Understanding Mental Illness links to English

Understanding mental illnesses

Exploring understandings of mental health/illness - page 17

Introducing the Understanding Mental Illness unit - page 18

Language brainstorm - page 18

Understanding what we mean by mental illness - page 19

Mental illness - the facts (handout) - pages 20-22

Learning the language of mental illness (worksheet) - pages 23-24

Level 5 Reading

At Level 5 students read and view imaginative, informative and argumentative texts that explore information related to challenging themes and issues. They identify the themes and issues explored in these texts, and provide supporting evidence to justify their interpretations. They produce personal responses, for example, interpretive pieces and character profiles. They infer meanings and messages into texts, analyse how social values or attitudes are conveyed, compare the presentation of information and ideas in different texts, and identify cause and effect in informative texts.

Level 6 Reading

At Level 6 students read, view, analyse and discuss contemporary and classical imaginative texts that explore personal, social, cultural and political issues of significance to their own lives. They also read, view, analyse and discuss informative and argumentative texts such as current affairs and news articles, features, editorials, documentaries and reviews. They identify the multiples purposes for which texts are created. They explain how texts are shaped by the time, place and cultural setting in which they are created. They compare and contrast the typical features of particular texts. They synthesise information from different texts to draw conclusions.

Level 5 Writing

At Level 5 students produce, in print and electronic forms, texts for a variety of purposes, including speculating, hypothesising, persuading and reflecting. They write extended narratives or scripts with attention to characterisations, consistency of viewpoint and development of a resolution. They write arguments that state and justify a personal viewpoint; reports incorporating challenging themes and issues; personal reflections on, or evaluations of, texts presenting challenging themes and issues. They edit their writing for clarity, coherence and consistency of style, and proofread and correct spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.

Level 6 Writing

At Level 6 students write sustained and cohesive narratives that experiment with different techniques and show attention to chronology, characteristation, consistent point of view and development of a resolution. They write argumentative texts dealing with complex ideas and issues and control the linguistic structures and features that support the presentation of different perspectives on complex themes and issues. They select subject matter and language to try and position readers to accept particular views of people, characters, events, ideas and information. They compose a range of other texts, such as feature articles or web pages. They plan and deliver presentations, sequencing and organising complex ideas, and proofread and edit their own writing for accuracy, consistency and clarity.

Experiences of mental illness

Video - group discussion of section 1 - page 26

Homework - page 28

Video discussion sheet - page 29

Eating disorders (information) - pages 30–32

Depression (information) - pages 33–35

Anxiety disorders (information) - pages 36–38

Bipolar mood disorder (information) - pages 39–41

Schizophrenia (information) - pages 42–44

These are useful activities for classroom learning and connection.

Mental illnesses - the same but different

Specialist groups - pages 45–46

Sharing the pieces or Follow up quiz - page 46

Answers for quiz - page 47

Understanding anxiety disorders (record sheet) - page 48

Understanding depression (record sheet) - page 49

Understanding schizophrenia (record sheet) - page 50

Understanding eating disorders (record sheet) - page 51

Understanding bipolar mood disorder or manic depression (record sheet) - page 52

Mental illness. How much do you understand? (worksheet) - page 53

Community attitude survey (template) - page 55

Survey record sheet - page 56

These are useful activities for classroom learning and connection.

Changing people's minds & attitudes

Exploring attitudes - page 62

The kindness of strangers (handout) - page 63

These are useful activities for classroom learning and connection.

Labels are for jars

Creative writing - page 68

Newsletter - page 68

A thesaurus of madness (handout) - page 73

These are useful activities for classroom learning and connection.

Seeking help, finding support

Care of the seriously mentally ill in Australia - page 76

Care of the seriously mentally ill in Australia (handout) - pages 83–86

These are useful activities for classroom learning and connection.

Taking actions, creating options

Getting help - pages 87–88

Sample questions - page 88

Actions & reactions - page 89

Discussion - page 89

Level 5 Speaking and listening

At Level 5 students express creative and analytical responses to texts, themes and issues. They identify main issues in a topic and provide supporting detail and evidence for opinions. They critically evaluate the spoken language of others and select, prepare and present spoken texts for specific audiences and purposes. They use a variety of multimedia to support individual presentations in which they inform or persuade an audience. When listening to teachers, students ask clarifying questions and build on the ideas of others. They identify key ideas and take notes. They show an awareness of the influence of audience on the construction and presentation of spoken texts, and of how situational and sociocultural factors affect audience responses.

Level 6 Speaking and listening

At Level 6 students analyse critically the relationship between texts, contexts, speakers and listeners in a range of situations. When engaged in discussion, they compare ideas, build on others’ ideas, provide and justify other points of view, and reach conclusions that take account of aspects of an issue. In their presentations, they make effective use of the structures and features of spoken language to deal with complex subject matter in a range of situations. They draw on a range of strategies to listen to and present spoken texts, including note-taking, combining spoken and visual texts, and presenting complex issues or information imaginatively to interest an audience.

Guest speaker - page 90

Reflecting upon the new information - page 91

Selected video - page 91

Sample questions - page 91

Resource list - page 92

These are useful activities for classroom learning and connection.