Walk The Walk: Belonging and identity

The aim of this lesson is to encourage learners to reflect on belonging – one of Walk The Walk’s central themes – by asking them to think about the places and groups to which they feel that they belong.

• Begin by reading together through Walk The Walk as far as page 76, the section where Mr Levin and Robbie discuss the flags and banners flown at football matches.
• Print the discussion questions and the activity sheet.
• Facilitate a group discussion using the discussion questions.
• Then using the Belonging and Identity activity sheet, help your learners to create their own body maps – here are some examples. They should then create a body map of one of their favourite characters from Walk The Walk, using a new, blank copy of the activity sheet.
• Once your learners have completed these activities, use the follow-up discussion questions to consolidate their findings.

Reflecting on learning

After taking part in the discussion, were learners:

• Aware of the motivation behind the desire to belong from the point of view of the book’s different characters?
• Able to identify places, groups, clubs or organisations that offer a feeling of ‘belonging’ for them?
• Able to connect the places and things they ‘belong to’ with wider ideas about identity?

Learners can:

• Discuss the ways in which different characters in Walk The Walk express their desire to ‘belong’.
• Identify places, groups, clubs or organisations to which they themselves belong.
• Share their ideas about the way in which belonging to these places or groups helps them to express their identity.

Useful resources

Evaluation Support Scotland Body Map template(this link will open in a new window): A printable Body Map template.