Lesson 4 – 40 minutes
Learning outcomes
- Recognise ‘at risk’ people in a beach environment
- Identify actions that can be taken to help ‘at risk’ people avoid dangerous situations
- Recognise the different types of interpersonal communication used in a beach environment
- Identify why interpersonal communication is an important skill for a lifesaver
Preparation
- Whiteboard and markers (optional)
- Butcher paper and markers (optional)
Discuss
- Start a discussion on what ‘at risk’ beach users are.
- Discuss with participants the factors that affect different kinds of beach users and how these factors may cause harm
Discuss
- Ask participants to recommend actions they could take to help avoid people getting into dangerous situations at their beach.
- Answers may include:
- Use signage.
- Talk to at-risk people.
- Scanning surf conditions before entering the water
- Preventative education (schools etc).
Discuss
Start with a discussion on communication using the following starters:
- What are the different ways we communicate with each other?
- Spoken/signals/signs, etc.
- Do we communicate differently to different people? Why?
- Friends/parents/teachers/etc.
- How do we communicate in a lifesaving environment?
- Spoken/signals/signs/etc.
- Discuss with the participants some of the things that can make it hard to communicate properly using the following starters:
- What are some things that might make it hard to communicate with someone? (i.e. background noise, language ability, distance, etc.).
- Why is it important to listen properly? (i.e. so you can understand, so people trust you, so in a rescue scenario you know what to do, etc.)
Activity 1
Split the participants into pairs.
- Have each participant tell their partner the following three things about themselves:
- Name
- Favourite movie and why.
- Favourite thing to do on the weekend
When both participants in each pair have finished, get the whole group to listen while each participant introduces their partner, mentioning the three things they have learnt about them.
Activity 2
Conduct the following scenarios:
- Pair off the participants and get one person from each pair to group up around you.
- Make up a sentence and ask them to communicate it to their partner in one of the following techniques: -
- Spoken nicely beside partner
- Using hand signals
- Spoken from 50 metres away
- Spoken with another junior surf group doing their activities in the middle
- Using hand signals with another junior surf group doing their activities in the middle
Finish the lesson by discussing the outcomes of the scenarios.
- Were any ways of communicating easier than the others? Why?
- What is the best way to communicate with somebody?
- How did it feel to be communicated to in some of the more difficult techniques?
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