missing any other information from the video.

• Have students get up and move around again to sit somewhere else and talk to 1-2 new people, repeating the procedure from the first video.

• The worksheet also doubles as notes for the students to have.

Alternative Options: 

• If there is no access to printing paper, the teacher can write the questions on the white/chalkboard or a sheet of poster paper.

• When the video answers one of the questions, pause the video and ask some students to raise their hands and state the answer.

• Some of the videos may have more complex vocabulary so if needed captions can be added to the videos for the students to read, or if necessary captions in the native language can also be added to the video.

• Make sure the video plays at an appropriate speed; if the video is too fast, it can be slowed to 0.75x speed in YouTube settings.

Time: 10 minutes

Instructions:

• Divide students into small groups (~3-4 students per group) by numbering them off in pairs of 4 (i.e. if there are 24 students, number off 1 through 8 for 8 groups of 3). The maximum group size should be four, so if there is an odd/uneven number of students in the class, make an extra group or two of four students. 

• Prompt them to discuss the following prompts (Write these guiding questions on the board): 

• How can different types of trauma affect a person’s mental health? 

• What are ways that trauma can affect students in a new environment?

• Facilitate by walking around, ready to answer any questions the students might have or offer any clarifications. 

Time: 10 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

• Each table will be prompted to share some of the results of their discussion with the class.

• The teacher can build off student ideas or clear up any confusion surrounding topics.

  • This can be done by asking specific questions such as: 

    • “What was the most interesting point your group discussed?” 

    • “Did anyone have a different opinion on a key idea?”

Formatting:

• Potential teacher prompt: 

  • “Now that you’ve had time to discuss at your tables, I’d like each group to share what you talked about. Choose a person to summarize your discussion.”

• Encouragement: 

  • Remind students to be respectful listeners when others are speaking.

• Prompt Each Table: 

  • Call on one group at a time. Allow 1-2 mins for each table.

• Active Listening: 

  • As students share, make sure to nod, make eye contact, and show you are engaged. 

• Connect Ideas: 

  • Take note of what each table mentioned and pay attention to the key ideas that were mentioned… maybe have an overview discussion toward the end to delve deeper.

Activity: Exit Ticket Bridging Lessons 1 and 2

Time: ~10-15 minutes (time permitting)

Steps & Teacher Directions:

Intro (2-3 minutes):

• Invite students to look back at the brainstorming activity from the beginning of class and review the words on the sticky notes (~2 minutes)

• Contextualize the day’s learning by introducing the next lesson topic: refugees. (~1 minute)

Activity (~10-12 minutes):

• Play the video “What does it mean to be a refugee?” (~6 minutes) only once during this class period; you can put it on 0.75x speed based on feedback from earlier in the class regarding video speed. Slowing the video down here will extend its runtime to about 7.5 minutes.

• Students will receive and complete this worksheet as their exit ticket for today. They should take about ~5-6 minutes to complete their exit tickets independently as a reflective exercise.

Instructions and Teacher Advice:

• Instruct students to complete the front page of the exit ticket to the best of their ability and ignore the back for today.

• As the instructions on the worksheet mention, it is vital that students, at the very least, write their names on this sheet and return them to the teacher before exiting. This can be ensured by standing at the door before students leave the classroom and making sure each student returns a worksheet with their name on it. Do not let students leave without completing this step.

• Remind them that writing something in the boxes counts toward their grade; the assignment is not demanding, so this shouldn’t pressure or threaten them, even if they are mostly unsure what to write. 

• This should not take them long; the main focus of the exit ticket is to act as a quick short-term memory assignment. After the long lesson, they should get a break from note-taking, but still listen as best they can and then take what they remember and put it on the page in some form or fashion. 

• Given that this video will be played again at full speed to open the next class (in a quick, ~10-minute refresher/expanding activity), this is a low-stakes closer; comprehension struggles here after a long lesson loaded with new information are to be expected, perhaps born out of waning interest/engagement, but going through this video twice can cushion a messy “trial run” on round one.

• Note: ensure that YouTube captions are on. TED-Ed loads their transcript into the captions, so there are no errors – unfortunately, however, this video doesn’t have a transcript document on the TED website, unlike many videos from the TEDTalk series.