People Special to Me
BUILD Humanities · Autumn 1 · Week 1 · 40 minutes
Today at a Glance
◆ Supported
Use the supplied example card and the picture bank. Point, sign or say one person and one reason.
▲ Standard
Name two people who are special. Give a clear reason for each one. Use the three-link chain.
★ Stretch
Give two reasons for one person. Say which reason means more to you. Say why.
Teacher Print Tools — Week 1
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Arrival Task – What we already know about people
A person can be special for what they do. They do not have to be family.
People live in all sorts of homes. Every one of them is normal.
A reason answers the question why. Naming a person is not yet a reason.
You can talk about the example person on the card. You do not have to talk about your own life.
Special does not mean famous. It does not mean family. It means this person matters to someone. And you can say the reason out loud.
Two people can pick the same person. Their reasons can be different. Both are right.
Arrival decision: Pick the example card, or pick your own idea. Both are full answers. You can change your mind later. Nobody will ask which one you picked.
Before we start, look at the example card on your table. It shows a house, the people who live there, and two neighbours. Everyone in this lesson can work about that card from beginning to end and finish with a complete piece of work.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Starter: Why is naming someone not enough?
Here are two answers about the same person on the supplied card.
Answer A: “The neighbour on the card.”
Answer B: “The neighbour on the card, because they walk the dog when the family is out.”
Answer B tells you more than Answer A. Answer A just names the person. Answer B names the person and then says why. So someone who has never met them still knows why they matter.
The need for this lesson is that missing part: the reason. By the end you will be able to give one every time, using a chain with three links.
Try it in your head: think of the person who opens the school gate in the morning. Now add the word because and finish the sentence. That second half is the part we are practising today.
Some reasons are big. Some are small. Small ones count too. A person who knows how you take your tea is a real reason. So is a person who drove you to hospital. Both count.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
I Do: Three rings of people
The diagram above has three rings. The middle ring is me. The next ring out is people at home. The outside ring is people who help me — a teacher, a neighbour, a bus driver, a friend.
A person in the outside ring is just as special as one in the middle. The rings show how often you see someone, not how much they matter.
Notice what the rings do not mean. They do not rank people. They do not say who cares most. A person in the outside ring can be the one you would tell your news to first.
Watch me do it: I put the neighbour in the outside ring. I do not live with them. Then I say the reason. They walk the dog when the family is out. I say the ring first. Then I say the reason. The ring is the easy part.
Now watch one more: the teaching assistant goes in the outside ring too. But the reason is not the same. They read the hard words with me first. Same ring. Different reason.
So one ring can hold many people, and each one needs its own reason. That is why the next diagram has three boxes instead of one.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
We Do: Which ring? Everyone shows at once
Card 1: the person who cooks the tea at the example house.
Card 2: the lollipop person at the crossing.
Card 3: the cousin who visits at the weekend.
Commit first: hold up 1, 2 or 3 fingers for the ring you would choose — 1 for me, 2 for people at home, 3 for people who help me. Everyone shows at the same time. Then we reveal and compare.
Evidence check
Card 3 has more than one right answer. A cousin who visits at the weekend could go in ring 2. Or in ring 3. It depends on the reason you give. When we show, we check the reason. We do not check the number.
After the reveal, one person from each answer says their reason out loud. We are listening for the word because. If two people chose different rings and both gave a reason, both stay on the board.
Changing your mind after you hear someone else is allowed, and it is a good sign. Put your new number up and say what changed it.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
I Do: The three-link reason chain
The chain above has three boxes: who, then what they do, then why they are special. The arrows show the order. The last box is the reason, and it is the one most often missed.
Look at the picture. The lollipop person. Then: stops the traffic. Then: so I can cross safely. That is a full answer. You can hear all three links in it.
Here is one that is not complete: the lollipop person, then stands at the crossing. That stops at the middle box. It says what they do, but it never says why it matters to anyone.
Fixing it together: add the last link. Stands at the crossing, so that children can cross without waiting for a gap in the traffic. The words so that often start the third box.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
We Do: Finish the chain together
◆ Supported
Point to the picture that shows what the person does, then choose the reason card that matches.
▲ Standard
Say all three links for the example person, in order.
★ Stretch
Give a second reason for the same person. Say which one you would tell a visitor first.
We build one chain on the board first. Nobody writes yet. Everyone puts the middle box on a whiteboard. Then we show them all at once. Then we agree a reason.
The person for this chain is the one on the example card who cooks the tea. The first box is filled in for you. Your job is the middle box: what do they actually do? Write one action, not a describing word.
When we show, we will have lots of middle boxes. We keep the ones that name an action. We put the others to one side. They are not wrong. But a word that describes cannot lead to a reason.
Then, together, we add the third box and read the whole chain aloud from left to right.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Independent Work — Your record: people special to me
Make one record. You may do it about the supplied example person, about someone real, or about both. All three are complete answers.
◆ Supported
One person. Place them in a ring, then choose or sign the reason card that fits. An adult may scribe your exact words, and the words stay yours. Point to the ring first, then to the reason.
▲ Standard
Two people. For each one, write the three links: who they are, what they do, and why that makes them special. Use a separate row for each person so the links stay in order.
★ Stretch
Two people, and for one of them a second reason. Say which reason you would give first and why that one comes first. A reason that only you would know is still a good reason.
Check yourself: does every person you named have a reason next to them?
Check yourself: is the reason about something the person does?
Check yourself: would someone who has never met them get your reason?
Check yourself: did you use the word because, or the words so that, at least once?
Finished early? Take one chain. Add a second reason for that person. Then pick the one you would say first if you only had time for one. Mark it.
If you are stuck on the third box, say the middle box out loud and then add the words so that. Whatever comes next is usually your reason.
You may not want to write about a real person. That is fine. The card is a full answer. Nobody will ask you why. You can use the card for every person on your record.
Your record is done when each person has an action and a reason. Read one of them out loud to yourself. Check it makes sense.
⏸ Pens down — quick partner check!
Half way through: stop, swap with a partner, and check one thing on the list above together. Then carry on.
WAGOLL — what a good one looks like
Here is a finished one: the neighbour on the card. They walk the dog when the family is out. So the dog still gets a walk when nobody is home. Three links. One sentence. And a listener who has never met them gets it.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Lundy Loop — Your Voice in This Lesson
🚪 SPACE
Space means you get room to join in.
SPACE stays available.
📣 VOICE
Voice means you get to say it.
VOICE is received.
👥 AUDIENCE
Audience means someone really listens.
AUDIENCE names back exactly.
⭐ INFLUENCE
Influence means something changes because of what you said.
INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Exit Ticket — Audience receives; influence changes something
Read one chain to a partner or to an adult. The listener says back the reason they heard, in their own words.
Did the listener hear a different reason? Then change one word in your chain. Make it say what you meant. That change is your influence. It belongs to you, not to them.
Did the listener hear just what you meant? Write that down too. A chain that already works is worth noting. It needed no change.
Did the listener say your reason back right? Then your chain worked. That is the check. It does not have to sound clever.
Nothing goes outside this room unless you say so. Your record stays in your folder. You decide if it goes on the wall.
✅ Complete
Hand in your record and tick the learner confirmation on your sheet. That is the lesson done.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.