Equality and Diversity - Building a Culture of ... - Equality Authority

Lesson 2
Characteristics of
Human Diversity
Activity one
Learning Intentions
Students will reflect on the
range of human diversity
Students will recognise the
difference between visible
and hidden characteristics
of diversity
Students will appreciate
the consequences of some
characteristics being hidden
Resources
True Colours video clip
from the accompanying DVD.
Song True Colours sung by
Cindy Lauper (minimal cost to
download from ITunes)
Iceberg Template Sheet on
page 13, one copy for each
group of 4 students.
Ideas of Diversity Challenge
Divide the students into groups of 4 and ask them to
have pen and paper ready. Explain that you are running a
team Ideas of Diversity Challenge.
Begin by showing the True Colours clip from (3.48 minutes),
while you play the song at the same time.
Play them a second time, asking the students to note the
different kinds of diversity they see in the video.
Then begin the challenge. Tell the students that their
challenge is to list as many types of diverse characteristics
of humans as possible in three minutes (e.g. age, height,
language spoken, gender, ability, culture, beliefs, religion,
and many, many others).
After 3 minutes, ask the teams to count up how many
different characteristics/attributes they have listed. The
group with the highest score can call out their list first
and the rest of the class should listen to check for any
characteristics they don’t think are valid. A mark is given
for each characteristic accepted by the class. After all the
groups have called out their list, the group with the highest
score wins.
Preparation
Download the song True
Colours sung by Cindy Lauper
from ITunes. Check that you can
synchronise the song and the
video. (It works best if you click
play on the song track and then
immediately click play on the
video clip.)
12 sECTION 1 EXPLORING DIVERSITY