Divorce is more common than most care to admit and sadly a crisis that many children must learn to cope with, sometimes at a very young age. The Divorce: Hyperdoc Lesson is a way for students to learn about the crisis from the child’s perspective and designed to be usable in both traditional and remote learning classrooms.
Set
- Ask students to complete the ENGAGE portion of the hyperdoc by having them title the picture and make 3 inferences about the topic based on what they see.
- Share and discuss their titles and inferences. Be mindful of the fact that some of your students may come from split homes and often have a lot to say about this topic from a personal experience.
Materials
- iPads & Laptops
- Screen & Projector
- Blocks (affiliate link)
Activities
- In the EXPLORE section of the hyperdoc, students view “Every Other Weekend” as sung by Reba McEntire. As they view and listen, students must identify key takeaways from various perspectives: children, wife and husband concerning divorce, custody and spending time between two homes. There is often good discussion that follows when sharing the takeaways, again many share personal experiences.
- If you are in school, face to face with students, the block analogy can be done in small groups. If you are remote, you will have to create a presentation to illustrate what is happening so students can identify the key takeway. For the block analogy, provide students with a small bag of blocks and ask them to create a structure and take a photo of it. Then ask them to take those same blocks and create another structure and photograph it. Discuss their takeaways and compare to the analogy discussed in the linked resource. The analogy is that the blocks remained the same, however, the structure changed much like divorce. In divorce, the parents stay the same, but the environment like home, rules, living arrangements, etc. may change and look different.
- For the EXPLAIN section, students read the web-resource titled, “Children & Divorce” and complete the prompts, summarizing the information, in their own words.
- Students write an “I am Poem” in the APPLY portion, choosing from one of the options listed, sharing the effects of divorce. They are to use information from class readings, videos and discussions to help convey their thoughts, feelings and message. A template is provided.
- Culminate the lesson by having students read their poems aloud to the class. It’s important to stress that students be empathetic of those who have lived through this personally…one never knows what the future will hold. While we hope every marriage is happy and healthy, reality begs to differ!
Attachments
- Divorce Hyperdoc (please make a copy)
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels
