What is Bullying? Why All the Fuss? Lesson Plan for High School Students

The American Justice Department estimates 25% of American school children will be bullied or abused by another minor every month. With the anonymity of the cyber world, teens face new levels of bullying than previous generations.

This lesson plan is aligned with Tennessee state standards, listed below, which are parallel to most other states' standards.

Contemporary Issues: The student will 1.1. understand patterns of discrimination. 1.3. understand ethical debates on internet usage, and 1.4. understand various issues concerning modern print and visual media.

English I: CLE 3001.4.2 Gather relevant information from a variety of print and electronic sources, as well as from direct observation, interviews, and surveys. CLE 3001.7.4 Apply and adapt the principles of written composition to create coherent media productions.

Materials: Copies of recent news articles on bullying incidents. (Recommended: " Schools Battle Suicide Surge, Anti-Gay Bullying" on CBSNews.com, "Cyberbullying" and "Student Stories: Have You Ever Been Bullied?" on ChannelOne.com) Media: clips of "It Gets Better" and "Love is Louder" campaigns. Computer lab.

Hook: Provide 10 statements or hypothetical situations. Have students work in pairs or small groups to sort them into "Teasing" and "Bullying" categories. (Use a Promethean Flipchart for a technology twist, or provide the statements pre-cut on colored paper and have students arrange them in two categories.) Examples of statements could include: "Are you really going to wear that?" and "Your haircut makes your look like an electrocuted cat!" Include hypothetical situations such as: "A classmate asks to borrow a pencil from neighbors. A Black student offers a pencil, but the classmate throws it across the room and calls her a derogatory name." "A classmate draws a picture and passes it around the room. When you get it, you see two stick figures kissing. The names of two girls in the class are written above each figure. It's obvious the girls do not like the picture and are embarrassed by it." The key here is to include at least five statements are situations in which the teasing centers on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or another federally protected characteristic. Also include examples of cyber bullying (i.e. "wall" comments and emails).

Allow students to discuss the teasing and bullying examples. Transition back to whole group and ask one pair of students to arrange them on an overhead projector or white board for the rest of the class to see.

Lesson: Say, "The United States has passed several laws against discrimination. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Serve Reform Act of 1978 and other laws make it illegal to discriminate against race, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin. Look at again at your categories. Which statements or scenarios are illegal?" Allow students time to pull out statements and scenarios specific to these protected rights. Tell students that any statements or scenarios violating civil rights should go in the Bullying category.

Ask students which of these categories presents more potential to harm students. Brainstorm as a class a list of ways bullying can harm the victim, the bully, parents, other classmates, the school, and the community. Students will probably share recent news events regarding suicides, school shootings, and other acts of violence.

Next, share with students that the Obama Administration has publicly asked schools to give harsher punishments for bullying than traditional consequences given for teasing. Invite comments and discussion on how students feel about this: should schools punish bullies (i.e. discriminate against Civil Rights) harsher than "normal" teasing? Why/why not? Use the Socratic questioning method-ask students how recommended consequences, including labeling these instances "hate crimes," sending bullies to counseling, and establishing hotlines, can affect the situation. Finally, ask students to discuss whether bullying is worse in an on-line computer versus real life and why.

Transition: View clips of President Obama's speech (or another celebrity) from the It Gets Better campaign. You can also show clips or images from the Love is Louder campaign.

Project: Tell students they will be responsible for creating a public service announcement against bullying for their school and community. Use as much technology as you have available in your school. Types of public service announcements could include posters, Power Point presentations, digital slideshows, podcasts, video commercials to be shown over in-school television network, or a self-published Facebook or MySpace theme page.

Tell students to cite statistics, research, legal ramifications and quotes from celebrities and politicians in their public service announcements. Create a grading rubric and pass out as students prepare their advertisements.

Arrange a presentation. Invite principals, counselors, other classes and parents to witness the students' productions.