Sports and Belonging

Overview

In this lesson (Lesson 22 of 24), students begin and plan their Assessment Task 3: a creative project exploring how sports shape youth identity and community belonging, drawing on ideas and character perspectives from studied texts. They will use comprehension strategies and evaluative language to justify choices and show insight.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• WALT identify and explore ideas and points of view about youth identity and belonging in literary and related texts.
• WALT plan and create a creative project that communicates ideas, events, and issues clearly for an audience.
• WALT use comprehension strategies (visualising, questioning, connecting, summarising) to organise their thinking.
• WALT evaluate their own project using language that justifies impact and meaning.

Success criteria

I can…

• explain how sports influence a character’s identity and feelings of belonging, using evidence from studied texts.
• choose a creative format (digital story, infographic, podcast, or essay) and match it to my purpose and audience.
• include evaluative language to justify my decisions (what works, what it shows, and why it matters).
• plan clear structure and complete milestones by the end of class.

Curriculum links

• AC9E7LE01: identify and explore ideas, points of view, characters, events and/or issues in literary texts, drawn from historical, social and/or cultural contexts.
• AC9E7LA02: recognise language used to evaluate texts, including visual and multimodal texts, and how evaluations can be substantiated by reference to the text and other sources.
• AC9E7LY05: use comprehension strategies to analyse and summarise information and ideas.
• AC9E7LY06: plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts by selecting appropriate structures, language features, literary devices and visual features.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Entry routine (Hook). Teacher displays three quick prompts: “What makes a team feel like a community?”, “How does sport change who a person becomes?”, “Whose point of view matters?” Students respond in journals (2 minutes), then circle one prompt for their task.

2. 5–15 min · Mini-lesson: What insight looks like. Teacher models a short example showing how to move from summary to insight: “The character feels included when… This suggests… because…” and highlights evaluative words (e.g., powerful, conflicted, meaningful). Students complete a 3-sentence template: In the text, … shows …. This suggests …. It matters because ….

3. 15–25 min · Read, connect, and plan (Vocab + passage). Teacher provides a dyslexia-friendly one-page passage (large font, spacing, and key terms in a box) with 6–8 vocabulary items: belonging, identity, perspective, resilience, community, loyalty, stereotype, inclusion. Students underline one clue about identity and one clue about belonging, then use a “Connect-Question-Answer” organiser:

• Connect: one link to a studied text
• Question: what I still want to understand
• Answer: my working idea for the creative project

4. 25–40 min · Workshop planning: Create your project map. Teacher gives a project choice sheet with a simple structure requirement: Purpose → Evidence → Insight → Audience impact. Students sketch a project map (format chosen) including:

• a key idea statement (1 sentence)
• 2 pieces of evidence (from studied texts/notes)
• one creative element (sound/visual sequence/dialogue/imagery/quote selection)
• a closing message about belonging and youth identity

5. 40–55 min · Micro-conferencing + evaluative justification. Teacher circulates using two questions: “What will your audience understand?” and “How does your evidence support your claim?” Students write a brief “choice rationale” (4–6 lines) using at least three evaluative words (e.g., effective, significant, authentic, limited, compelling), and they self-check against success criteria.

6. 55–60 min · Exit ticket (Assessment check). Students submit a “Next Steps” ticket:

• My format: ______
• My key idea: ______
• My evidence: ______
• One improvement I will make next session: ______

Resources

• Printed dyslexia-friendly passage (large font, clear spacing)
• Vocabulary card/set (belonging, identity, perspective, resilience, community, loyalty, stereotype, inclusion)
• Project choice sheet (digital story, infographic, podcast, traditional essay)
• Planning template: Project Map + Choice Rationale
• Student journals and pens/coloured pencils
• Devices only if available for planning audio/storyboard (not required)
• Timer on board and success-criteria posters

Assessment

• Formative checks during micro-conferencing: evidence use and clarity of insight
• Planning template review: alignment to purpose and audience impact
• Exit ticket: confirms next milestone and readiness for creation

Differentiation

• Provide sentence starters and frames for the 3-sentence template and choice rationale (e.g., “This suggests… because…” “A character’s perspective shows…”).
• Offer dyslexia-friendly reading options: printed passage with large font, reduced clutter, and an audio recording option via teacher device or student headphones.
• Chunk the planning template into sections with icons (Purpose = target, Evidence = quote bubble, Insight = lightbulb, Impact = audience).
• Extension: students add an additional perspective (e.g., coach, teammate, family, or community member) and adjust their key idea to include that point of view.