The increased saturation of media and social media whenever something bad happens in the world can be overwhelming for students, especially when good news stories are rarely reported on. Students may begin to feel down about the world. Students reflect on the impact of bad world news, describing how it makes them feel, and create an individual action plan to help them feel less overwhelmed.
Learning Intention
- Students describe how hearing bad world news impacts on their wellbeing, and develop an action plan for coping.
Key Outcomes
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
- describe coping strategies for dealing with bad world news
- reflect on the impact of news on an individual’s wellbeing.
Activity 01
Instructions 5 min
ReachOut.com’s article ‘Dealing with bad world news’ includes tips for coping with bad news that saturates the media and social media. Use the article to guide a discussion or share the article with students.
- Students reflect on the bad news they have seen or heard about recently. This news may be presented on TV, the internet or social media, or in the newspaper.
- Ask students the following questions. Invite them to write their ideas separately onto Post-it Notes.
- How do you feel when you see bad world news (e.g. reporting on natural disasters). Students may want to use images, gifs, emojis or words to describe their feelings.
- What impact do these images have on your wellbeing?
- What actions can you take to look after your wellbeing?
- Students share their ideas by grouping them together. This could be done in small groups or on a whiteboard to create a class mindmap.
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